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Canadian Digital Information Strategy
Responses to October 2007 Draft Strategy
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Submissions received, including the name of the person or organization making the submission, have been posted in the official language in which they were submitted. Content of the submissions has been posted as received; however, minor reformatting may have occurred during HTML conversion. Personal address information has been removed.
Paul Whitney, Member,
CDIS Strategy Development Committee
Chair,
Council on Access to Information for Print-Disabled Canadians
Email
December 5, 2007
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PDF version [PDF 21 KB]
The Council is delighted to see that the requirements of the over 3 million Canadians with print disabilities have been considered in the development of this strategy.
The Council endorses the overall vision, scope and challenges outlined in the strategy.
We were pleased to see references throughout the strategy to equitable digital information access, inclusiveness, standards, universal design and support for the production of digital content in alternative formats and assistive technologies.
We hope that the efforts to develop trusted digital repositories will assist in the development of the Initiative for Equitable Library Access's Clearinghouse for publishers' electronic files for alternative format production.
With respect to rights in a digital environment, the international sharing of alternative format materials for those with print disabilities is an issue of great significance to our community. Currently, this sharing is not permitted and creates a great deal of extra work and duplication for all of the countries producing materials in these formats. In any implementation of a CDIS, this issue should be addressed and we expect Canada to be a leader in these discussions in a WIPO framework.
The Council strongly endorses the following specific objectives and actions:
1. Strengthening Content
1.3. Improve digital content production practices in order to serve national objectives in terms of management, long-term preservation, access and use, and rights protection.
1.3.6. Encourage digital content production practices that facilitate conversion to alternative formats when required (see 3.1.4). (the see reference should be 3.1.5 not 3.1.4 as shown in the document)
1.4. Encourage diversity in digital content production.
1.4.1. Target support for digital content production by, and for, diverse communities including Aboriginal, linguistic, cultural, and print disabled communities.
1.4.2. Investigate and implement international standards, best practices and technological solutions that will enable digital content creation, preservation, access and use by diverse communities.
1.4.3. Provide tools and services, including technology solutions where necessary, that enable communities to create, preserve, access and use their own digital content.
3. Maximizing access and use
3.1. Foster democratic, ubiquitous, and equitable digital information access within our society
3.1.5. Develop mechanisms that will enable Canadians with print disabilities to access information in alternative formats and to use adaptive technologies for broad scale information accessibility.
3.2.2 Develop a strong role for the TDR network (see 2.2) as an interoperable access gateway to Canadian digital information.
3.3.5 Implement tools and policies that support on-demand translation of unilingual information and that support conversion to alternative formats for those with print disabilities.
The access for Canadians with print disabilities to digital textual and audio content should not be impeded through unintended consequences of technological protection measures.
Equitable access in a digital world means that persons with disabilities pay what others pay for content in a format that they can use.
The Council hopes that the final strategy and implementation plans will be developed with the concept of usability at the forefront of digital content because digital does not equal accessible for people with disabilities.
