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This book explores how restrictive copyright laws deny access to information for the print disabled, despite equality laws protecting access.
List of contents
Foreword Gerard Goggin; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. How technology has created the possibility of opening the book: from hard copy to e-books; 2. Access to information communication technologies, universal design and the new disability human rights paradigm introduced by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; 3. The weakening of the exception paradigm: the World Intellectual Property Organization changes path with the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled; 4. The role of copyright laws in restricting access to information and contributing to the book famine; 5. Exceptions to rights-holders' exclusivity provides limited relief from the disabling impact of copyright; 6. Anti-discrimination laws help protect persons with disabilities against digital disablement, but who qualifies for protection?; 7. Causing digital disablement is not a trigger for regulation by anti-discrimination laws: ignoring capacity in favour of prescribed relationships; 8. The prohibition against discrimination: regulating for equality through retrofitting inaccessible systems; 9. Introducing positive duties in promoting equality outcomes for persons with disabilities: the United Kingdom Public Sector Equality Duty reducing digital disablement; 10. The right to digital equality in action: protections under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and human rights acts; 11. United States regulatory interventions targeting disability inclusive digital environments; 12. The enforcement of legal duties: protecting copyright or promoting reading equality?; Closing thoughts and new options to reduce digital disablement; Appendix: list of anti-discrimination and civil rights laws and tribunals/commissions impacting on disability in the federal and state/province jurisdictions in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States; Index.
About the author
Paul Harpur is Senior Lecturer at T. C. Beirne School of Law, the University of Queensland. He has participated in a number of prestigious research fellowships, including as an International Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, Institute for Lifecourse and Society, National University of Ireland, Galway and as a Distinguished International Visiting Fellow at the Burton Blatt Institute, College of Law, Syracuse University, New York. He has led a range of projects, including an International Labour Organization project assessing labour rights in the South Pacific, with a particular focus on the rights of persons with disabilities.
Summary
This book explores how restrictive copyright laws deny access to information for the print disabled, despite equality laws protecting access. It contributes to disability rights scholarship and ideas of digital equality in analysis of domestic disability anti-discrimination, civil, human and constitutional rights, copyright and other reading equality measures.
