 Today, we come together to celebrate a historic milestone in the struggle for equal rights and equal access to the world's knowledge by blind people. We also come together to recommit ourselves to all of the actions necessary to fulfill the human rights objectives that are at the core of the Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled. On behalf of the members of the National Federation of the Blind, the oldest and largest organization of the blind in the United States of America, I would like to thank and congratulate the World Intellectual Property Organization and each of its partners for the years of hard work to establish this treaty and now bring it into force. The Marrakesh Treaty has been and will continue to be a priority of the National Federation of the Blind. Although the United States has a well-developed network of authorized entities providing access to published works through a variety of service models, even our access to the world's knowledge is severely limited. By the best estimates, the blind of the United States have access to less than 10 percent of the published works. This is not equality. We recognize the tremendous opportunities that will come to blind people when they have equal access to all the world's knowledge and we are firmly committed to pursuing the promise of the Marrakesh Treaty until it is reality for all blind people. For us to realize the promise, we need all countries to ratify the treaty as soon as possible. I regret that our own country, the United States, has not yet completed the ratification process. In this forum, I challenge the United States Senate to make swift ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty a top priority as a demonstration of support for equal rights for the blind of our nation. I also encourage the leaders of other countries to make this treaty a priority before the end of the year. In addition, all stakeholders will need to commit to cooperation, innovation, and communication to effectively accomplish global implementation of the treaty. The National Federation of the Blind is committed to carrying its share of the work and we urge our global partners to do the same. With the Marrakesh Treaty, we have unlocked the door to the world's knowledge and today we opened that door for those countries that have ratified the treaty. It is now time for us to build the pathway to that door and ensure that all of the world's print disabled are on that path. Access to the world's knowledge is a fundamental human right and we thank all those who have helped in the development of the Marrakesh Treaty and those actively working for its implementation around the world. Thank you.