2. Results of the Replies from Governments

Twenty Governments submitted replies to the questionnaire on progress in the implementation of the BMF targets in the priority area of information and communications. The following are the responding governments².

Australia, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea (Republic of), Lao PDR, Maldives, Mongolia, New Zealand, Niue, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste, Turkey, Vanuatu

The results of the questionnaire addressed to governments were as follows.

1. Are there any surveys on ICT (information communication technology) usage by persons with disabilities in your country? (e.g. number of internet providers, mobile phone, computer users, etc.)

Yes	6	30%
No3	13	65%
No Answer	1	5%

Governments from Australia, Bhutan, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mongolia and New Zealand responded "Yes" while Pakistan said they had some information on ICT usage by persons with disabilities, although they responded "No".

1.1 If yes, what are the title, time and organizer of the surveys?

Australia	The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)'s Survey of Disability, Ageing and Careers, 2003'(Catalogue 4430), at Table 20, shows computer and internet usage by persons with a disability aged 15 and over. The ABS also put out a survey in 2004/2005, "Household Use of Information Technology' (Catalogue8146.0) which contains statistics on the use of computers and the Internet by persons with a disability.
Japan	Comprehensive Survey on Measures for Disabled Persons (The Cabinet Office,1 Nov to 16 Dec 2005)
Republic of Korea	Survey of people with disabilities every 5 years (2000,2005), Ministry of Health and Welfare
Mongolia	Mongolian cellular phone companies Mobicom, Skytel, Unitel. Since 1999
New Zealand	Household Disability Survey, conducted by Statistics New Zealand following the five-yearly census

2. Do you have any departments which are responsible for ICT for persons with disabilities?

Yes45	9	45%
No	9	45%
No Answer	2	10%

Australia, China, Hong Kong China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Thailand, and Turkey responded "Yes".

3. Does your country have any of the following ICT policies for persons with disabilities?

ICT accessibility guidelines for persons with disabilities	Yes	6	30%
ICT standards for persons with disabilities	Yes	1	5%

Others (specify)

Hong Kong, China	Policy on bridging the digital divide
Pakistan	National Policy for persons with disability 2002. An extracted information from the above policy is annexed as per appendix II.6

Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Philippines and Turkey responded that they have ICT guidelines for persons with disabilities and only Pakistan has ICT standards for persons with disabilities.

3.1 What are the titles of the guidelines/standards?

Australia	Guidelines for Commonwealth Information Published in Electronic Formats', Australian Government Information Management Office, (http://www.agimo.gov.au/information/publishing/formats). Commonwealth Disability Strategy, 'Better Information and Communication Practices'- Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (http://www.facsia.gov.au/disability/cds/pubs/icp/icp_index.htm). The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has responsibility for ensuring the accessibility of web site content under the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. HREOC has a range of guidelines and standards that represent best practice in web design and also define Australian legal requirements in relation to web accessibility (http://www.hreoc.gov.au).
Hong Kong, China	2004 Digital 21 Strategy
Korea(Republic of)	Enlargement of information education and TV caption for people with disabilities
New Zealand	For websites, government agencies follow the Web Guidelines set out by the State Services commission
Pakistan	ICT Standards
Philippines	Manila Declaration on Accessible ICT and Manila ICT Design Recommendations
Turkey	Web Accessibility Guidelines

4. Does your government support ICT development for persons with disabilities based on international standards such as the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Digital Accessible Information System Consortium (DAISY), and Web Access?

Yes78	12	60%
No	6	30%
No Answer	2	10%

Australia, Bhutan, Cambodia, Hong Kong China, Japan, New Zealand, Niue, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, and Vanuatu responded "Yes".

5. Does your government support ICT literacy training for persons with disabilities? (e.g. How to communicate with software and hardware developers to address their needs?)

Yes910	15	75%
No	3	15%
No Answer	2	10%

Australia, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Lao PDR, Mongolia, New Zealand, Niue, Pakistan, Philippines, and Thailand, responded "Yes".

6. Does your government take any measures to protect the right of persons with disabilities to information and communications? (e.g. copyright exemption, exemption of duties, subsidize the cost of assistive technology )

Yes1112	16	80%
No	3	15%
No Answer	1	5%

Australia, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Niue, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Timor leste, and Turkey responded "Yes".

In Australia, the 'Commonwealth Disability Strategy' (CDS) encourages Australian Government organizations to provide equal access for people with disabilities to all Australian Government mainstream policies, programs and services. One of the Strategy's five principles is 'Access' which states that 'people with disabilities have access to information in appropriate formats about the programs and services they use'. The Australian Government Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA) is responsible for this strategy (www.facsia.gov.au). Please refer to its details at Notes 12.

7. Does your government organize disability awareness-raising training for ICT-related peoples (ICT policy makers, representatives, and technical personnel of private ICT companies)?

Yes1314	14	70%
No	4	20%
No Answer	2	10%

Cambodia, China, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Niue, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste and Turkey responded "Yes". Australia responded "No", but they added that it is provided by NGOs.

8. Are there any standardized forms of communication in your native language?

Yes15	15	75%
No	3	15%
No Answer	2	10%

Australia, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Maldives, Mongolia, New Zealand, Niue, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vanuatu responded "Yes".

8.1 If yes, what are the standardized forms of communication?

Sign language16	11	55%
Finger Braille	10	50%
Tactile sign language	2	10%

The standardized sign language is available in Australia, Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Japan, Maldives, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand and Vanuatu the standardized finger Braille is available in Australia, China Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey: while the standardized tactile sign language is available in Japan and Thailand.

Others (specify)

Australia	Audio recordings in English
Pakistan	CD software for sign language

8.2 Does your government support and cooperate to standardize such forms of communication?

Yes17	17	85%
No	2	10%
No Answer	1	5%

Australia, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Lao PDR, Maldives, Mongolia, New Zealand, Niue, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey responded "Yes".

9. Are there any systems to train / dispatch sign language interpreters, Braille transcribers, finger Braille interpreters, or human readers?

Yes1819	15	75%
No	4	20%
No Answer	1	5%

Australia, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Maldives, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey responded "Yes".

10. Are there any networks of consumers with disabilities created to increase their power to buy ICT products and services?

Yes20	5	25%
No21	14	70%
No Answer	1	5%

Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mongolia and Thailand responded "Yes". According to the Australian government many peak industry groups (such as deafness societies) bulk purchase ICT products and sell them to their individual members (for example audio playback devices).

11. Is there any regional working group to develop standards in ICT telecommunication and broadcasting for persons with disabilities?

Yes22	7	35%
No23	11	55%
No Answer	2	10%

Australia, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Niue, Thailand and Vanuatu responded "Yes".

12. Is there any financial support system for persons with disabilities to utilize accessible computers / assistive technology equipment?

Yes2425	9	45%
No	10	50%
No Answer	1	5%

Australia, China, Hong Kong China, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, and Turkey responded "Yes".

As for the questionnaire addressed to all types of organizations, the results of the replies were as follows.

1. Do you have any information about the following items? Please check all the appropriate items.

BMF	15	75%
WSIS	5	25%
International ICT standards for persons with disabilities	5	25%

Cambodia, China, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Maldives, Mongolia, Niue, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste, Turkey, and Vanuatu have some information about BMF: Australia, China, Japan, Pakistan, and Philippines have some information about WSIS: and Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Pakistan and Philippines have some information about International ICT standards for persons with disabilities.

2. Do you think the development of environmental infrastructure for utilizing ICT is adequately carried out?

Yes	5	25%
No	13	65%
No Answer	2	10%

Australia, Hong Kong China, Japan, Republic of Korea and Pakistan responded "Yes".

2.1 If not, what are the barriers to using ICT in your country? (Please specify)

Cambodia	ICT should observe if each country reaches out more PWD in the countryside so to equally send and recruit the learners evenly for the training.
Indonesia	Not yet fully carried out. We began utilizing ICT in some offices.
Lao PDR	Funding
Mongolia
New Zealand	Knowledge of the needs and opportunities to promote this understanding, and the ability of disabled people to participate independently in society.
Niue	Limited usage and Niue's number of disabled people is very few.
Pakistan	Non-availability of Policy on ICT for PWD. Taxes (15% sale tax) and duties on ICT equipment. Non-availability of separate training institute for PWD on ICT.
Philippines	Knowledge of technology. Affordability and availability of technology. Resistance to change
Thailand	1. The education disadvantage, poverty and the lack of skill and access to ICT. 2.Decision makers, product manufacturers, distributors and related personnel in the development of ICT's infrastructure (no acknowledgement about the needs of ICT access for PWD)
Timor Leste	Because the ICT in Timor Leste has formulated for general population but not for persons with disabilities
Turkey	Because of low income status, PWD generally couldn't afford to buy additional ICT materials.
Vanuatu	Telecommunication services are expensive and network is only in urban areas, not rural.