Connecting people with
disabilities: ITU-R
ITU-R activities addressing
UN Convention on the rights
of persons with disabilities
www.itu.int/ITU-R/go/disabilities-divide
International
Telecommunication
Union
Committed to Connecting the World
ITU-R Bridging the Digital
Disability Divide (1/5)

Radio technologies are increasingly important for
sending and receiving data, text, voice and video.
Wireless devises are well placed to help people with
disabilities gain access to the information society.

ITU’s Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) plays
a central role in the development of wireless and
broadcasting technologies, through the production of
technical standards and reports, guidelines, contained
in internationally agreed Recommendations and
Handbooks.
May 2008
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Committed to Connecting the World
ITU-R Bridging the Digital
Disability Divide (2/5)
Practical examples:
Digital television broadcasting

DTTB Handbook “Digital terrestrial television
broadcasting in the VHF/UHF bands“ provides
guidance to engineers on deploying digital terrestrial
television broadcasting. It covers aspects of
captioning and closed captioning to broadcasters –
techniques that are extremely useful for people with
hearing difficulties.
May 2008
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Committed to Connecting the World
ITU-R Bridging the Digital
Disability Divide (3/5)
Beaming sound to wireless hearing aids
 Rec. ITU-R M.1076 “Wireless communication
systems for persons with impaired hearing“
notes that various ways have been used to transfer
speech signals to a listener’s hearing device.
Including infrared radiation, magnetic induction
internal to current loops, VHF radio, external
induction field of a radiating antenna.
May 2008
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Committed to Connecting the World
ITU-R Bridging the Digital
Disability Divide (4/5)
Implanted and portable devices
Electromagnetic Fields can cause radio frequency
interference to active implanted or portable medical
devices such as portable monitors, prosthetic aids for
sight and motion. Generally speaking, such medical
devices could suffer interference from radiated EMF.
 Rec. ITU-R BS.1698 ‘Evaluating fields from
terrestrial broadcasting transmitting systems
operating in any frequency band for assessing
exposure to non-ionizing radiation’ provides a
basis for the derivation and estimation of the values
of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from a
broadcasting station.
May 2008
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Committed to Connecting the World
ITU-R Bridging the Digital
Disability Divide (5/5)
ITU-R Activities for 2008 and future:
ITU-R Sector is strongly engaged in accessibility
studies through Study Groups activities.
ITU-R keeps raising the attention of Administrations
and Scientific Community to include accessibility
studies within their work programmes.
For more information please visit our web site:
www.itu.int/ITU-R/go/disabilities-divide/
ITU-R accessibility e-mail contact: brpromo@itu.int
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