New Technologies Empower Persons with Disabilities

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New Technologies Empower Persons with Disabilities

http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/issues/ISArticle.asp?

id=84421 & issue=05162008

An estimated 650 million persons live with disabilities worldwide.

Including their families, there are nearly two billion people - or a

third of the world's population - directly affected by disability.

The World Telecommunication and Information Society sees information

and communication technologies (ICT) as one way to help connect

persons with disabilities to opportunities for assistance and self-

development.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message on World

Telecommunication and Information Society Day (May 15, 2008), " It is

vital that we change attitudes and approaches to persons with

disabilities, ensuring that all fundamental rights and freedoms are

honoured, including the right to fully participate in the information

society, and bring forth input, ideas and effort from the disability

community. "

" The phenomenal growth of ICTs over the past 25 years has seen the

birth of a dazzling array of new technologies to empower persons with

all kinds of disabilities to take active roles in mainstream

society, " said Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of ITU. " ICTs

have the great merit of serving as a powerful equalizer of abilities,

empowering persons with disabilities to fulfil their potential,

realize their own dreams and ambitions, and take their place as

active members of the information society.

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day marks the

foundation of ITU in 1865, making it one of the most resilient

institutions worldwide.

ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award

Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt

The ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award was

presented today by ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré to three

eminent laureates at a ceremony in Cairo.

Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt's first Lady, President and Founder of the

Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement, who has been a

champion of peace as well as a promoter of women's empowerment and

the well being of children and youth, received the Award and made the

keynote address. Mrs Mubarak stressed the importance of mainstreaming

effective policies and strategies for the empowerment of children and

youth with disabilities. She encouraged the engagement of children

and youth with disabilities from their early years as active partners

in society and, by making the right investment, to reach their

untapped potential and develop their personal capacities.

Mrs Mubarak supported implementation of the Cairo Declaration on

Supporting Access to ICT Services for Persons with Disabilities, the

outcome of the First Regional Conference organized by ITU and WHO.

The Declaration supports and encourages the use of ICT applications,

assistive technologies and services to persons with disabilities.

Daisy Consortium

The DAISY Consortium - Digital Accessible Information System - is a

worldwide organization of libraries and ICT companies in more than 40

countries. Promoting open, non-proprietary standards known as

ANSI/NISO Z39.86-2005, the Consortium's mission is to develop and

promote international standards and technologies which enable equal

access to information and knowledge by all people with print

disabilities, and which also benefit the wider community.

DAISY Consortium President Hiroshi Kawamura, accepting the Award on

behalf of the organization, said, " This award reinforces the DAISY

Consortium's commitment to improving access to information for

everyone, everywhere. We strive for an inclusive society where no one

is excluded from participation. "

Ms Saks

Hailing from a family of deaf telecommunications pioneers,

Saks has herself been at the forefront of promoting standards for

persons with disabilities and in creating a host of accessibility

events in ITU. She is the coordinator of the Internet Governance

Forum's Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability.

Accepting the ITU Award, Ms Saks said, " Information deprivation and

bad access is the problem, not the disability. " Optimistic about the

future, she said, " Accessibility has arrived. The UN Convention on

the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a step in this direction. "

Demonstration of assistive technology: New opportunities

Microsoft and QualiLife combined their resources to demonstrate

assistive technology that can be used in combination with a personal

computer or with a mobile phone to make it accessible to people with

a wide range of disabilities. " Designed to improve the quality of

life of people with disabilities or functional limitations, assistive

technology software, these innovative accessibility technologies are

designed to help any person to achieve greater independence at home,

at work, at school, in hospitals and in normal life, " said Claudio

Giugliemma, CEO of QualiLife.

Demonstrating the use of this technology to an audience of high-level

government officials, international organizations, private sector and

civil society, Mr Albergati Diamante showed how despite severe

disabilities he could navigate through a series of computer

applications. Paralysed from the neck down, Mr Diamante has severe

mobility impairment. But with the use of only one muscle, he is able

to surf the net, write, communicate on the phone, switch between

video and radio applications, and even take some control over home

appliances.

ITU to promote ICT opportunities for persons with disabilities

Congratulating the Laureates, ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré

called for the redoubling of efforts to create an inclusive, people-

centred, development-oriented Information Society. He recalled the

words of Helen Keller: " Alone we can do so little; together we can do

so much. " Dr Touré said, " The inexorable shift towards new knowledge-

based economies is creating a wealth of possibilities for knowledge

workers, regardless of their physical capabilities or limitations.

Around the world, momentum is building for initiatives that allow

persons with disabilities to take their rightful place in society. In

2006, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities, which obliges its signatories to provide

public information in formats and technologies appropriate to

different kinds of disabilities.

As the world's pre-eminent global ICT standards organization, ITU is

embracing the challenges of accessibility through standardization

efforts underway within our 21 technical Study Groups. It is worth

noting the much of this work has long been based on the principles of

inclusion and universal design enshrined in the UN Convention. "

You can read more on ITU and accessibility at:

www.itu.int/themes/accessibility/index.html.

For more information, please see www.itu.int/wtisd/