This is an excellent Treaty. The Benetech team is delighted by its adoption today. We have the technology, we have the content, and now we have the legal framework to make it possible for every person with a print disability on the planet to get access to the books they need for education, employment and social inclusion!
We have the technology today to end the book famine: we need your treaty to make it real! We look forward to a simple, straightforward and usable treaty that makes it possible for American blind people to have access to the cultural richness of all other languages and countries and for us to serve all of our hundreds of thousands of books to the blind of the world. Help us see that people with disabilities get the access they need for education, employment and full social inclusion!
Wired Magazine has quoted our CEO, Jim Fruchterman, in an about the negotiations for an international treaty to make books more accessible to people who are blind or have other print disabilities. Entitled “Obama Stops Championing Treaty That Gives the Blind Better Access to E-Books,” the article, written by David Kravets, outlines how lobbying by Hollywood and dozens of the world’s largest corporations may subvert the treaty, which has been years in the making.
Michael Yudin, Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) at the U.S. Department of Education, published a blog post entitled “Technology Gives Students with Disabilities Access to College Courses” about his recent visit to Mission Middle College in Santa Clara, California. During the visit, Mr. Yudin met with a group of Bookshare student members and observed a demonstration of how people use Bookshare.
Benetech is announcing the limited release of a new prototype: Mobile Martus. Mobile Martus is a secure, Android-based mobile documentation application built on Benetech’s Martus technology, which allows users anywhere in the world to securely gather and organize information about human rights violations.
