Digital inclusion of people with specific needs

Digital inclusion of people with specific needs

Barriers faced by people with specific needs can be removed through effective laws, policies, national broadband plans, regulations and business practices as well as through ICT training and development strategies, which take into account the specific needs of women, girls, Indigenous Peoples and persons with disabilities to ensure an inclusive Information Society.

Results achieved

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  The capacity of Member States to develop and implement digital inclusion policies, strategies and guidelines to ensure telecommunication/ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities was strengthened through the following:
  

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  Over 350 ITU Members benefited from training on ICT accessibility policies and practices at the Rapporteurs Group and ITU-D Study Group Question 7/1 meetings in 2015. In addition, 161 participants were trained on the Model ICT Accessibility Policy Report at the Rapporteurs Group meeting in 2016.
  
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  Over 186 persons attending the regional event Accessible Americas II: Information and Communication for ALL, carried out in Medellin, Colombia in 2015, and 188 participants attending Accessible Americas III: Information and Communication for All, carried out in Mexico City, Mexico, in 2016 benefited from training on ICT accessibility policies in particular, on the guidelines for accessible websites to be implemented at the regional level.
  
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  Recognizing the importance of public procurement in ensuring that accessible ICTs are widely available to persons with disabilities, BDT developed an extensive set of online training materials on “Public procurement of accessible ICT products and services”, which were delivered to some 75 participants in two online training courses, one in 2015 and one in 2016 through the ITU Academy and also during Accessible Americas III: Information and Communication for ALL carried out in Mexico City, Mexico.
  
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  The Model ICT Accessibility Policy Report is now available in all 6 official ITU languages to facilitate its use by countries around the globe. It was published in Arabic, French, and Spanish and accessible English e-book versions in 2015 and in Chinese and Russian in 2016 and shared with members and disabled persons’ organizations around the world including the World Federation of the Deaf and the Pacific Disability Forum and is used both to raise awareness on the types of ICT accessibility policies that ITU Members can adopt and to build their capacity to adopt and implement such policies.
  
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  Guidance was provided in 2016 to the Organismo Supervisor de Inversión Privada en Telecomunicaciones (OSIPTEL), to promote a web accessibility policy in Peru and to Egypt in 2016 to develop a national ICT accessibility policy.
  
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  Since WTDC-14, awareness was raised among over 1500 participants around the world, on the type of ICT accessibility policies ITU members can adopt and implement to ensure telecommunication/ICT accessibility for persons was disabilities. This was achieved through meetings and workshops, such as: “Accessible Americas I” in Brazil in 2014, “Accessible Americas II” in Colombia in 2015 and “Accessible Americas III” in Mexico in 2016; the M-Enabling Summit in Washington, DC in 2014, 2015 and 2016; the 2016 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Telecommunications and Information Working Group (APEC-TEL) Seminar on “Social inclusion of people with disabilities through access to telecommunications/ICTs” , the 2016 European Foundation Forum for Inclusion; a series of EUR Regional Initiative meetings in 2015 in Barcelona, Brussels, Rome, Serbia and Slovenia organized with key European partners including the European Commission, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and EUR academic institutions; ARB and CIS Regional Initiative meetings in 2015 and 2016; a United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)/United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) meeting on disability and development for Africa in 2015, a 2016 WSIS Forum session on public procurement of accessible ICTs, organized within the framework of the EUR Regional Initiative and in partnership with TSB and the ITU Regional Office for Africa in partnership with the East Africa Community (EAC) have developed a Draft Information and Communication Technology (“ICT”) Accessibility Policy for the East Africa Community countries that was adopted by the participants of the “E-accessibility Policy for East Africa Region” workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya on 6-7 October 2016.  The 40 participants from 5 EAC countries that attended the workshop recommended that once the policy is adopted, the use of Universal Services and Access Funds should be considered as one of the sources to funding and that monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for a five-year period should be developed. Since 2011, when the first International Girls in ICT Day was celebrated, over 7,200 events in 160 countries have taken place, empowering more than 240,000 girls and young women from around the world. ITU Headquarters and all ITU regional offices have organized Girls in ICT Day events. More than 66,600 girls and young women from 133 countries took part in the 1,800 celebrations of International Girls in ICT Day 2015. In 2016, more than 66,000 girls from 138 countries participated in over 1,900 events. This includes events held in 28 countries in the AFR region, 33 in the AMS region, 18 in the ARB States, 19 in the ASP region, 5 in the CIS and 35 in EUR. The ITU Girls in ICT Portal received 383,552 page views in 2016, an increase from 337,936 page views in 2015. In 2016 the #GirlsinICT hashtag reached 54.3 million Twitter accounts.
  
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  The capacity of members in using telecommunications/ICTs for the social and economic development of people with specific needs, including telecommunication/ICT programmes to promote youth employment and entrepreneurship was improved through:
  
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    The publication of research and guidelines in the ITU report, “Digital Opportunities: Innovative ICT Solutions for Youth Employment” that was provided to all ITU members.
    
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    The publication of a report on “Coding bootcamps: a strategy for youth employment” that was provided to all ITU members.
    
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    The Coding bootcamp reported was also provided as a contribution from ITU to the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth (GIDJ4Y), a coalition of some 20 UN agencies created to address the global youth unemployment crisis. ITU committed to lead the digital skills and tech hubs thematic area of the GIDJ4Y.
    
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    Two courses to support ITU members to launch coding bootcamps in their countries, in order to promote youth employment and ensure that graduates of university computer science programmes develop job-ready skills, were developed and delivered to some 50 participants from over 20 State Universities and Colleges in the Philippines in October 2016. The training, provided by a successful Australian coding bootcamp, was hosted by the Lyceum University of the Philippines and organized by ITU in partnership with Member State Administration DICT of the Philippines.
    
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    Creating and making available to all ITU members, young job seekers and entrepreneurs an online database of ICT-enabled resources. This database includes links to training opportunities, crowd funding for start-up capital, mentoring networks and job-matching services to enable members and youth to leverage digital opportunities to enhance their employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. See http://www.itu.int/net4/ITU-D/CDS/sis/Youth/Resources/index.asp.
    
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  Awareness was raised and best practices shared among ITU members through the weekly publication of innovative digital inclusion practices and strategies on the ITU-D Digital Inclusion news log at: http://digitalinclusionnewslog.itu.int/ . The Digital Inclusion newslog highlights the latest digital inclusion practices and strategies such as digital literacy, coding training, initiatives to encourage more girls and women to take up ICT studies and careers and ICT accessibility practices for persons with disabilities.
  
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  Direct assistance has been provided to African countries in the organization of Girls in ICT Day celebrations in 2015 and 2016 in addition to the organization of an African regional competition and conference.