Remarks by Maryanne Diamond

From the Editor: Maryanne is a past president of the World Blind Union and a long time activist for the rights of the blind. She was a leader during the negotiations and diplomatic conference that led to the Marrakesh Treaty.

I recall meeting Scott for the first time when he joined the World Blind Union (WBU) Marrakesh Treaty Negotiating team.

Over many years we had worked with publishers to improve the situation of accessible books for people who are blind or print disabled around the world with very little success.
In 2008 the World Blind Union (WBU) decided to change our approach and began working with copyright experts and friendly governments over a five-year period at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to achieve a treaty. The treaty was adopted in Marrakesh in June of 2013.

It is hard not to remember meeting Scott, that loud booming voice, enthusiasm, great skill, and obvious hard work ethic were immediately apparent. Scott brought his legal experience and expertise to the team, built good relationships with the United States government negotiators, and of course his personal desire for all blind people worldwide to be able to exercise our human right in accessing information.

Throughout the five years there were some very difficult conversations and situations, even during the diplomatic conference. There was huge pressure on us by publishers and some governments to weaken the treaty text, even accept voluntary guidelines. But, we stayed firm and we stayed strong.

Scott was great company. There are many examples of adventures we shared when travelling and working together. One that comes to mind is at the end of one day at a WIPO meeting in Geneva, I assured Scott that I could find our way back to the hotel without waiting for a sighted person to accompany us. We walked to the tram, left the tram at the end of the ride, and made our way into the hotel without any difficulty. Scott was impressed! He suggested I would make a good NFB member. Well, I was impressed with this endorsement as we made our way to the bar for our usual gin and tonic, a custom we enjoyed after a long hard day’s work.

Following the adoption of the treaty, Scott continued to work hard. Our focus moved to getting countries to ratify the treaty. It is fair to say Scott played a leadership role in the US to achieve this. I recognized this was very difficult, but Scott and the team were successful.

After this, Scott continued his work on the treaty taking on the role as WBU representative on the WIPO Accessible Books Consortium board. He was a great contributor representing the blind and print disabled community worldwide.

Scott was a friend, a colleague, someone I admired.

I was honoured in 2018 when Scott and I were both presented by the Lighthouse for the Blind San Francisco Christopher Buckley “The Blind Boss Award” for our work to achieve the Marrakesh Treaty.

With all Scott’s achievements within the US and internationally, he was first and foremost a family man. Scott loved his family, spoke of them often, and was so proud of them. He enjoyed his work but was always keen to get home.

Anahit, on behalf of all of us who worked with Scott at the international level, I say thank you. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family at this time.