narrator: coming up on "21st century"... in argentina, expanding access to the blind and visually impaired... dancers from china keep a beat they cannot hear... and in the united states, student refugees get a new chance at a better future. in 2013, the treaty of marrakesh opened the door for the disabled to access a new world of knowledge. lecuona: we are arriving at the national palace to speak to

gabriela michetti, vice president of the nation. narrator: a digital library in argentina aims to put previously unavailable books into the hands of blind peopl lecuona: today at tiflolibros, we've been developing this work over many years that is very strong, well-known nationally and internationally, yet we are reaching just 1% of people with disabilities. narrator: one man's quest to improve the lives of the blind and visually impaired. [indistinct conversation]

lecuona: i'm pablo lecuona. i live in buenos aires, the capital, in the neighborhood of caballito, together with my wife, my baby ciro, who is 5 months old, and with two daughters, who are 12 and 15 years old, during part of the week, as well. i'm the head of tiflolibros, a digital library for the blind. tiflolibros emerged out of our necessity. in the year 1999, we were a group of people with visual disabilities that were just beginning to use the internet, computers with screen readers, a scanner to read a book, and we thought, "why not take advantage of the internet and the possibilities of working online to share all these books we had?" and we thought about one day

creating a digital library for the blind. sune: i am matias joel sune. i am 15 years old. i live in argentina, in buenos aires, and i go to school at santa teresita del nino jesus, and, it's a normal school that i attend, even though i'm blind. at first, i was very sad, but then i began thinking there are things that are much worse. i couldn't see, but i was fine. my family is fine. i walk slower. for example, my friends kind of

have to come look for me. now i can meet up with them, but it takes a lot of work. before i would look at them, i knew where they were, but now it's like i need more help. [computer voice speaking spanish] technology helps a lot, the computer most of all, which is my tool for work, the one i study with. i have fun, too, like with a cell phone, but i also study. i get digital books from an organization called tiflolibros that gives materials and digital books to blind people or those with visual disabilities, and it helps a lot because they give you the books that you need, those that all of your classmates also have. lecuona: today tiflolibros is a library that offers access to more than 54,000 books in its digital archive--books of all types, books for literature but also for students at elementary, high school, and university

levels. today at tiflolibros, we've been developing this work over many years that is very strong, well-known nationally and internationally, yet we are reaching just 1% of the people with disabilities, so it's crucial to keep growing, adding to what we do, to have the ability to do more and, above all, working with the states and other alliances to reach that 99% of visually impaired people who still don't have access to a book. narrator: in 2013, the treaty of marrakesh radically changed the life of blind people around the world. this treaty lifts copyright restrictions on all publication for blind and visually impaired people. they now have access toany more adapted books and, thus, education. lecuona: we're in the middle of a very important moment where we contie to be small but we have many possibilities to

project ourselves. now we're going to santillana publishers, which is one of the most important publishers of school textbooks, and it has given us the most material. they've already given us more than 5,000 books in digital files. is this it? oh, but before, it was open.

ah, i remember, i used to come all the way here to collect them. woman: and the biggest issue were right issues, copyright. i feel we all learned something. lecuona: but also at that moment, we were in a different context. when the publisher gives us the digital file from which they create paper books, it saves us the work of having to take apart the book and digitize it. this is one of the books from santillana that we have adapted in braille. what's written in ink is also written in braille. [computer voice speaking spanish] sune: i'm studying for history. i just finished reading a page of history that i have to study for tuesday.

i have a history test. that's why i'm studying. i downloaded it from the website tiflolibros.com.ar. the computer, for me, it's like it was my pencil case, like it was someone's backpack because in my computer, i have my books, my binders, how i write, how i read. if you don't have a computer, it's like going to school empty-handed. narrator: pablo is now on a quest to convince his country to implement the marrakesh treaty. lecuona: now we are going to the national congress to meet deputy gabriela troiano. it's important because she is a visually impaired deputy who has

been instrumental in argentina's decision to ratify the treaty. troiano: my name is gabriela troiano. i am the national deputy for the socialist party, first vice president of the disability commission of congress in argentina. they put me in touch with pablo. we got together, and, well, that's why i say it was a really critical part to achieve it becoming a law and that we became one of the first 10 countries to ratify this treaty. now it's a law, yes, that needs to be implemented to ensure the transfer from the publisher and allow access for the specific need of the person with visual disabilities.

lecuona: we are arriving at the national palace to speak to gabriela michetti, vice president of the nation. let's see if we can convince her to advance the implementation of the treaty of marrakesh as fast as possible. michetti: marrakesh was very important for argentina. it confirmed a path we had been paving, but at the same time, it reinforced the demand to the country to keep working toward this. the whole question of disabilities and access to equal rights for these people needs to be driven by the state, and it also shouldn't be a

topic for one government or another, so the first thing we're trying to do is to put this topic at the center of political discussion. sune: when i was little, i used to swim, and now at 12, i started doing it again. also, i dance, but it's not so much a hobby. it's that it helps me a lot. i go to dance classes and i practice reggaeton, which we dance a lot in argentina. i practice because i go to many parties and this helps me dance like any other boy, so it's a way of integrating myself and dancing like others, and dancing

helps me a great deal. i feel happy. lecuona: i think that the main dream is that all the projects that one does go forward and go well, and you think, "well, how nice would it be to be able to work and do everything you need to do knowing you have some stability?" and in life, it's the same. what you want, basically, is your kids to be happy, to be good people, and for them to have what's necessary to live normally.

narrator: these amazing dancers are even more impressive than they seem... narrator:hey are part of an inspiring troupef chinese artists with various disabilities and breathtaking talent. [orchestral and choral music]

[orchestral music] [applause]

narrator: at a special school in the united states, refugee students get a new chance at a better future. yena: i asked my father why we are living this life. he said, "this is how, because they killed your grandfather. grimes: most of our kids are refugees. they didn't choose it. they didn't chose this life. they didn't choose to come to somewhere else. they didn't choose to america, to rochester, and i just wish that other people could see and think if they were in their shoes.

andrecolich-montesano-diaz: what i say to them, "you have been through so much. you've traveled thousands and thousands of miles. horrific things have happened to you. you've watched your family members die. you've gone without eating for a month. how hard is it to study every night?" and they're like, "you're right, miss." i say, "you need to study. you need to read every night." all: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. woman: one person... grimes: most of our kids are refugees. they didn't choose it. they didn't chose this life. they didn't choose to come to somewhere else. they didn't choose to america, to rochester, and i just wish that other people could see and think if they were in their shoes. she has her own very unique individual style. i always tell her i'm jealous because she experiments wh all these big, beautiful hairstyles. yena: i like to change my hair all the time. i like to change clothes every time and my shoes, everything. grimes: the one thing that

hasn't changed is her dedication to being educated. yena: we just run away--no shoes, noater, no athing. just--we just run. i was crying because 3 days--3 days!--no eating, no water, no nothing. i asked my father, "why we are living this life?" he said, "this is how, because they killed your grandfather. there's no way to go back." [indistinct prayer] all: amen. al hasooni: i'm looking forward to be either, like, a police officer or a pharmacist. i believe these things are going to give a lot of help to people,

so i'll go with the grimes: hussein's kind of a one-of-a-kind, one-of-a-kind kid. at the prom last year, he was the first one on the dance floor. he is very accepting of other cultures. when he was here, he encouraged his peers to be proud of their own culture, even if it wasn't the same as his. al hasooni: we left because of the terrorism. we left because we don't want to get killed. there's a reason why we came here, and there's a reason why we have to be here and continue, you know, because we have to get our education and get a job and pay it back to the country that gave you a lot of help at first, right? grimes: there's traumatic experiences that are just retriggered for a l of our kids, you know? all of a sudden, they're back in their camp where it's being raided, or they're back in their house where they're being kicked out and heir houses are being set on fire. we had probably about 250 kids out there.

what we didn't know was that it was the local air show at the airport, and our students are all out there, and all of a sudden, 3 jets just flew really low over the field, and all-- many--most--of our kids just dropped to ground, and they covered their heads, and we realized that they thought that they were being bombed, and for us, that hadn't happened before.

[radio tuning] [acoustic guitar playing]