LOCAL MP JOINS RNIB’S RIGHT TO READ CAMPAIGN

Neil Gerrard MP has pledged support for the Royal National Institute of the Blind’s  ‘Right to Read’ campaign, which kicks off this week, to end systematic discrimination against blind and partially sighted people in the production, sale and lending of books.

The Right to Read campaign highlights the enormous barriers blind and partially sighted people face in buying or borrowing books in a format they can read. A staggering 95 per cent of the books published each year are not available in accessible formats one year later, with the vast majority of accessible books being produced and distributed by voluntary agencies run on charitable funds with no government funding.  Public libraries’ stock of large print and audio stock is dwindling across the UK because of lack of investment.  Meanwhile commercially produced audio books are usually abridged and twice the price of the print version.

Mr Gerrard said  “I am shocked at how difficult it is for blind and partially sighted people to enjoy the pleasure of reading books.  They face an incredibly restricted choice, long waits for books everyone else read months ago and will often have to pay more into the bargain.  Under copyright law it is even possible for publishers to refuse permission for books to be put into accessible formats. That cannot be right. Government and the publishing industry must act with urgency to increase the range of accessible titles available for sale and through libraries.  Blind and partially sighted people should be able to read the same books as sighted people, at the same time and at the same price. I hope everyone will back the Right to Read campaign to make this a reality.”

Mr Gerrard has pledged support for a crucial Private Members Bill removing the barriers caused by copyright law to making books available in accessible formats which has its third reading in the Commons on 21^st June.  He will also be lobbying Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell MP to set up a £20 million Access to Reading fund to support the mainly voluntary sector transcription industry to produce more accessible books.

The Right to Read campaign also calls for:

§         VAT on audio books to be abolished, in line with print books

§         Public libraries to build up their stock of large print, braille and audio books to at least 5% of all stock by 2010 and to improve loans between libraries of these formats.

Locally  Mr Gerrard will be campaigning to ensure blind and partially sighted readers are aware of specialist library services such as RNIB’s renowned Talking Books  - available from this week in a new digital CD format - and supporting public libraries to improve services to people with sight problems.

May 2002

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