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This seems like crazy overkill. Benetech's program BookShare already provides the content in a format that traditional disabled accessible devices can handle. Plus it's all free for the content. This is probably the single most socially beneficial exception to the copyright law operating on the books right now. Any disabled person can have access to any copyrighted content at no charge through this program. Totally amazing:

http://www.benetech.org/literacy/bookshare.shtml

They may or may not be relevant here, but you should check out Benetech, a California non-profit that is dedicated to "technology serving humanity". They have an impressive portfolio of technology projects in the areas of human rights, literacy, etc. And for programmers who live out there and are interested, they're hiring, too.

They may or may not be relevant here, but you should check out Benetech, a California non-profit that is dedicated to "technology serving humanity". They have an impressive portfolio of technology projects in the areas of human rights, literacy, etc. And for programmers who live out there and are interested, they're hiring, too.

This has it exactly backwards. In terms of human rights, wiring Africa could help a lot. The non-profit I work for, Benetech, is working on a tool called Martus that helps grassroots human rights groups easily back up their data online and publish information on human rights abuses on the Web (at no cost). Without this kind of tool - and the connectivity needed to use it - a police officer or other minion of an oppressive state can come in, take your computer, and boom - years of meticulously collected data is gone.