Appendix

F. Access to information and communications, including information, communication and assistive technologies (Extract from Biwako Millennium Framework)

1 Critical issues

38. ICT has been the engine of economic growth and continues to spur the globalization process. However, the benefits of ICT development have spread unevenly between the haves and the have-nots and between developed and developing countries
39. The effects of ICT upon persons with disabilities have been both positive and negative. Many disabled persons benefit from ICT development, as the technologies are opening up opportunities for employment at all skill levels and opportunities to live independently in the community. Deaf-blind persons, with proper training, are using a refreshable Braille screen reader and persons with severe cerebral palsy are taking part in information exchange through the Internet. However, benefits are still largely limited to persons with disabilities in more developed countries. The rapid development of ICT has given rise to unanticipated problems for persons with certain disabilities. For example, online processes for registration, banking or shopping transactions may not be accessible to persons with cognitive/intellectual, physical or visual and/or auditory disabilities.
40. The majority of disabled persons in the developing countries in the Asian and Pacific region are poor and have been excluded from ICT use, although there is a great potential benefit for the use of ICT in rural areas in developing countries.
41. The Tokyo Declaration on Asia-Pacific Renaissance through ICT in the Twenty-first Century, adopted by the Asia-Pacific Summit on the Information Society, organized by the Asia-Pacific Tele-community and held at Tokyo in November 2000, declared that people in the Asian and Pacific region should have access to the Internet by the year 2005 to the extent possible. It also recognized disability as one of the causes of the digital divide, along with income, age and gender. The World Summit on the Information Society will be held at Geneva in 2003 and at Tunis in 2005. At the Summit, issues concerning persons with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups should be considered.
42. In the information society, access to information and communications is a basic human right. Copyright owners should bear responsibility for ensuring that content is accessible to all, including persons with disabilities. Any anti-piracy or digital rights management technology should not prevent persons with disabilities from access to information and communications. [2] Information and communication technology should break down the barriers in telecommunication and broadcasting systems. Developing countries need greater support in the area of ICT.
43. In many countries in Asia and the Pacific, Sign Language, Braille, finger Braille, tactile sign language, have not yet been standardized. These and other forms of communication need to be developed and disseminated. Without access to such forms of communication, persons with visual and/or hearing impairments cannot benefit from ICT developments. More importantly, they maybe deprived of the basic human right to language and communication in their everyday lives.

2 Targets

Target 16

By 2005, persons with disabilities should have at least the same rate of access to the Internet and related services as the rest of citizens in a country of the region.

Target 17

International organizations (e.g., International Telecommunication Union, International Organization for Standardization, World Trade Organization, World Wide Web Consortium, Motion Picture Engineering Group) responsible for international ICT standards should, by 2004, incorporate accessibility standards for persons with disabilities in their international ICT standards.

Target 18

Governments should adopt, by 2005, ICT accessibility guidelines for persons with disabilities in their national ICT policies and specifically include persons with disabilities as their target beneficiary group with appropriate measures.

Target 19

Governments should develop and coordinate a standardized sign language, finger Braille, tactile sign language, in each country and to disseminate and teach the results through all means, i.e. publications, CD-ROMs, etc.

Target 20

Governments should establish a system in each country to train and dispatch sign language interpreters, Braille transcribers, finger Braille interpreters, and human readers and to encourage their employment.

3 Action required to achieve targets

1. Governments should promulgate and enforce laws, policies and programmes to monitor and protect the right of persons with disabilities to information and communication; for instance, legislation providing copyright exemptions to organizations which make information content accessible to persons with disabilities, under certain conditions. Governments, in collaboration with other concerned agencies and civil society organizations, should:
2. Set up an ICT accessibility unit within the ICT ministry/regulatory agency, and encourage private companies to establish an equivalent unit to coordinate activities within and outside agencies/companies.
3. Conduct and encourage awareness-raising training for ICT policy makers, regulatory agencies, representatives as well as technical personnel of private ICT companies to raise understanding of disability issues, including disabled persons' ICT accessibility needs, their capability and aspiration to be productive members of society.
4. Support computer literacy training and capacity-building for persons with disabilities, through training on how to communicate with software and hardware developers and standards organizations to address their needs.
5. Provide various forms of incentives, including exemption of duties for ICT devices used by persons with disabilities and subsidize the cost of assistive technology equipment to ensure that they are affordable for persons with disabilities in need.
6. Support the creation and strengthening of networks, including cooperatives, of consumers with disabilities at the national, regional and international levels in order to increase the bargaining and buying power for ICT products and services, which are generally expensive to buy individually.
7. Take all necessary steps to ensure, in the development of measures and standards relating to ICT accessibility, that organizations of persons with disabilities are involved in all stages of the process.
8. Adopt and support ICT development based on international standards which are universal/open/non-proprietary to ensure the long-term commitment to ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities among all sectors, with special attention to standards that have accessibility components and features with a proven record of effectiveness. Examples of these are the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium and the Digital Accessible Information System Consortium.
9. Require that local language applications and content use national/international standard character encoding and modeling, such as the Unified Modeling Language, and encourage dialogue on accessibility requirements of character encoding and modeling.
10. Support participation of civil society organizations representing and reflecting the requirements of persons with disabilities in discussions on regional and international standards towards a goal of increased harmonization of international standards supporting the requirements of persons with disabilities. Where such international standards are lacking, Governments should support alternative initiatives to address those needs, with attention to compatibility and interoperability with international standards.
11. Bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and international funding agencies should adopt award criteria based on the social responsibility of the receiving agencies/organizations, including their obligation to promote ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities.
12. Support and establish a regional working group to develop standards in ICT, telecommunication and broadcasting to ensure that new and existing technologies are based on disability inclusive standards and are developed on a universal design concept. In addition to ICT, measures to ensure communication of persons with disabilities, including development of standardized Sign Language and Braille, need to be established.

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Accessibility

Article 9

1. To enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas. These measures, which shall include the identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers to accessibility, shall apply to, inter alia:
   1. Buildings, roads, transportation and other indoor and outdoor facilities, including schools, housing, medical facilities and workplaces;
   2. Information, communications and other services, including electronic services and emergency services.
2. States Parties shall also take appropriate measures to:
   1. Develop, promulgate and monitor the implementation of minimum standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services open or provided to the public;
   2. Ensure that private entities that offer facilities and services which are open or provided to the public take into account all aspects of accessibility for persons with disabilities;
   3. Provide training for stakeholders on accessibility issues facing persons with disabilities;
   4. Provide in buildings and other facilities open to the public signage in Braille and in easy to read and understand forms;
   5. Provide forms of live assistance and intermediaries, including guides, readers and professional sign language interpreters, to facilitate accessibility to buildings and other facilities open to the public;
   6. Promote other appropriate forms of assistance and support to persons with disabilities to ensure their access to information;
   7. Promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems, including the Internet;
   8. Promote the design, development, production and distribution of accessible information and communications technologies and systems at an early stage, so that these technologies and systems become accessible at minimum cost.

Article 21

Freedom of expression and opinion, and access to information
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities can exercise the right to freedom of expression and opinion, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas on an equal basis with others and through all forms of communication of their choice, as defined in article 2 of the present Convention, including by:

1. Providing information intended for the general public to persons with disabilities in accessible formats and technologies appropriate to different kinds of disabilities in a timely manner and without additional cost;
2. Accepting and facilitating the use of sign languages, Braille, augmentative and alternative communication, and all other accessible means, modes and formats of communication of their choice by persons with disabilities in official interactions;
3. Urging private entities that provide services to the general public, including through the Internet, to provide information and services in accessible and usable formats for persons with disabilities;
4. Encouraging the mass media, including providers of information through the Internet, to make their services accessible to persons with disabilities;
5. Recognizing and promoting the use of sign languages.

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

Adopted in the Second Global Forum on Disability during the WSIS in Tunis

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.

Disability related texts in the WSIS official documents

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is held in two phases. The first phase of WSIS took place in Geneva hosted by the Government of Switzerland from 10 to 12 December 2003, where 175 countries adopted a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. The second phase took place in Tunis hosted by the Government of Tunisia, from 16 to 18 November 2005, where 174 countries adopted the Tunis Commitment and the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society. Disability related texts in the above documents are described below.

Declaration of principles:

13. In building the Information Society, we shall pay particular attention to the special needs of marginalized and vulnerable groups of society, including migrants, internally displaced persons and refugees, unemployed and under-privileged people, minorities and nomadic people. We shall also recognize the special needs of older persons and persons with disabilities".
25. The sharing and strengthening of global knowledge for development can be enhanced by removing barriers to equitable access to information for economic, social, political, health, cultural, educational, and scientific activities and by facilitating access to public domain information, including by universal design and the use of assistive technologies".
30. The use of ICTs in all stages of education, training and human resource development should be promoted, taking into account the special needs of persons with disabilities and disadvantaged and vulnerable groups".
53. The creation, dissemination and preservation of content in diverse languages and formats must be accorded high priority in building an inclusive Information Society, paying particular attention to the diversity of supply of creative work and due recognition of the rights of authors and artists. It is essential to promote the production of and accessibility to all content-educational, scientific, cultural or recreational-in diverse languages and formats. The development of local content suited to domestic or regional needs will encourage social and economic development and will stimulate participation of all stakeholders, including people living in rural, remote and marginal areas".

Plan of Action:

9. 5. In the context of national e-strategies, address the special requirements of older people, persons with disabilities, children, especially marginalized children and other disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, including by appropriate educational administrative and legislative measures to ensure their full inclusion in the Information Society.
   6. Encourage the design and production of ICT equipment and services so that everyone, has easy and affordable access to them including older people, persons with disabilities, children, especially marginalized children, and other disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, and promote the development of technologies, applications, and content suited to their needs, guided by the Universal Design principle and further enhanced by the use of assistive technologies".
10. 3. Promote research and development to facilitate accessibility of ICTs for all, including disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable groups".
19. 3. Promote teleworking to allow citizens, particularly in the developing countries, LDCs, and small economies, to live in their societies and work anywhere, and to increase employment opportunities for women, and for those with disabilities. In promoting teleworking, special attention should be given to strategies promoting job creation and the retention of the skilled working force".
23. 9. Nurture the local capacity for the creation and distribution of software in local languages, as well as content that is relevant to different segments of population, including non-literate, persons with disabilities, disadvantaged and vulnerable groups especially in developing countries and countries with economies in transition".
28. 5. Develop and launch a website on best practices and success stories, based on a compilation of contributions from all stakeholders, in a concise, accessible and compelling format, following the internationally-recognised web accessibility standards. The website could be periodically updated and turned into a permanent experience-sharing exercise".

Tunis Commitments

18. We shall strive unremittingly, therefore, to promote universal, ubiquitous, equitable and affordable access to ICTs, including universal design and assistive technologies, for all people, especially those with disabilities, everywhere, to ensure that the benefits are more evenly distributed between and within societies, and to bridge the digital divide in order to create digital opportunities for all and benefit from the potential offered by ICTs for development.
20. To that end, we shall pay particular attention to the special needs of marginalised and vulnerable groups of society including migrants, internally displaced persons and refugees, unemployed and underprivileged people, minorities and nomadic people, older persons and persons with disabilities.

Tunis Agenda

90. We reaffirm our commitment to providing equitable access to information and knowledge for all, recognising the role of ICTs for economic growth and development. We are committed to working towards achieving the indicative targets, set out in the Geneva Plan of Action, that serve as global references for improving connectivity and universal, ubiquitous, equitable, non-discriminatory and affordable access to, and use of ICTs, considering different national circumstances, to be achieved by 2015, and to using ICTs, as a tool to achieve the internationally-agreed development goals and objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals, by:

3. building ICT capacity for all and confidence in the use of ICTs by all -- including youth, older persons, women, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and remote and rural communities -- through the improvement and delivery of relevant education and training programmes and systems including lifelong and distance learning;
5. 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;