UN FORUM TO EXAMINE HOW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CAN

 

ASSIST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, 26 MARCH

 

The many ways information and communication technology (ICT) can improve the lives of persons with disabilities will be the topic of a meeting taking place at the United Nations (Conference Room 4) on Monday, 26 March.

At the first Global Forum of the United Nations Global Initiative for Inclusive ICT, disability advocates, leading experts from around the world and others will come together to assess the status of accessible and inclusive technologies for persons with disabilities.  Participating corporations will demonstrate their latest innovations in the field of inclusive technologies.

Some 200 participants from industry, Government, academia and civil society are expected to attend.  Speakers include Global Forum Chair Ambassador Luis Gallegos of Ecuador, former Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; Axel Leblois, the Global Initiative’s Executive Director; Judy Brewer, Director, Web Accessibility Initiative, W3C; Victor Tsaran, Accessibility Program Manager, Yahoo Corporation; Ken Salaets, Executive Director of Access Standards, Information Technology Industry Council; and Apolinar Salcedo, Mayor of Cali, Colombia.

Emilie McCabe, General Manager, IBM Global Public Sector, will deliver the keynote address on “The Imperative for Inclusive ICT”.  Professor Peter Brecke of Georgia Tech’s School of International Affairs will outline progress on the Digital Inclusion Index for Disabled Persons, which seeks to evaluate and rank countries based on how effective they are in promoting accessible and inclusive information and communication technology.

Other participating companies include Internet Speech, Deque Systems, Coraworks, NiiT Ventures and e-ISOTIS.

“The Forum will examine how best to support the development of accessible and assistive features for ICT products,” said Sarbuland Khan, Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development.  “There are core areas of opportunities, as well as specific funding and research and development resources, which industry could benefit from.”

Morning panels will examine the potential for the information and communication technology industry of developing inclusive products and services, the pervasive impact of such technology on the lives of persons with disabilities, current research to reduce accessibility gaps among common information and communication technology products, and successful applications regarding the workplace, home, media, e-government and public services.

Afternoon panels will address how to harmonize and standardize accessible and assistive technologies to make them work on a global scale, as well as the role of the public sector in fostering innovation and compliance through legislation, regulations and procurement rules.

The new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is opening for signature at the United Nations on 30 March, devotes a whole article (article 9) to accessibility, including of information and communication technology, said Mr. Leblois.  “But it will not be easy to put it into practice.  The Global Initiative for Inclusive ICT intends to provide support to legislators and regulators around the world by sharing good practices and fostering dialogue between industry, civil society and standardization organizations.”

“There is a huge underserved population of 650 million persons living with disabilities worldwide,” Mr. Leblois said.  “One critical issue is that making inclusive information and communication technology affordable can only happen through global standardization and mass production.  Regulators will need to balance local considerations and harmonization at the global level to achieve economies of scale.”

This Forum will be the first in a series of global and regional forums scheduled to take place around the world over the next two and a half years.  It is part of the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICT, an activity of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development led by the Boston-based Wireless Internet Institute.  The event is organized in cooperation with the Secretariat of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

For information, please visit www.g3ict.com and www.un-gaid.org or contact Enrica Murmura at the Global Alliance secretariat, tel:  (212) 963 5913, e-mail:  murmura@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record