ITU Workshop on Accessibility/Atelier UIT sur l’accessibilité
Bamako, Mali 13 – 15 October 2009
The Internet Governance Forum
and the Dynamic Coalition on
Accessibility and Disability:
introduction and overview
Alexandra Gaspari
Accessibility Coordinator ITU-T/TSB
International Telecommunication Union
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
What is the Internet
Governance Forum - IGF
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a relatively new
forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue the Internet
Governance Forum (IGF).
Its purpose is to support the United Nations Secretary-General
in carrying out the mandate from the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS)
The mandate of the forum is:
To discuss public policy issues related to key elements of
Internet governance in order to foster the sustainability,
robustness, security, stability and development of the
Internet;
To facilitate the dialogue between bodies dealing with different
cross-cutting international public policies regarding the
Internet and discuss issues that do not fall within the scope of
any existing body;
The IGF website www.intgovforum.org provides an interactive,
collaborative space where all stakeholders can air their views
and exchange ideas.
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
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What is the mandate of the Internet
Governance Forum
The mandate of the IGF is to be of a
discussion forum for facilitating dialogue
between the participants.
The IGF may "identify emerging issues,
bring them to the attention of the
relevant bodies and the general public,
and, where appropriate, make
recommendations"
IGF does not have any direct decisionmaking authority.
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
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What are the Dynamic Coalitions
At the inaugural Meeting of the IGF in Athens, in 2006,
the dynamic coalitions are established. These coalitions
are informal and address specific issues. They consist of
groups of stakeholders that are interested in a particular
area, like for instance, accessibility.
Most coalitions allow participation of anyone interested
in contributing. Thus, these groups gather not only
academics and representatives of governments, but also
members of the civil society interested in participating
on the debates and engaged in the coalition's works.
The one we would like to present to you today is the
Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability –
DCAD.
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
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What is the Dynamic Coalition on
Accessibility and Disability - DCAD
The DCAD is one of the most active and
prolific dynamic coalitions in the IGF.
The DCAD produced a after the Rio in 2007 a
report to improve accessibility for persons
with Disabilities to IGF meetings
In the following year, the DCAD submitted to
the IGF its Declaration on Accessibility and
Disability. The next three slides give an
overview of the declaration:
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
5
The DCAD Hyderabad Declaration
1/3
Extracts from the “ 06 Dec. 2008, 3rd IGF Meeting,
Hyderabad, India Hyderabad Declaration on IGF Accessibility
for Persons with Disabilities - Proposed by the Dynamic
Coalition on Accessibility and Disability (DCAD)”:
(…) Urge all governments to support the process of
adoption, ratification and implementation of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities, in particular the enactment of national
legislation, as it contains strong elements concerning
information and communication accessibility for persons with
disabilities;
Strongly request that any international, regional and
national IGF-related development program, funding or
assistance, aimed to achieve the inclusive information
society be made disability-inclusive, both through
mainstreaming and disability-specific approaches;
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
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The DCAD Hyderabad Declaration
2/3
(…) Strongly urge that the needs of persons with disabilities 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;
Strongly urge that basic building blocks of assistive technologies,
such as Text to Speech and Speech to Text software, Interactive
Voice Command, Real time text solutions, Optical Character
Recognition software and language rule tables for Braille
transcription, are developed with high priority for all languages of all
countries and licensed under an open source license, and open
standards for structured access to oral and visual knowledge to
enable development of various assistive technologies, such as
screen reading software, text reading systems, talking mobile
phones, talking ATMs, and real time text alternative communications
that depend on these basic building blocks;
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
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The DCAD Hyderabad Declaration
3/3
(…) Urge all governments to design ICT procurement and
intellectual property policies in a way that promotes the adoption of
vendor-neutral solutions, the acquisition of technologies that comply
with open standards, and in general implement policies that enable
and promote the availability of affordable assistive technologies,
including open source software;
Call upon all governments and participants to promote the active
and equal involvement of persons with disabilities in all IGF projects,
initiatives, and delegations and to make the implementation,
evaluation and monitoring of IGF documents and communications to
be inclusive of persons with disabilities since this action is
paramount for achieving an inclusive society;
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
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The impact of the DCAD in IGF
The DCAD present and past projects are developed by the
members throughout the entire year via live remote and
web accessible captioned conference calls.
Captioning like the ones arranged today here in Bamako,
allow the participation from all over the world including
persons with disabilities.
The DCAD is also a democratic process that enables the
members to not only communicate the needs but solutions
as well to improve accessibility for persons with disabilities
to IGF as whole at the annual meeting.
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
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The role of ITU-T in the DCAD
The ITU-T initiated and sponsors the Dynamic
Coalition on Accessibility and Disability (DCAD)
by providing a website, secretariat support
and a coordinator, so that persons with
disabilities can actively and directly participate
in IGF activities.
The key person in ITU-T that has sponsored
the DCAD and provided the support to the
DCAD is the Director for the Standardization
Bureau, Mr. Malcolm Johnson.
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
10
Who are the key actors of the DCAD
DCAD members (representatives
from all over the world active in the
field of accessibility and Information
and Communication Technologies –
ICTs)
Andrea J Saks, Coordinator of the
IGF Dynamic Coalition of Accessibility
and Disability
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
11
Next DCAD Meeting and workshops
The IGF Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility
and Disability (DCAD) will meet face to face in
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on the 16 November
2009.
This year DCAD will present the MESSAGE in
the Accessibility and Diversity main session on
Accessibility and Disability.
In Egypt, the DCAD will organize:
a supersession workshop on
Global Internet access for persons with
disabilities and
Best Practice Forum on Web Accessibility
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
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Conclusions
The DCAD has taken its advisory role very
seriously and has been gratified to see its
suggestions and presence taken serious by the
IGF management team as well the by the host
countries.
It’s has had a real impact and has uplifted the
awareness of IGF members that Accessibility
for persons with Disability is achievable and
most desirable.
There is still much work to be done. This is an
opportunity for everyone to come
and participate in the workings of this
Coalition. DCAD welcomes new members to
join us in this important work.
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
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Thank you for your attention!
Questions?
http://www.itu.int/themes/accessibility/dc/
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/dynamiccoalitions
E-mail: alexandra.gaspari@itu.int
E-mail: dcadsecretariat@itu.int
Tel:
+41 22 730 5158
ITU Workshop on Accessibility
Bamako, Mali, 13 – 15 October 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
14