This paper examines the role of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) as it relates to copyright and to visually impaired people's right to read. The paper starts by summarizing the barriers that can arise both from refusal to grant permission for alternative formats and from the use of rights management schemes incompatible with screen reading technology. It refers to the need for international agreements as well as an accumulation of national legislation. The workings of WIPO are examined, and the three-step test (i.e., criteria by which member states are allowed to introduce exceptions to the exclusive rights of copyright owners) is highlighted. Contracts within the past year among WIPO, the World Blind Union, and the International Federation of Libraries and Associations (IFLA) Section of Libraries for the Blind are detailed. The paper then refers to the related roles of the World Trade Organization and of UNESCO. It lists what ideally the Royal National Institute for the Blind would like to be able to obtain from WIPO in terms of national and international legislation and asks what steps must be taken to achieve this, in hopes that it will motivate people to contact their national governments and ask them to raise these issues within WIPO. (MES)