International Telecommunication Union Workshop
“Accessibility to ICTs”,
Shanghai, China, 23 July 2010
Empowering PWDs through ICT
in the Philippines
Grace Martha T. Amberong,
Assistant Director,
Consulting & Services Office
National Computer Center, CICT
ITU Workshop on Accessibility to ICTs, 23 July 2010, Shanghai, China
International
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The Philippines
Philippines
ITU Workshop on Accessibility to ICTs, 23 July 2010, Shanghai, China
Located in Southeast
Asia, between mainland
Asia and Australia
7,107 islands, one of
the largest archipelagos
in the world
3 major island groups LUZON, VISAYAS and
MINDANAO
Divided into 17 regions,
79 provinces, 15 cities
& 1,500 municipalities
Total area is 300,000
sq km (about 115,831
sq mi)
Population is 87.85 ++
Million (2005 survey)
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Profile of PWDs in the Philippines
Source:http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DISABILITY/.../JICA_Philippine.pdf
942,098 PWDs – 2000 (1.23 % out of 76,504,077)
919,292 PWDs – 1995 (1.33 % out of 68,616,536)
637,000 PWDs – 1990 (1.04 % out of 60,703,206)
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RP Policies and Laws on PWDs
Accessibility Law (BP)
Act to enhance the mobility of disabled
persons by requiring certain buildings,
institutions, establishments and public utilities
to install facilities and other devices
Magna Carta for Disabled Persons of 1992
(RA 7277)
Act providing for the rehabilitation, selfdevelopment and self-reliance of disabled
persons and their integration into the
mainstream of society
ITU Workshop on Accessibility to ICTs, 23 July 2010, Shanghai, China
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RP Policies and Laws on PWDs
White Cane Act of 1989 (RA 6759)
Act declaring August 1 of each year as white
cane safety day in the Philippines and for other
purposes
Proclamation No. 125 of 1003
Giving mandate to the National Council for the
Welfare of Disabled Persons to coordinate
activities and to monitor the observance of the
Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons
(1993–2002) in the Philippines
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International Treatises and
Commitments
INTERNATIONAL TREATISES & CONVENTIONS
United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTS & COMMITMENTS
Biwako Millennium Framework
Biwako Plus Five
Manila Accessible Information and Communications
Technologies (ICT) Design Recommendations
Manila Declaration on Accessible Information and
Communications Technology (ICT)
United Nations Millenium Development Goals (UN MDG)
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Interregional ICT Seminar
May 2003 the Philippines hosted the
Interregional Seminar and Regional
Demonstration Workshop on Accessible
ICTs to Persons with Disabilities
11 countries from Asia - Pacific were
represented
Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia,
Canada, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic
Republic, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines,
Thailand, Vietnam, and United States of
America
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Interregional ICT Seminar
Philippines’ concrete
contributions to the
Biwako Millennium
Framework and the UN
Convention on the
Rights of PWDs
“Manila Declaration on
Accessible ICT”
focuses on digital divide and the
human capacities divide
“Manila Accessible
ICT Design
Recommendations”
deals with universal concept of
flexibility to accommodate those
who run low bandwidth settings,
those who use cell phones to
synthesize text and those who
access the Internet via
alternative devices
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Accessible ICT Initiatives
Conduct Workshops
on Accessible ICTs
for PWDs
Luzon
Former
CICT Chair
Mindanao
Visayas
ITU Workshop on Accessibility to ICTs, 23 July 2010, Shanghai, China
Introduced Web
Accessibility to
Webmasters and
Advocates
Conducted in 3
major islands (Luzon
Visayas and
Mindanao)
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Accessible ICT Initiatives
Conduct Webmasters’
Interface
Brought together the
country's webmasters,
policy-makers, disability
advocates and ICT
practitioners to forge a
vision for accessible web
content
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Accessible ICT Initiatives
Institutionalized Accessible ICT for PWDs
NCC MC No. 2003 – 01 (Issued July 2003)
Guidelines on Compliance to e-Commerce Act and Stage 2 and 3
of the UN ASPA 5 Stages of e-Government
Section 3 Website Features for Stage 3 to include:
Website accessibility for people with disabilities by providing text-only website
version, alternatives to auditory and visual content
MOA between NCWDP/NCDA and CICT-NCC
National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA), government agency
mandated to formulate policies and coordinate the activities of all
agencies, concerning disability issues and concerns. NCDA is the
lead agency tasked to steer the course of program development
for persons with disabilities and the delivery of services to the
sector.
National Computer Center (NCC), the lead agency of the
government for promoting the strategic use of ICT in the
government, the NCC is committed to invigorate knowledge
sharing and to play a pro-active role in the development and
diffusion of IT in the government.
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Accessible ICT Initiatives
Disabled-friendly Website Awards
Developed and adopted monitoring evaluation guidelines
for web accessibility compliance
House of Representatives (www.congress.gov.ph) developer participant in the regional accessibility workshop
Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and
Empowerment of Visually Impaired (www.atriev.org.ph) Ms. Lourdes Borgonia, a blind person, as the web designer
Manila Christian Computer Institute for the Deaf
(www.mccid.edu.ph) - Mr. Remberto I. Esposa Jr. as the
web designer, participant in the regional accessibility
workshop.
De La Salle University (www.dlsu.edu.ph) - Mr. Lemuel
Cabia as part of its web development team participated
reguonal workshop
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Accessible ICT Initiatives
Development of Standards and Training
Materials
July 2007 - "Web Accessibility Guide for
Filipinos" book officially published and
copyrighted which contains definition of web
accessibility, types of assistive devices
available, laws affecting disability in the
Philippines, statistics of Filipino PWDs and
Filipino Internet user statistics
NCDA distributed Instructional Sign Language
Videos on CDs, “out of the box” strategy to
push for accessible communication
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Accessible ICT Initiatives
NCC developed and launched the
PWD-friendly Website Template with
Content Management System during
the Webmasters Interface (2006)
ITU Workshop on Accessibility to ICTs, 23 July 2010, Shanghai, China
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Accessible ICT Initiatives
Forged local and overseas partners to
strengthen advocacy and cost-sharing
DSWD – technical and logistics support
APCD – advocacy in APR, scholarships
VOSS – exposure through Webenabled.com
CICT-NCC- inputs to WSIS
Resources for the Blind – technical support
NOVA Foundation
Created thru NOVA Foundation and other
partners more than 300 IT-related jobs for
PWDs on data conversion, medical
transcription, call centers, etc.
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Accessible ICT Initiatives
Created a dynamic hub of
Webmaster-Advocates to
upscale social and
economic impact of
accessible ICT
June 2006 - Discussion on the
forming of the “Association of
Accessible Web Designers”
July 2006 - NCWDP board
approved recommendation to form
a core group of webmasters to
implement consensus made during
the webmasters workshops
August 2006 - First meeting of
the core group. It was named
Philippine Web Accessibility Group
(PWAG).
October 2006 - The official
www.pwag.org web site was
launched
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Private Sector Initiatives
Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation,
Integration & Empowerment of Visually
Impaired - http://www.atriev.org.ph
A non-profit organization that facilitates access
by visually impaired persons to post-secondary
education, mainstream employment, and
similar opportunities through the use of
adaptive technology.
Core project is information technology-related
training which revolves around computer
training for the visually impaired.
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Private Sector Initiatives
Resources for the Blind - http://www.blind.org.ph
Non-government Christian organization serving blind
people all over the Philippines since 1988
Implements 2 programs to help make computer training
available to blind high school students.
Computer Resource Center for the Blind in every high
school in the country where blind students are enrolled.
The schools are provided with two computers, the special
software, and a braille printer.
"Computer-Eyes", an annual National Computer Camp for
Blind Students. IBM Philippines provides the use of their
state-of-the-art computer lab for the training on word
processing skills, set up email accounts, explore the
internet, and create personal web pages.
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Private Sector Initiatives
Philippines DAISY Network – NCC
Collaboration
DAISY (Digital Accessible Information
System), an open international standard
for accessible
Philippine Seminar on DAISY (Sep 2007)
Training for the Trainers on DAISY (Feb
2008)
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Private Sector Initiatives
Nova Foundation for Differently-abled
Persons, Inc - http://novafoundation.ph
ICT Training Center For The Differently Abled
Establish a training center in ICT to provide the
disabled with adequate skills training so that they can
qualify for employment in the IT business
Encoding Project
Provide differently abled persons with interim
employment in order for them to learn to work well in
a corporate setting
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Government Initiatives
CICT-APEC Digital Opportunity
Center
Adaptive Basic
Office Productivity Tools training for the
Blind using Free and Open Source Software
(FOSS)
Awareness Programs
eCare Telecenters (May 2006)
designed to provide access and training
programs for PWDs. The target is to
establish one eCare Center in each region.
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Best Practice
Philippine Web Accessibility Group (PWAG)
Privately led association of Filipino web designers and
advocates
Educate and encourage the general public on the benefits of
including accessibility on their web sites by providing information
and assistance through workshops, seminars, e-groups and other
fora;
Adopt the Manila Accessible ICT Design Recommendations and
recommend the web accessibility guidelines and standards in the
Philippine setting
Recommended Standards
Access Key Assignments
Visual Validation Checklist
Online Validating Tools
Recommended Web Design Accessibility Checkpoints
A Maturity Stage 1 means the web site needs to meet the
requirements set by the Manila ICT Design Recommendations
A Maturity Stage 2 means the web site should meet the criteria set
by PWAG
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Prototype Technology [Text-to-Braille]
Braille Display that can be connected
to a mobile phone [De La Salle
University, 2005]
Braille display mimics the interface of a
mobile phone
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Challenges
Lack or unaffordable specialized
equipment and materials like:
Braille writing slates
White mobility canes
Talking watches
Talking calculators
Special software and hardware to allow blind
people to use a PC
Mobile communication technology for the blind
Increase awareness on web accessibility
and other technologies
ITU Workshop on Accessibility to ICTs, 23 July 2010, Shanghai, China
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Accessible ICT is not only for
people with disabilities but
for all of us who are thankful
that there are no barriers in
using our abilities
ITU Workshop on Accessibility to ICTs, 23 July 2010, Shanghai, China
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“Cooperation is key to strength and might”.
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