BIWAKO MILLENNIUM FRAMEWORK

Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-Free and
Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities

in

Asia and the Pacific
Access to ICT and Web-Based Networking
UN ESCAP

Preamble

Beijing, 1992
Launch of Agenda for Action, Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002

Resolution 58/4 (May 2002)
Promoting an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based society for people with disabilities in the Asian and Pacific region in the twenty-first century (2003 – 2012)

Paradigm shift
From charity-based approach to inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based

Seven priority areas for action

1. Self-help organizations of persons with disabilities and related family and parent associations;
2. Women with disabilities;
3. Early detection, early intervention and education;
4. Training and employment;
5. Access to built environments and public transport;
6. Access to information and communications, including;
7. Poverty alleviation.

Access to information and communications, including information, communication and assistive technologies

Critical issues:

– Digital divide

– Information and communication are basic rights

Targets:

– By 2005 – equal access to Internet

– By 2004 – int’l ICT standards & accessibility

– By 2005 – national ICT standards & accessibility

Actions required:

• Govt. laws, policies and programmes
• Accessibility units, awareness raising, capacity building, incentives, participation
• Consumer networks
• Universal, open, non-proprietary standards
• Standard character encoding and modelling
• Donor agencies include ICT accessibility in award criteria
• Establish a regional working group to develop ICT standards

Information and communication technology (ICT) is now regarded as indispensable for public, business, and personal productivity and improvement of livelihoods. In the last several years, there has been much progress in the world in ICT development, which has opened up many opportunities for people with disabilities especially in matters of networking, solidarity, employment and independent living.

Assistive computer technology and other augmentative communication products make for easy access to information and communication by people with disabilities. Technology makes things easier for people without disabilities (faster, more efficient and accurate), but it makes impossible things possible for people with disabilities (e.g. PC Braille embosser, Braille keyboard display, speech synthesizer, mouth stick, key guards, voice input, etc.)

The transformation of the Internet from a text-based medium to a multimedia environment is also causing problems for people with visual disabilities.

With a text-based medium, people with visual disabilities could use a paper-less Braille keyboard to access the Internet but the predominantly graphical web-pages that characterize current Internet traffic pose a new challenge. There are several solutions to this particular problem, such as not using PDF format, or avoiding graphic information; Options: DAISY, simple low cost solution, etc.

To full access of persons with disabilities to web-based information for self-reliance, networking and empowerment.

• Japan Electronic Accessibility Guidelines for manufacturers (adopted by MITA);
• The American with Disabilities Act of 1990 (PL-101-336) requires reasonable accommodation for workers with disabilities.

This year UNESCAP started a new venture to disseminate web-based information with a fully accessible non-graphic web-page for blind users. In addition, we distribute our documentation by CD-ROM, which is basically non-graphic and accessible for alternative output devices such as speech synthesizer or paperless Braille.

 

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