According to a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) estimation,
only 5% of the world's one million print titles that are published every year
are accessible to the approximately 340 million blind, visually impaired or print
disabled people. Equal access to information is a basic right of all people. Essen-
tial information such as flyers, brochures, event calendars, programs, catalogues
and booking information needs to be accessible by everyone. Information helps
people to make decisions, be involved in society and live independent lives. Ar-
ticle 21, Section 4.2. of the United Nation's Convention on the rights of people
with disabilities advocates the right of blind and partially sighted people to take
control of their own lives. However, this entitlement is not always available to
them without access to information. Today, electronic documents have become
pervasive. For vision-impaired people electronic documents need to be available
in specific formats to be accessible. If these formats are not made available,
vision-impaired people are greatly disadvantaged when compared to the general
population. Therefore, addressing electronic document accessibility for them is
an extremely important concern. In order to address the accessibility issues
of electronic documents, this research aims to design an affordable, portable,
stand-alone and simple to use "Complete Reading System" to provide accessible electronic documents to vision impaired
