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Empowering Persons with Disabilities through ICTs

Mr Abdul Waheed Khan

Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information

UNESCO

Open Source Accessibility Forum

11 August 2009

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UNESCO’s concept of Knowledge Societies

Human Needs and Rights

Knowledge Societies

Pluralism

Human Needs and RightsHuman Needs and Rights

Knowledge SocietiesKnowledge Societies

PluralismPluralism and Inclusion

KnowledgeCreation

KnowledgePreservation

KnowledgeDissemination

KnowledgeUtilization

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Major principles of Knowledge Societies

HumanNeedsand Rights

Pluralism

HumanNeedsand RightsHumanNeedsand Rights

Knowledge Societies

PluralismInclusion and Pluralism

Freedom of

Expression

Cultural and

linguistic diversity

Universal access to

information and

knowledge

Quality Education

for All

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Technology Revolution

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Knowledge Divides

Knowledge Divide / Digital Divide

• Access to knowledge

• Prosperity • Globalization • Inclusion

• Limited access to knowledge

• Poverty

• Marginalization

• Exclusion

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Persons with disabilities

constitute

10% of the world’s population

(600 million persons)

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Fewer than 2% of

children with disabilities

in developing countries

are

in school

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Critical challenges (cont.)

• Relevance• New skills • New competencies • Lack of life-long learning

opportunities• Employment

• Access

• Cost

• Equity

• Quality

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International commitments

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948“all human beings are born free and equal in rights and dignity”

• United Nations Standard Rules on the Equalizationof Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, 1993

• United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006

“Persons with disabilities can exercise the right to freedom of expression and opinion, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas on an equal basis with others and through all forms of communication of their choice” (Article 21)

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International commitments (cont.)

World Summit on the Information Society Action Plan:

Access to information and knowledge (Chapters C3)

Encourage research and promote awareness among all stakeholders of the

possibilities offered by different software models, and the means of their

creation, including proprietary, open-source and free software, in order to

increase competition, freedom of choice and affordability, and to enable all

stakeholders to evaluate which solution best meets their requirements.

Capacity building, address the need to ensure the benefits

offered by ICTs for all, including disadvantaged, marginalised

and vulnerable groups (Chapters C4)

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The empowerment of persons with disabilities,

particularly through effective use of ICTs, is not a charity,

but the fulfilment of fundamental human rights

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UNESCO’s action

• Promotes the concept of knowledge societies which are inclusive, pluralistic, equitable, open and participatory

• Recognizes the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities

• Fosters international commitment to support measures that facilitate the lives of persons with disabilities

• Fosters effective utilization of ICTs which are accessible, adaptive and affordable

• Promotes best practices

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UNESCO recognizes the need to:

• Prepare national policies and encourages the local governments to introduce specific legislation

• Define new services, including access to the Internet and educational opportunities

• Develop national standards for services• Train key professionals • Adapt digital media to special needs• Enhance social and economic integration• Collect statistical data and carry out research• Ensure universal design for all

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ICTs increase

the independence of

persons with disabilities

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Development of Accessibility Guidelines to Community MultimediaCentresfor Persons with Disabilities

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Libraries and content development

• Projects to the development

of virtual libraries (Greenstone)• Talking books and e-books• Training persons with disabilities

to use of the PC software and the search engines

• Support the distribution of quality audio-visual programmes

Taha Hussein Library for Blind and Visually Impaired

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Capacity building of media professionals reporting accurately on issues related topersons with disabilities

Radio has great potential as a medium of education and social inclusion for the blind

Fiji Disabled Peoples Association Women's Hour

Madanpokhara Community Multimedia Centre in Nepal

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ICTs provide opportunities for flexible learning, for sharing information andfor networking with disabilityadvocates

Education for rural Ethiopian youths

Vocational and Technical Training Center

for Disabled People, Hohhot, China

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Open Training Platform

UNESCO facilitates a collaborative

access to existing free training

courses and promotes open licensed

resources to specialized groups

and local communities for

development.

http://opentraining.unesco-ci.org

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Free and Open Source Software Portal (FOSS)

The UNESCO Free Software Portal gives access to documents and websites which are references for the Free Software/Open Source Technology movement. It is also a gateway to resources related to Free Software.

http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft/

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UNESCO FOSS products

• FOSS Portal• CDS/ISIS – library management system• Greenstone – digital library system• IDAMS – statistical software• Museolog – museum catalogue software• Enrich – community content management system

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17450&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

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UNESCO’s pavilion “Empowering persons with disabilities through ICTs”

at ITU Telecom World 2009,

5-9 October 2009

UNESCO invites partners working in the area of ICTs and accessibility to join its pavilion and showcase successful solutions, such as hardware, software, services and other accessibility solutions.

For more information, please contact:

Ms Irmgarda Kasinskaite-Buddeberg by email: i.kasinskaite@unesco.org