TABLE OF CONTENT
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the important driving forces for modern development. With the advancement of Information and Communication Technology, one can live in the global village irrespective of distance, national and international boundaries. The term Information and Communication Technology (ICT) springs from the convergence of telecommunication, computing and broadcasting through the use of digital information. It covers any products that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit and receive information electronically in a digital form.
Information and Communication Technology comprehends technologies that can process different kinds of information i.e. voice, video, text, data and facilitates different forms of communications among humans and among information systems. The telecommunication infrastructure plays an important role to boost the development of a country in this information society. The advent of ICT brings all the citizen of this planet close together and has a quicker access to all the information and benefits that the world may have.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) encompasses the broad fields of information and communications by means of computer and telecommunication tools are being increasingly used for organizational/personal information processing in all sectors of economy and the society as a whole.
Persons with disabilities are the inevitable part of the society and more than 10 percent of our total population comprised of them. The total population of Bangladesh at present is more than 130 million and the number of disabled persons is assumed not less than 13 million. This big number of population has been still considered as a burden and liability of the family as well as of the community. If we cannot integrate these large number disabled persons into the mainstream development of the nation our national development would be belated. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the most important and vital field intervention through which the disabled persons could be successfully integrated into different faculties of development. As such ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities would immensely benefit the disabled persons and the community in return.
In order to keeping up with pace Bangladesh has to prepare itself to compete effectively in the global ICT market. As the demand for skilled manpower in ICT is growing worldwide, the country needs to produce a large number of ICT professionals. As such, a widespread introduction and facilities of ICT education in public and private educational institutions is a prerequisite for producing skilled ICT manpower.
In the governmental sector, some initiatives have been taken for ICT education and computer aided education at all levels of education including Primary Schools. The government started encouraging the donor agencies, non-government organizations and other development partners of the country to help build the necessary capacity in this area.
Initiatives have been taken so that the Universities, Bangladesh Institutes of Technology and colleges, both in the public and private sectors be strengthened to produce ICT graduates in four-year Computer Science and/or Engineering courses.
At present there are three Science and Technology Universities in Bangladesh have been operating. The government has a plan to develop one among those in ICT by giving higher allocation of resources. The government is also in the process of introducing Diploma and Trade courses in ICT in the both public and private institutes including Polytechnics.
But the shortage of trained and qualified teachers and trainers for ICT education and training is a bottleneck to the HRD plan of the government. To address the issue, IT-Capacity-Building of the Teachers Training Institutes (TTI) including TTCs, NAPE, PTI will be taken up. To teach the teachers and trainers, intensive post-graduate diploma courses will be are in the process of introducing in TTIs.
In order to address the issue of deficiency in English and mathematics education, the government has a plan to undertake a crash programme to ensure the standard and quality of ICT education, a national certification and accreditation system shall expected to be developed and implemented by the government soon.
The private and commercial sectors have also come forward to cope up with the rapid growing opportunities of this sector and somehow supplementing some government efforts. They are providing training on ICT from very basic levels to advanced levels on computer hardware, software, maintenance, troubleshooting and programming. Many organizations have now been providing training of web design and multimedia applications.
On contrary the non-governmental development sector in Bangladesh has been keeping far apart from this issue. There are about 16000 NGOs working in Bangladesh with different development programs but we cannot mention any names of those other than Grameen Trust, BRAC and PROSHIKA. Though initially started as indigenous development organizations those three NGOs are now much familiar as profit oriented commercial agencies. However the presence of NGOs in the development of ICT is almost nil.
On the backdrop of the above situation it is very unfortunate to say that within the abovementioned facilities and services there is no room for persons with disabilities either in the government plan or in the non-governmental and private facilities. There is no minimum understanding of accessibility of disabled persons into ICT the most important development technology.
We consider the disadvantages of ICT for PWDs are very insignificant than its advantages. Still, as there are two sides of a coin there must have some advantage and disadvantages in any technology. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of most rapid expanding technology, which gives a wide range of communication opportunities and facilities with least efforts. As such, we, along with all people (disabled and non-disabled) of the society having an easy access to knowledge, resources and useful information from around the world. Nowadays a new social class has emerged, mainly amongst the young generation who find the Internet an effective tool for their career development and the globalization of their thoughts and creativity. Many Internet users have stated that a whole new world has been opened to them, they are getting a new source of knowledge, and they are also making relations with many good friends and organizations worldwide. So didn't observe any significant adverse impact on the persons and children with disabilities of this technology so far in Bangladesh. But is also true that couldn't have enough experiences of this technology in this regard. We have to wait for more few years to observe such findings.
>However two disadvantage of this technology could be mentioned on Bangladesh perspective, which are solely a socio-economic and cultural phenomenon that do not relate PWDs only.
Firstly, a group of young people, notably from the affluent section of the society, is abusing the Internet by using it mostly for entertainment, which is certainly not a healthy practice for a poor country like us. Going online is still a very costly in Bangladesh, which sometimes appears as an addiction and causes a big waste of time. But the saddest news is that Bangladesh has yet to set up an academic network to provide Internet access to the large number of university teachers, students, scientists, and researchers who play vital roles in building a better nation.
Secondly, being one of the most disadvantaged developing countries, persons with disabilities of Bangladesh mostly lack all facilities and opportunities of ICT. Usually majority disabled persons in Bangladesh do not have any access to this technology and this technology couldn't yet create any opportunities for them. Over the last few years, many nations have taken advantage of the opportunities afforded by ICT within a policy framework, laid down guidelines and proceeded with the formulation of a national ICT strategy as a part of the overall national development plan. Bangladesh intends to use ICT as the key-driving element for socio-economic development. But because of lack of facilities many innovative and revolutionary advancement of this technology do not have any use for majority-disabled persons in the country.
In order to keeping up with pace Bangladesh has to prepare itself to compete effectively in the global ICT market. As the demand for skilled manpower in ICT is growing worldwide, the country needs to produce a large number of ICT professionals. As such, a widespread introduction and facilities of ICT education in public and private educational institutions is a prerequisite for producing skilled ICT manpower.
In the governmental sector, some initiatives have been taken for ICT education and computer aided education at all levels of education including Primary Schools. The government started encouraging the donor agencies, non-government organizations and other development partners of the country to help build the necessary capacity in this area. Initiatives have been taken so that the Universities, Bangladesh Institutes of Technology and colleges, both in the public and private sectors be strengthened to produce ICT graduates in four-year Computer Science and/or Engineering courses.
At present there are three Science and Technology Universities in Bangladesh have been operating. The government has a plan to develop one among those in ICT by giving higher allocation of resources. The government is also in the process of introducing Diploma and Trade courses in ICT in the both public and private institutes including Polytechnics.
But the shortage of trained and qualified teachers and trainers for ICT education and training is a bottleneck to the HRD plan of the government. To address the issue, IT-Capacity-Building of the Teachers Training Institutes (TTI) including TTCs, NAPE, PTI will be taken up. To teach the teachers and trainers, intensive post-graduate diploma courses will be are in the process of introducing in TTIs.
In order to address the issue of deficiency in English and mathematics education, the government has a plan to undertake a crash programme to ensure the standard and quality of ICT education, a national certification and accreditation system shall expected to be developed and implemented by the government soon.
The private and commercial sectors have also come forward to cope up with the rapid growing opportunities of this sector and somehow supplementing some government efforts. They are providing training on ICT from very basic levels to advanced levels on computer hardware, software, maintenance, troubleshooting and programming. Many organizations have now been providing training of web design and multimedia applications.
On contrary the non-governmental development sector in Bangladesh has been keeping far apart from this issue. There are about 16000 NGOs working in Bangladesh with different development programs but we cannot mention any names of those other than Grameen Trust, BRAC and PROSHIKA. Though initially started as indigenous development organizations those three NGOs are now much familiar as profit oriented commercial agencies. However the presence of NGOs in the development of ICT is almost nil.
On the backdrop of the above situation it is very unfortunate to say that within the abovementioned facilities and services there is no room for persons with disabilities either in the government plan or in the non-governmental and private facilities. There is no minimum understanding of accessibility of disabled persons into ICT the most important development technology.
It is very difficult to elaborate good practices of accessible ICT for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh. As I mentioned that there are about 16000 NGOs in the country but the number of NGOs working in the field of disability is not more than 200. Among those, most organizations have no clear understanding about the development of PWDs. As such they also lack facilities for skill development of the disabled persons.
The reality is that, among those 200 existing NGOs in disability in Bangladesh about 50 have internet access and email addresses. Number of organizations those have ICT training facilities for PWDs is only 5. Those are: Bangladesh Protibandhi Kallyan Somity (BPKS), Baptist Sangha School for Blind Girls (BSSBG), Center for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), Social Assistance and Rehabilitation for Physically Vulnerable (SARPV) and Vocational Training Center for the Blind (VTCB).
There is no specific governmental support in ICT for persons with disabilities available yet. In order to protect and promote this sector the government has exempted all taxes on computer devices for the last couple of years. We are yet to have a comprehensive and effective copyright policy by the government in this regard.
Bangladesh Protibandhi Kallyan Somity (BPKS) is an organization of and by disabled persons for all. The sole approach of BPKS focuses on holistic development efforts of people with disabilities for all. BPKS aims to acquire dignity and self-respect through active participation in the mainstream development throuth developing all academic, technical and vocational skills of the disabled persons so that they can participate and contribute fully in society.
BPKS realized that Information and Communication Technology has become an important part of development nowadays. It has been playing significant roles in the advancement of modern society. But, Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), especially within the region of Asia and Pacific are still not able to have full access to it. While several records of achievement have helped improve the quality of life for many PWDs in other parts of the world, such as Europe and North America, AP region, where the majority of disabled people live, is absolutely lacking behind in this area. Despite the fact that the Asia-Pacific Decade for Disabled Persons brought many signs of progress in several key areas, the matter of ICT Accessibility for PWD has either been ignored or given the least priority.
Therefore, taken this issue with due importance and have taken some initiatives to develop optimum ICT skills among the PWDs in Bangladesh. In connection of such initiative BPKS Chief of Program Development actively participated in the Seminar on ICT Accessibility for Persons With Disabilities held at UN ESCAP on June 20-22, 2002. He contributed to adoption of specific recommendations for further development and implementation of legislations/policies concerning ICT accessibility for PWD in this region.
In July 2002 BPKS initiated an Accessible ICT Unit at BPKS Complex for providing Basic Training of ICT Applications and other office communication tools/materials for PWDs with accessible facilities and accommodation. This is the first such full time residential training course in Bangladesh for persons with disabilities. This ICT Unit unveiled immense opportunities for all categories of disabled persons in the country.
At present BPKS provides three month long ICT training for PWDs through this Unit. Twelve participants with different types of disabilities are accommodated in each batch. By these time three batches have successfully completed this training course. Participants of this training course were selected from the members of ten grassroots organizations of the disabled persons (DPOs) and from outside. The training is fully free of cost with free accommodation and meal.
Full accessible accommodation, toilet and classroom facilities have been ensured in this unit. This training provides the participants immense opportunities of practice and exercise in a well-equipped ICT lab.
Content of the training includes Introduction to Computers and other devices, Introduction to Operating Systems (OS), Micro soft Word, Micro soft Excel, Micro soft Access, Micro soft Power Point, Photo Editing, Adaptation and accessibility options for PWDs, E-mail and Internet etc.
After participation on the Regional Workshop on Web-based Networking my goal and personal commitment will involve the promotion of ICT accessibility for Persons with Disabilities in the country. My commitment will go for coordinating, collaborating and making correspondences to National & International disabled peoples' organizations to utilize the resources for enhancing and development of disabled people.
As I have been closely associated with BPKS effforts, I intend to fulfill and implement the objectives of Web-based Networking vision and mission through BPKS programs. So, my commitment and determination is that I will undertake the all-possible responsibilities to achieve my vision an mission for establishment of equal opportunities, equal rights and equal participation of the disabled people from grassroots to national level.
I strongly believe that achieved knowledge and expertise from this training would benefit me, my organization BPKS and the PWDs of Bangladesh.