The disabled have run afoul of the IP protection laws also.  Although the Chaffee Amendment allows for those authorized to reproduce or distribute copies or “phonerecords” of published literary works for the visually and other impaired, it limits the authorization to “nondramatic” works.   Dan Pescod (Vice-Chair of the World Blind Union Global R2R Campaign and Campaigns Manager at the Royal National Institute of Blind People) reports in "The 'Right to Read' - Why a WIPO Treaty for Print Disabled People?" that for the approximately 314 million blind and partially-sighted people in the world only about 5% of books are available in a format accessible to them.   Organizations attempting to provide the alternative formats of dramatic works find that gaining necessary permission is slow and sometimes impossible.  Organizations like the World Blind Union are encouraging publishers to make more books accessible.

The complications created by intellectual property laws for the disabled are not limited to genre choice.  In response to the U.S. Copyright Office Inquiry, the Comments of the American Library Association, Association of College and Research libraries and the Association of Research Libraries outlined several problems with the present system.  While many agencies strive to provide the visually impaired with accessible materials, this population does not enjoy the ready availability of the materials; there is a time element in retrieval of materials that others do not suffer.  Further, the materials are not always available in the preferred format (e.g. some prefer Braille and others audio versions), and some adaptations provided by public libraries and universities involve use of equipment available only at that facility.  Those able to use the exceptions to create adapted materials find themselves frustrated by trade laws.  The United States does not allow export of these materials.  The WBU is has proposed a treaty to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to improve copyright law to support the exchange of accessible books without being affected by trade laws and regulations.  However, the United States and other developed countries opposed the treaty. 

In the meantime, some intellectual property owners are fighting back.  Some authors are demanding that assistive technologies like text to speech be disabled in their works; that they be distributed as “sound proof books.” Early in 2009 The Authors Guild forced Amazon to disable their text-to-speech feature (Kindle) claiming that it breached copyright law.  Their complaint was that people without disabilities could listen also.  Amazon now leaves it to the copyright owner to determine whether or not the work is available in audio form.