Abstract

Access to knowledge and information is a universal human right. However, even after the Marrakesh Treaty was adopted on June 27, 2013, only 1-7% of standard printed materials are accessible to people with reading disabilities, including the visually impaired, and library services are very weak. As a result, the book famine of people with reading disabilities continues. This study, focusing on such severe access gaps and inequalities, analyzes Learning Ally and Bookshare in the US, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the UK, Bibliothèque Numérique Francophone Accessible (BNFA) in France, and SAPIE in Japan, which are considered private organizations leading library services for the disabled in major developed countries. And based on the derived implications and the Marrakesh Treaty, a strategic plan was proposed to strengthen the services of the disabled in domestic libraries. It is urgent to enact the ‘Act to Resolve Reading Barriers’, amend the provisions related to the Copyright Act that restrict library services, strengthen the organizational capacity of the National Library for the Disabled, raise the service index for the disabled in library evaluation, and establish a library cooperation system centered on regional representative libraries and expand services, etc.