Accessibility to ICTs Taking into account persons living with disabilities in ITU activities

1. Accessibility to ICTsTaking into account persons living with disabilities in ITU activities Peter Major Co-coordinator Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

2. Persons with disabilities • 1 billion people (15% of the world population) lives with some type of disability • This percentage will increase in the upcoming years - Longer life expectancy (resulting in disabilities acquired through aging)- Unavailability of medical treatment- Accidents- Wars- Poverty IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

3. Information and Communication Technologies • Improve lives of persons living with disabilities • Through ICTs PwD benefit from - improved access to basic public services (such as education, health, government information)- improved access to information- smart services, adapted to their specific needs IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

4. ITU is the international organization promoting accessibility of ICTs • ITU´s mandate in accessibility is defined by Resolution 175 (Guadalajara, 2010) • Telecommunication/ICT for persons with disabilities, including age-related disabilities • WCIT - proposal for ITR: Accessibility for persons with disabilities • IGF – support of Dynamics Coalition on Accessibility and Disabilities IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

5. Examples of ITU activities: study groups • ITU-T SG 2 - Operational aspects of service provision and telecommunications management • ITU-T SG 16 - Multimedia coding, systems and applications • ITU-T Focus Group on Audio-visual Media Accessibility • ITU-R SG 5 – Mobile service and ITU-R SG 6 - Broadcasting service • ITU-D SG 1 - Question 20-1/1, “Access to telecommunication/ICT services by persons with disabilities and with special needs” • Other progress in ITU-T Study Groups 9, 12 and 13 IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

6. Examples of ITU activities: Relevant standards developed in ITU • Telecommunications Accessibility Checklist to be incorporated into all ITU recommendations • ITU-T Recommendation F.790, Telecommunications accessibility guidelines for older persons and persons with disabilities • ITU-R Report BT.2207, Accessibility to broadcasting services for persons with disabilities IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

7. Examples of ITU activities: policy and regulatory guidelines • ITU Guidelines for policy makers and regulators (e.g. “Making TV accessible report”) • ITU-G3ICT Accessibility toolkit for persons living with disabilities • Several advocacy and awareness raising events on this area, with key partners such as the UNESCO, EBU, the World Standards Cooperation or G3ICT. IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

8. Examples of ITU activities:support to developing countries • Community ICT Centres for Persons with Disability implemented in Armenia, Ethiopia and Mali in 2011; • Multi-purpose Community Tele-centres (MCTs) for persons with disabilities in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka in 2010; • Several capacity building activities throughout the world on the e-Accessibility toolkit. IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

9. Making ITU more accessible • Incorporation of accessibility features in ITU meetings (e.g. remote participation, captioning, sign language interpretation upon request). • Examples of meetings: WSIS Forum 2011 and 2012, JCA-AHF, the Focus Group AVA, ITU-T SG16 Question 26, ITU-T SG2 Question 4 or TSAG • Continuous improvements in ITU facilities.(e.g. refurbishment of room Popov incorporates high accessibility standards) • Next goal: to develop an ITU Accessibility Policy to be presented to Council 13 for endorsement IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

10. Why additional funding is needed? The following activities are resource intensive: • Implementation of ITU Accessibility Policy to make ITU facilities, meetings, documents and resources fully accessible to persons living with disabilities; • Sponsorship of experts in ITU meetings when needed; • Funding additional projects at the national, regional and global level to promote the use of ICTs by persons living with disabilities. IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

11. The ITU Accessibility Fund • Instructed by Resolution 175 • Open to voluntary contributions from ITU Membership, private sector organizations, non-for profit organizations and individual contributions. • Contributions to be used to: • Promote representation of PwDin ITU activities; • Make ITU activities accessible to PwD; • Support implementation of projects at national and regional level. IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

12. Become a supporter of the ITU accessibility fund Let´s work together to improve the lives of 1 billion people through ICTs (and let´s bring this message to the high level session on disabilities and development at the 68th UNGA - 2013) IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

13. GET INVOLVED www.itu.int/accessibility accessibility@itu.int IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

14. IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

15. Thank youpeter.major@ties.itu.int IGF 2012 6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan