How can I read files outside the cgi-bin folder?

I've written a cgi script that processes data that is generated by another program. The problem is that this file is located outside the cgi-bin. How can I make sure that my perl scripts can read this file? I've already tried changing the permissions of this file and I also tried to make a link in the cgi-bin folder but Apache is too smart for that. I guess possible solutions are:

• Edit the Apache config file in a way that Apache can read files outside the cgi-bin.
• Run the cgi script with a 'portable' webserver. Like you can do with python (python -m http.server [port]). Unfortunately this does not execute the perl cgi scripts.

I'm kind of stuck how to do either one of the solutions.

I've solved this problem by using plackup in combination of PSGI.

use CGI::Emulate::PSGI;
use CGI::Compile;

my $sub = CGI::Compile->compile("location/to/script.cgi");
my $app = CGI::Emulate::PSGI->handler($sub);

If you run plackup file.psgi, it sets up a local webserver that runs as the current user. Problem solved.