Campaigns success!
RNIB has lead the World Blind Union (WBU) efforts to modernise UN rules on free international post for blind people. The Universal Postal Union rules laid down in the 1950s will be updated so that the international "articles for the blind" free postal service will enable more items to be sent through it then just "Braille literature" or "sound recordings for the blind".
The campaign story - what needed to change
Blind and partially sighted people in the UK and many other countries benefit from free postal services. The UK was in fact one of the first countries to offer such a service, called "Articles for the Blind".
The free postal service for blind people helps make up for the difficulties in getting inaccessible books and in some cases other materials blind people need specifically because of their impairment.
After all, a blind person cannot walk into their local library and take out the book of their choice at no cost. Instead, he or she will often receive an accessible book via the post from a distant library for the blind. (They'll no doubt send it back the same way.) To charge for that postal service would be tantamount to charging for a person's blindness.
The Universal Postal Union, (UPU) part of the United Nations, makes the rules on the international aspect of this service, such as what sort of letters or packets can be sent free internationally, and who can send and receive them.
Back in 2008, we helped the government of Luxembourg devise and table a proposal at the Universal Postal Union's four-yearly Congress to modernise these rules.
The UPU rules on how this free service operates internationally were written in the 1950s and had not been updated since. They allowed postal operators to send postal items across national borders; free of postal charges, but only if those items were "Braille literature" or "sound recordings for the blind".
It will not have escaped thoughtful readers that the world has moved on since the 1950s.
These days, blind people have new ways of sending and receiving information and items they need to play a full part in society. This means on the one hand that often, instead of a bulky Braille book, a blind person will want to send or receive a lightweight Daisy CD. Such items would weigh far less and be less voluminous, and therefore their carriage would represent a cost reduction to postal operators, as well as a benefit to blind people. We wanted to ensure the UN rules on this service were modernised to reflect these changes.
Returning to the 2008 Congress, some of the assembled postal operators and governments were wary of Luxembourg's well-intentioned proposal, and referred it for "further studies".
The proposal has since 2008 journeyed through a plethora of UPU Committees, hotly pursued by the World Blind Union.
This is why we helped to devise a new proposal, presented to the UPU Congress in Doha in 2012 by Italy on behalf of the UPU.
To cut a long story short, the proposal was subjected to significant scrutiny at the Congress, but we encouraged friendly countries to ensure that unlike in 2008, this time the matter would be put to a vote. This went overwhelmingly in our favour - 91 for, 13 against and 21 abstentions.
The UPU rules on what will now be termed "items for the blind" will now appear in their modernised form in the revised version of the UPU's rule book, the "UPU Convention".
What does this mean in practice?
International postal items for the blind, exempt from postal charges, can now be sent between any combination of organisations of blind people, specialist organisations serving blind people (such as libraries for the blind) and blind or partially sighted individuals.
International items for the blind now include:
"correspondence, literature in whatever format including sound
recordings, and equipment or materials of any kind made or adapted to assist blind persons in overcoming the problems of blindness"
What this change does not mean
This change does not require countries to change their internal / national free post for blind people system. So if a country only currently allows Braille to be sent domestically under its free postal system, it will not be required to broaden its national scheme as a result of this UPU decision. The UPU only governs international postal exchange.
What it does mean, though, is that countries receiving an item containing one of the new, wider range of items under this scheme from a sender in another country, would be expected to accept these as "items for the blind" and deliver them to the addressee (blind person or organisation). The UPU rules require them to do this irrespective of the range of items the receiving country allows in its national "items for the blind" scheme.
An example
For example, country "A" only allows Braille in its national free post system for blind people. Country "B" allows Daisy CDs to be sent in its "items for the blind scheme".
A blind person in country "B" posts a Daisy CD to a blind person in country "A" under its more generous "items for the blind" scheme.
Country "A" must still deliver that Daisy CD, even though it would not allow the sending of such an item under its national "items for the blind" service.