Legislative History on Fair Use and Accessible Texts

AHEAD, the Association on Higher Education and Disability, has an excellent position statement on fair use and accessible texts for students with disabilities. I will quote from it extensively in the next few days. For now, here is the significant historical precedent for this expansion of the fair use doctrine:

…the legislative history of the 1976 Copyright Act includes a statement that making copies of a protected work in a form for use by blind persons is a fair use.

⁴ See Senator Chafee’s introduction to the amendment in the Congressional Record. Retrieved December 6, 2006, from http://www.nfbcal.org/nfb-rd/1102.html