Achievements and concerns of United Nations World Summit on the Information Society
------on behalf of Disability Caucus

Hiroshi Kawamura
Director,
Department of Social Rehabilitation, Research Institute,National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities

1. Achievements of the Summit
2. The role of Disability Caucus in Civil Society
3. Participation of persons with disabilities themselves
4. Ongoing regional efforts

   Appendix

1. Achievements of the Summit

The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/56/183 on 21 December 2001, according to which the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held in two phases from 10 to 12 December 2003 in Geneva and from 16 to 18 November 2005 in Tunis, under the auspices of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) being the Executive Secretariat. 11,000 delegates from 175 countries attended the first phase in Geneva, while 19,000 from 174 countries attended the second phase in Tunis. In addition to the Head of States, delegates representing governments, international organizations, business corporations and Civil Society participated in the Summit. At the end of the each Summit, Geneva Declarations of Principles and Plan of Action and Tunis Commitment (political declaration) and Tunis Agenda (working plan) were adopted. Although there were certain achievements in solution of digital divides, it was not possible to reach an agreement on the issues on administration and management of internets, which are to be discussed again in future.

I have been involved in this Summit for four years and have always been insisting that it is indispensable to solve the problem of digital divide related to disabilities and realize so called "digital opportunities" to achieve full participation and equal opportunities of persons with disabilities. At first, since there was no mention of disability issues in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were adopted by the United Nations (UN) as goals to be achieved by 2015, it was very hard to revise the intergovernmental agreement that "nothing except MDGs should be discussed." In the end, however, it was stipulated in the fundamental document that the existence of the digital divide for "persons with disabilities" and its solution should be included in the goals of action plan.

The paragraph 90 of Tunis Agenda is as follows:

"We reaffirm our commitment to providing equitable access to information and knowledge for all, recognizing the role of ICTs for economic growth and development. .....paying special attention to the formulation of universal design concepts and the use of assistive technologies that promote access for all persons, including those with disabilities. ...."

Thus, the issue on equal opportunity for persons with disabilities which had originally been excluded from the MDGs is recognized on the level of the UN Summit, and added as one of the goals to be achieved by 2015. Since during the discussions in the UN, the consistency with what has previously been agreed always has to be confirmed, the above Agenda officially agreed in the Summit must be referred to as an important key in the next step.

Another very important barometer in evaluating the Summit is participation of persons with disabilities themselves. In Tunis Summit, the WSIS Disability Caucus held the Second Global Forum for 2 days, following the First Global Forum in Geneva Summit and welcomed delegates from 6 out of 8 organizations composing International Disability Alliance (IDA).

On the other hand, UNESCO also held a seminar titled "ICT and Persons with Disabilities."

There was a great improvement both in quality and quantity in these events, which were all related with disabilities, compared with those held in Geneva in 2003. Everyday there was a big coverage on the WSIS Disability Caucus in the media in Tunis. Mr. Monthian Buntan from Thailand who had been recommended by Disability Caucus participated in the panel discussion on the comprehensive goals of the Summit in the plenary session attended mainly by delegates from governments. Besides, the "Global Forum" was selected from several hundreds of events related to the Summit as one of the 18 events which made a report at the plenary session just before the closing ceremony. Thus the issues on disabilities and the activities by persons with disabilities had finally appeared on the front stage of the WSIS in Tunis, and it is certain that they will be involved in the implementation process in future.

2. The role of Disability Caucus in Civil Society

The unique concept of Civil Society in the context of the UN is not familiar to the general public. Needless to say, the UN is composed of member states and each state party plays a leading role in the UN activities, while even the international organizations such as ITU and WHO do not have the right to vote on resolutions but can only attend as observers. However in the WSIS which was held to solve the problem of digital divide, it was obvious that just like the North-South problem, the problem of people who were excluded from access to ICT could not be solved only by the diplomats representing governments and the specialists from the UN organizations. Therefore, when adopting the MDGs, the UN suggested that they should call organizations and individuals who did not belong to governments, international organizations, or business corporations, as Civil Society and that the four of these sectors should work together. When the term "multi-stakeholder approach" is used in the UN context, it means the collaboration of all these four sectors.

The organizations belonging to Civil Society are diverse, including not only NGOs but also research organizations such as universities and academic societies as well as local governments. Although the WSIS is highly appreciated as the summit open to Civil Society more than ever before, still it is required for Civil Society to obtain accreditation through resolution by the government delegates in order to attend all the meetings including the preparatory process of the WSIS. In particular, in order to participate in the preparatory process representing Civil Society, it is necessary to carry a credential issued by the accredited organization.

Both delegates from governments and Civil Society established representative groups called "bureau" in the preparatory process for the WSIS, to consult issues on management of the conference. As for Civil Society group, first a "family group" was formed voluntarily by those who shared interest in the same theme, and then each "family group" elected its representative who attended the WSIS Civil Society bureau. When I attended the general assembly of Civil Society Group in PrepCom2 for the Geneva Summit in 2003 on behalf of DAISY Consortium, I proposed to set up a family group on disability issues which was adopted and the group with an odd name of "Family on Disabilities" was established. I was appointed as Focal Point of the group after mutual election in the family group, and DAISY Consortium became the secretariat of the group, which has not been changed until now. The role of Focal Point is to discuss the procedures with government bureau through the Civil Society bureau and to facilitate the management of the WSIS. Therefore I have been administering the mailing lists, supporting the participation of persons with disabilities in the WSIS, proposing and implementing the Summit events, keeping and publishing the records of activities.

Civil Society group of the WSIS sometimes presents its opinion by establishing a voluntary working group on policies, which is different from Civil Society bureau consulting with government bureau about procedures. One such example is the Civil Society Declaration to the WSIS. When presenting the opinion on policies, the voluntary group called Caucus which decides policies on different themes is established and the presentation is made in the name of that Caucus. According to this system, the request of "development of universal design and assistive technologies" finally included in the adopted document had been presented at the Committee as the proposal from the WSIS Disability Caucus after obtaining the right to speak officially from the Chairperson.

Although there was a certain progress in the Tunis Summit because the document on digital divide was adopted, the fact was revealed that people's awareness on disabilities was very low even within Civil Society. In some groups of Civil Society advocating political human rights, there were people who clearly disregarded the issues on persons with disabilities. Therefore, we always had to raise questions regarding this issue not only to the delegates from governments but also within Civil Society group. This situation has not yet been improved even today, though the issue on disabilities is stipulated in the official documents.

3. Participation of persons with disabilities themselves

IDA organizations sending delegates to the Tunis Summit were Disability International, Rehabilitation International, World Blind Union, World Federation of the Deaf, World Federation of the Deafblind and World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. In addition, special mention should be made that Mr. Stephen Shore, who is autistic himself, from Autism Society of America, and Ms. Hatsue Suda and Ms. Yoshiko Abe from Keyaki-no-Sato in Japan also attended and clarified the needs of people with autistic spectrum disorders.

The Japanese delegates with disabilities who attended and made presentations were Mr. Jun Ishikawa from University of Shizuoka and Mr. Kohei Yamane from Urakawa Bethel's House.

In the Tunis Global Forum, there were as many as 14 people with disabilities who made presentations on the stage. This was more than half of all the presenters including the Chairperson. The host country Secretariat of the Summit and NGOs in Tunis had specially prepared a total of six buses with lifts and the drivers stayed at the same hotel as the wheelchair users. Since there were only a few hotels accessible for the wheelchair users near the Summit venue, Disability Caucus had to use the hotel which was more than 60km away from the Summit site as a main accommodation. In addition, the site of the Summit itself was quite isolated and it was absolutely impossible to move freely between the site and the hotel. Thus the exchange with people staying at the other hotels was quite restricted. To the contrary, a strong sense of unity was fostered within Disability Caucus. The host country Secretariat organized by the Tunisian government did its best to make special arrangements such as allowing the participants with disabilities to use the entrance for VIPs and shortening the time for security check. However, some of the voluntary attendants sent by the local NGOs had difficulty in communicating in English, although they could speak French sufficiently, which means that the system did not always work effectively.

The venue of the Global Forum was well equipped with a stage and a booth for simultaneous interpreters. However, on the first day, no slope had been set because of some misunderstandings. Nevertheless, Ms. Judy Brewer of W3C/WAI put her microphone on the stage without any complaint and did her best as a moderator of the session which lasted nearly 3 hours. Afterwards, thanks to the efforts of the persons in charge, on the second day of the Forum which was also the last day of the Summit, a slope to the stage was set up and Ms. Brewer could appear in her own electric wheelchair very smartly and proudly. Besides it is reported that many wheelchair users had lots of troubles while traveling. Therefore it is essential to request and support the airline companies to handle wheelchairs more safely.

Since Mr. Shore with autism was very sensitive to flash, fever, sounds, he often had some difficulties in waiting in a small and hot meeting room until his turn for the presentation came. However, by coordinating with the supporting staff, he could successfully manage to make a presentation mainly on his own experiences related with autism, and greatly impressed the audience. Mr. Yamane with schizophrenia had not appeared to be very tired until just before leaving for Japan, but had to take a rest for a while after returning to Bethel's House.

In this way, many of the persons with disabilities themselves attended the Summit overcoming various hardships. Surprisingly, these participants say that although they had a hard time, they also enjoyed meeting with others and were much encouraged by feeling a sense of unity during the Summit.

4. Ongoing regional efforts

In June 2002, "ICT Accessibility Seminar" was held in Bangkok. It was cosponsored by the UN ESCAP Thematic Working Group on Disability Concerns (TWGDC), DAISY Consortium, W3C, Thai Government and Thai DAISY Consortium. In this seminar, the declaration was adopted with a message that it is important to take an interest in ICT accessibility in the early stage of ICT development. The content of the declaration was taken over to the "Biwako Millennium Framework" in the Second Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities. The effort was reported in the Asian and Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for the WSIS held in January 2003 in Japan and its outcome has become the basis of the WSIS Disability Caucus' recommendation. At the same time, it is also reflected in a part of "International Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities" which is now under negotiation in the UN.

When actually implementing the goals agreed in the Summit on solution of digital divide and realization of digital opportunities related to disabilities, the concept of "Think Globally, Act Locally" is particularly important. The time to get together for the Summit has nearly come to an end and from now on each should make an effort to solve one's own problem by using the outcome of the Summit. In this process, the main activities should be regular exchange of ideas and experiences and cooperation on the global level.

In Asia, a considerable number of people have become victims of Tsunami, earthquakes and floods, and people are still suffering on the long way to reconstruction. When taking this fact into consideration, one of the most urgent issues is working for persons with disabilities to ensure their safety in times of natural disasters. As a follow-up to the special session on disaster preparedness in the Tunis Global Forum, ITU, UNESCO, WHO and ESCAP are now developing an early warning system. In addition, disaster preparedness for persons with disabilities and the elderly is being discussed in some Asian countries. The urgent collaboration of both efforts is expected, since it will lead to the prevention of further digital divide as well as to the establishment of security system for all the local residents including persons with disabilities in disaster preparedness, which is our chief concern at the moment.

Furthermore, it is essential that the outcomes of the WSIS should be effectively taken over to the "Decade of Persons with Disabilities" which is under way in each of Asian, African and Arabic regions, and the plan of action should be prepared toward the mid-term summary of the WSIS Action Plan in 2010 and the last year of "the Decade" in 2015.

Almost all the records of activities by the WSIS Disability Caucus and the major official documents of the WSIS are available on the home page of the WSIS in the website of Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (http://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/japanese/prompt/wsisindex.html).

Appendix

Tunis Declaration on Information Society for Persons with Disabilities, November 18, 2005

Recalling the historic success of the first Global Forum on Disability and the over all first phase of WSIS; Being encouraged and moved by the spirit of the Geneva Declaration on Inclusive Information Society, WSIS Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action;

Noting, however, with great concern the difficulty of transforming words on paper into real actions/implementation, given the fact that the concept of "inclusiveness" in general often leaves disability aspects out, causing persons with disabilities to be excluded, marginalized, forgotten and left behind;

Having high hope and confidence in the ultimate power of the united force, among persons with disabilities, our representative organizations our friends and our empathetic allies of all sectors around the world, to work for the true inclusive information society,

Therefore, we, participants of the Second Global Forum on Disability, held during the second phase of WSIS, on the 18th day of November 2005, in the City of Tunis, Republic of Tunisia:

1. Call upon all governments, private sectors, civil society and international organizations to make the implementation, evaluation and monitoring of all WSIS documents, both from the first and second phase, inclusive to persons with disabilities;
2. Strongly urge that persons with disabilities and our needs be included in all aspects of designing, developing, distributing and deploying of appropriation strategies of information and communication technologies, including information and communication services, so as to ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities, taking into account the universal design principle and the use of assistive technologies;
3. Strongly request that any international, regional and national development program, funding or assistance, aimed to achieve the inclusive information society be made disability-inclusive, both through mainstreaming and disability-specific approaches;
4. Urge all governments to support the process of negotiation, adoption, ratification and implementation of the International convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, in particular through enactment of national legislation, as it contains strong elements concerning information and communication accessibility for persons with disabilities.

Rehabilitation Kenkyu No.126 Mar. 2006
published by Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with disabilities