TheCable

The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has urged publishers and other stakeholders to make books and other educational materials accessible to people who are visually impaired. 

John Asein, director general of the commission, made the plea in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday by Ijeoma Egbunike, NCC deputy director for public affairs.

“It is important that we continually find ways to ensure that the copyright system helps all Nigerians, irrespective of disabilities, to realise their full potentials,” he said.

“The domestication of the Marrakesh Treaty under the copyright act would promote access and push back the book famine in Nigeria.

“It will also ensure quality education for a large section of the society who live with a print disability.”

He also called for agencies in the knowledge ecosystem to encourage inclusive publishing and ensure that more books are made available for the visually impaired and other children with disabilities.

The Marrakesh VIP Treaty is one on copyright adopted in Marrakesh, Morocco on June 27, 2013, with 93 parties as signatories.

The treaty seeks to remedy a “book famine” for people without access to standard print materials.

Before the treaty was ratified, the global union for the blind estimated that more than 90 percent of copyrighted works were not produced in forms that were accessible to the visually impaired in developing countries.

The treaty was ratified by Nigeria on October 4, 2017 and domesticated in the copyright act, 2022.