Blind activists speak out before the Intl. Day Against DRM

Dear LWN,

It's two days before the International Day Against DRM and our
community is kicking into gear. We'll come together as a strong
movement and we'll make sure the world hears our message: Digital
Restrictions Management is wrong, and we will not sit idly by
while it's imposed on us.

DRM is especially bad for those of us that face additional
hurdles using computers. It's beastly for blind people, who are
dependent on an audiobook market heavily laden with DRM. Today in
the lead up to the Day, we're proud to feature a guest post about
the problems DRM causes for people using the US National Library
for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, written by two blind
anti-DRM activists. You can read the post at the bottom of this
email or
[online](https://defectivebydesign.org/disabling-the-disabled).

**Defective by Design and the writers of this post want it to be
a rallying cry to show people how oppressive DRM really is and
build momentum for the big day on Wednesday. Read it below or
[online](https://defectivebydesign.org/disabling-the-disabled)
and share it on [social media](https://fsf.org/twitter) with the
hashtag #DayAgainstDRM.**

If this gets you pumped up, you should also join us at an
International Day Against DRM event. There is a [list of
currently planned events in eight countries on the LibrePlanet
wiki](https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Defective_by_Design/Da...).

To chat about DRM and organizing against it, join us on Defective
by Design's [#dbd Freenode IRC channel](irc://irc.gnu.org/dbd)
and [email discussion
list](http://lists.defectivebydesign.org/mailman/listinfo/drm-e...).

Now without further ado:

# DRM: Disabling the disabled

*This is a guest post by Storm Dragon and Kyle (co-writer), two
blind anti-DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) activists. It
focuses on the problems facing blind readers in the US, but much
of it is applicable to other countries as well.*

DRM affects almost everyone on a daily basis, but in the blind
community, it is a problem of epic proportions. Usually when
people want something to read, they go to a library, pick up a
book and check it out. Blind people in the US can use the
[National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped](http://www.loc.gov/nls/) in almost the same way --
except for one major difference: coming from the NLSBPH, books
are usually audiobooks stored in a specialized format encumbered
with DRM.

The DRM restricts the books so that they can only play on
specialized hardware: a rather large and cumbersome device
provided by the library, or other specialized players that are
extremely overpriced, starting at around $350 to $400 USD. If you
want to listen to the book on your computer, your digital audio
player or your Android smartphone, too bad; even though the
stated intent of the DRM is to prevent non-blind people from
using the NSLBPH's books, it actually prevents any attempt by
blind people to use them on unsanctioned devices. A notable
exception is Apple products, which allow sharing between devices,
but only at the unacceptable cost of using particularly
restrictive proprietary operating systems.

Attempting to read an audiobook from the NLSBPH in the US is
comparable to going to the library and sitting down with a good
book, only to find out that reading it requires a licensed pair
of glasses produced by about two to three vendors, available at
checkout or purchased at a premium from authorized dealers.

DRM not only affects the accessibility of material to people with
visual impairment, but also places an undue burden on the tax
payer, whose money the government uses to design the NSLBPH's
needless DRM constraints. This tax money could be much better
spent providing off-the-shelf players with free software
installed on them, which would be capable of playing audiobooks
in more compact formats, such as the [Opus audio
standard](https://www.opus-codec.org/). Such free players could
even be adapted to read a new generation of time-indexed markup,
which would allow skipping backward and forward through a book by
multiple levels of divisions like sentences and chapters. This
level of control over the reading experience, widely available to
sighted people, is still mostly out of reach for the blind.

As a blind reader, I have had my own moral struggle with the
problem of digital restrictions on the books I read. At this
point, my only choices are to read books from
[LibriVox](https://librivox.org/), which has a large selection,
but has very little new literature, or to find more questionable
ways of obtaining books that do not suffer from restrictions that
keep me from reading them. Out of these choices, LibriVox is
definitely the better option, even though it limits my selection
of books to those that are in the public domain, or otherwise
have no copyright restrictions of any kind. Although no copyright
restrictions would be the ideal state of things for me, the fact
remains that there are still very few new entries into the public
domain, and is not likely to change any time soon. So any time
someone tells me that they read a really good book, I end up
having to tell them that I am unable to read it, because although
I have access to the file, it limits my ability to play it on the
device I want to use, undercutting my freedom to read it.

Because digital restrictions are especially hard on people with
disabilities, I would urge everyone in the US to contact the
National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and
their senators and representatives, to make them aware of the
seriousness of the problem.

The US library is not the only one that suffers from these
problems. I encourage anyone in any other country to find out
what restrictions are on books that local blind and visually
impaired people read. If they have the same digital restrictions,
attempt to have laws changed in your country as well, "that all
may read," as the US library so eloquently, but currently
falsely, states it.

*In order to contact us or discuss this article, follow
@storm@social.stormdragon.tk and @kyle@shoutit.ga from your
favorite [GNU social](https://gnu.io/social/) site. The authors
also have Web sites at <https://stormdragon.tk> and
<http://kyle.tk/>.*

To the extent possible under law, Storm Dragon and Kyle has
waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to "DRM:
Disabling the disabled". This work is published from: United
States.

*Read this post online:
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/two-days-to-day-against...>.*
-- 
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