People with disabilities are all too often marginalised. Physical or mental handicaps too often turn into economic or social disadvantage. Markets are unwilling to provide services for those who don’t have the money to buy dedicated services. Charity plays an important role, but cannot be expected to do everything. Public services with an active focus on equality are essential.

The Two Article 19s

This disadvantage also applies to access to information. The inability to read, watch or use information, knowledge and culture in the same way as others can leave people isolated and unable to seize opportunities.

On a more basic level, it also runs counter to the fundamental right of access to information and freedom of expression – regardless of purpose – set out in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose 70^th anniversary year starts in a week.

Libraries’ mission is to offer effective services to all. In many countries, the law underlines that our institutions’ work must be inclusive, notably as regards people with disabilities. IFLA’s own Code of Ethics for Library and Information Workers sets out clearly that there is no room for rejection or denial of access.

Indeed, in order to achieve this result, what is needed is not the absence of discrimination, but positive and practical efforts to give everyone a chance. As set out in another Article 19 – this time of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – disability should not mean that individuals are forced to use different public services to everyone else.

From Principle to Practice

IFLA has two dedicated groups supporting this mission: the section on Library Services to People with Special Needs, and section on Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities. They have consistently worked not only to highlight the need to ensure all are welcome at the library, but to make it easier for each institution to take the necessary steps to make this welcome effective.

A key part of their work is a series of practical guidelines – on persons with dyslexia, dementia, deafness, and the elderly and disabled in long-term facilities – as well as a broader checklist. We will also soon publish results from a survey of library practices and policies on people with disability, in the context of the UN initiative on Monitoring and Evaluation for Disability-inclusive Development. And IFLA has today announced work on a new guide for libraries looking to make use of the Marrakesh Treaty.

For All Individuals to Benefit, All Actors Must Contribute

But for truly inclusive access to information to become a reality, the efforts of libraries will need to be matched by those of businesses and government.

Governments can act by implementing the Marrakesh Treaty, which provides for the removal of copyright-related barriers to the making and sharing of books in accessible formats for people with print disabilities.

But too often, lobbying in favour of the business models which left so many without access leads governments to fall short of the ambition at the heart of the Treaty. We therefore work to promote national laws and regulations that do not place unnecessary financial or bureaucratic barriers on libraries simply looking to fulfil their missions.

This effort is mirrored everywhere else where libraries are working with business and governments to get the right laws and funding in place to ensure people with disabilities can benefit from full access to information.

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is therefore a welcome opportunity to underline not only what libraries are doing themselves, but to highlight what more we can do with other actors to make a reality of equality.