Print-disabled Canadians have a legal right under section 32 of the Copyright Act to make accessible versions of books and other publications, or to have them made for them. The same legislation authorizes libraries to produce and distribute these versions:

(1) It is not an infringement of copyright for a person with a perceptual disability, for a person acting at the request of such a person or for a non-profit organization acting for the benefit of such a person to

1. make a copy or sound recording of a literary, musical, artistic or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability;
2. not relevant here
3. not relevant here

(2) Subsection (1) does not authorize the making of a large print book.

(3) Subsection (1) does not apply where the work or sound recording is commercially available in a format specially designed to meet the needs of any person referred to in that subsection, within the meaning of paragraph (a) of the definition “commercially available”.

(8) In this section, “print disability” means a disability that prevents or inhibits a person from reading a literary, musical or dramatic work in its original format, and includes such a disability resulting from

1. severe or total impairment of sight or the inability to focus or move one’s eyes;
2. the inability to hold or manipulate a book; or
3. an impairment relating to comprehension.

Other provisions of the Copyright Act allow for the importation of alternate format materials from other countries, and for Canadian libraries to export works from their collection to those countries.

Read section 32 of the Copyright Act.