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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: [email protected]