Digital Rights Management: Pitfalls and Possibilities for People with Disabilities

Abstract

This paper argues that electronic barriers intended to protect intellectual property can prevent equal access to digital materials by readers with visual or hearing disabilities, and thus deny those readers their fair-use rights. It provides a basic overview of copyright law, summarizes publishers’ concerns about intellectual property, and discusses information access by users with special needs to explain why digital rights management (DRM) is used, how it can interfere with access and fair use, and some ways those problems are being addressed.