World Blind Union

WBU E-BULLETIN

VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1

February 2014

World Blind Union

1929 Bayview Avenue

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4G 3E8

Telephone: 1-416-486-9698

Fax: 1-416-486-8107

Email:

Website: www.worldblindunion.org

Twitter: @BlindUnion

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTIONS OF NEWS TO THE E-BULLETIN 1

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 1

WBU LETTER TO ALL GOVERNMENTS 2

CONTRIBUTIONS OF NEWS TO THE E-BULLETIN

We welcome stories and articles from those from the regions and by those members who wish to share their good news with the rest of the world. Our next deadline for content submission will be March 28, 2014. We accept submissions in English, French, and Spanish, preferably in electronic format. Please send in by the deadline date to:

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Dear friends,

In June 2013 the Marrakesh Treaty was passed as an international agreement created to help make thousands more books accessible to millions of blind and print-disabled people. We were grateful to get this passed as a major treaty, but unless it is signed and ratified by 20 countries, it will not go into force. Six months have gone by and we wait for governments to do their part and ratify the treaty into law in order to provide access to literature for their blind citizens. Below is the letter I wrote to the governments of the world to join us. And I encourage each member organization to use it as a template to contact its own government to set the Marrakesh Treaty in motion.

WBU LETTER TO ALL GOVERNMENTS

The Marrakech Treaty six months on- many signatures, but not a single ratification

Six months ago governments put aside their differences and agreed an historic, ground-breaking treaty to help us end the "book famine" in which just a few percent of books are available in formats we can read. This Treaty must be ratified by at least 20 countries come into force, so that we can actually benefit from it. An un-ratified treaty is just a piece of paper. Below is our plea to all the world's governments to finish the job they started in Marrakech, and allow us to start the job of getting books to people who so badly need them.

Dear governments of the world,

I am writing this open letter to you in my capacity as President of the World Blind Union, on behalf of all the world’s estimated 285 million blind and partially sighted people.

Blind and partially sighted people the world over suffer from a “book famine”, in which only a few per cent of books are ever made in accessible formats we can read such as braille, large print or audio.

One of the barriers to providing a greater number of books is outdated copyright law.

Where a book has been published, but not in an accessible format, two thirds of the world’s countries do not have copyright laws that allow blind people and their organisations to make accessible format copies of such a book.

Further, if a blind person’s organisation has made such a copy, duplication would be avoided and more books made available if it could send that copy to a similar organisation in another country. However, to date that has not been possible due to outdated copyright law.

The great news is that the Marrakech Treaty, which was agreed in June 2013, should remove these legal barriers.

http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/wipo_treaties/details.jsp?treaty_id=843

The Treaty should increase the number of national copyright exceptions for blind people. It should also allow the sharing across international borders of accessible books.

This Treaty is fundamental for the setting up and integration of accessible reading networks across the world. However, for the Marrakech Treaty to actually help blind people, twenty countries need first to ratify it so that it can enter into force.

Even then, only blind people’s organisations in countries which have ratified can share their accessible books. Therefore, for the Treaty to make a difference, a large number of countries from around the world must sign and ratify.

Our request to you now, on behalf of blind people everywhere, is for your country to lead by example. Please ratify the Treaty speedily, and use your diplomatic influence to urge others to do the same.

In that way, we really can open a new chapter in the inclusion of blind and partially sighted people both in your country and across the globe.

Yours faithfully,

Arnt Holte

President

World Blind Union

FEATURED ARTICLE

IN MEMORIAM: Remembering Abraham Nemeth

By Fredric Schroeder

Dr. Abraham Nemeth was one of the most remarkable individuals I have ever had the honor to know. Sadly, he died of congestive heart failure on Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013, at his home in Southfield, Michigan, in the United States. Dr. Nemeth was 94 and is survived by three stepchildren.

It is not an overstatement to say that Dr. Nemeth was the Louis Braille of braille math. His code opened the door to serious study of technical fields for countless blind people throughout the world. But the Nemeth code is much more than a technical achievement. Like braille itself, the Nemeth code is a tangible expression of the right and ability of blind people to achieve according to their ability and drive. The Nemeth code makes the profound statement that the blind are capable of serious achievement in the technical fields and need not be limited in their goals by blindness.

Abraham Nemeth was born on October 16, 1918, in New York City. He grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in a devout Jewish family of Yiddish speaking Hungarian immigrants. Blind since infancy, he attended New York City Public Schools and later the Jewish Guild for the Blind, where he demonstrated an early, strong interest in math.

He grew up at a time when opportunities for blind people were unimaginably limited. Nevertheless, he managed to gain an education and to move forward in a demanding career. Following Dr. Nemeth’s completion of an undergraduate degree in psychology from Brooklyn College, he earned a Master’s degree in psychology from Columbia University in 1942. But his success did not come without its struggles. He studied mathematics and physics at Brooklyn College and Columbia University, but he was strongly advised to major in another field because of the assumption that a blind person could not succeed in mathematics. This was discouraging, as he had trouble finding work with his psychology degrees and grew tired of what he felt were unfulfilling jobs at agencies for the blind.

Like so many other great people, Dr. Nemeth had people in his life who, despite the odds, believed in him and in his ability. Florence Weissman, Nemeth’s first wife, encouraged him to pursue his passion and continue his education in mathematics. He re-entered Columbia University to study math, and his wife worked to help pay his tuition. This was at a time when the husband was expected to be the family support and few wives worked outside the home. Florence died in 1970 but Dr. Nemeth frequently gave her credit for her role in his future successes. He later remarried Edna Lazar, who is also deceased.

In the late 1940’s, frustrated that he could not find work in academics, Dr. Nemeth began work in the shipping department of the American Foundation for the Blind. During this time, he noticed that the braille code did not directly correlate to many mathematic functions. Hundreds of symbols are used in mathematics to represent fractions and square roots, to indicate multiplication, division and other functions and formulas, none of which had Braille equivalents. Working off of the six dots in a braille cell, he improvised symbols and methods to create a unified system to serve as the tactile language of math.

In 1950, he presented the Nemeth Braille Code of Mathematics and Science Notation to the American Joint Uniform Braille Committee. It was officially published in 1952, and was eventually incorporated into textbooks and adopted by national groups in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and other countries.

Dr. Nemeth went on to teach at various colleges in New York, and was then hired to teach math at the University of Detroit in 1955. He became a tenured professor and traveled all over the world to promote the Nemeth Code. In 1964, he received his doctorate in mathematics from Wayne State University in Detroit, where he developed the university’s first computer science program.

Later in his career, Dr. Nemeth contributed to the invention of a talking calculator, a Braille version of the slide rule, and was a primary developer of MathSpeak, an oral instructional system for mathematics. He retired in 1985.

Dr. Nemeth was a respected and beloved member of the National Federation of the Blind. In 1990 he received the Blind Educator of the Year Award, in 2006 he was awarded the Louis Braille award, and in 2009 he was honored as a co-recipient of the Dr. Jacob Boloton award.

Dr. Nemeth changed many lives by paving the way for blind people to succeed in science, technology, engineering, and math. He developed a braille code that enabled blind people to pursue studies in the technical fields, and through his life and achievements, he gave hope and inspiration to blind people the world round. He lit the candle of hope that comes from one blind person’s willingness and courage to challenge the odds and to pursue his or her dreams. And beyond his brilliance, beyond his academic success, beyond his profound knowledge of mathematics, he remained a humble, open and caring individual always ready to give of his time and experience to help others. And he was charming and clever with one of the most engaging senses of humor I have ever encountered. He inspired countless blind people, and I am truly privileged and honored to be among that number.

UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

First Blind Malaysian to Acquire a Guide Dog

By William TS Koh, Malaysian citizen residing in Melbourne, Australia

In 1999, I was diagnosed with glaucoma which slowly worsened through the years and led to complete blindness in 2009. I am fortunate enough to avail myself of the various aids and assistive devices that make my life as a blind person easier and more convenient;but of all these, my greatest blessing is my dog guide, Smartie. To have a dog guide one needs to pay more than Au$30,000 for their training, but thanks to the Seeing Eye Dog of Australia (SEDA) for their “gift of sight”, I got Smartie for free in July 2011. I was then officially listed as the First Malaysian to have a dog guide in the Book of Malaysian Record.

My dog guide has given me invaluable service as I go through life. Smartie guides and assists me in my daily trips to the shops, banks, post office, restaurants, and the like. He helps me to locate the places where I want to go, get to the bus stop, cross the road safely and bring me home right to my doorstep.

In April 2012, I went to the General Hospital for a very minor surgery for which I need to stay in the hospital for two nights. A week before the operation, I called the Ward Manager to get more information about bringing my working dog. She told me, if I bring Smartie on the day of operation, the hospital will give me a separate room with bathroom attached, otherwise I have to share a room with three other patients. The Ward Manager even told me, each morning the nurse will bring my dog to do his 'business' and at the late evening a nurse will walk with Smartie for an hour. The day of the operation, I brought my dog along with me. I was given 'rock star' welcome and ushered to my room. After the operation, I was brought back to the room where Smartie anxiously welcomed me back. Most of the time, he would just sit on the floor beside me. When evening came, the nurse took him for an hour-long walk. After the walk, food and drink were placed in his bowls in the corner of the room. For his entertainment I switched the TV on or gave him his favorite toy for him to play with. Both of us slept soundly.