Table of Contents

XIV. Overview of Information and Communication Technology

Information and communication technology (ICT) is now regarded as indispensable for public, business, and personal productivity and improvement of livelihoods. In the last several years, there has been much progress in the world in ICT development. This has opened up many opportunities for people with disabilities, especially in networking, solidarity, employment and independent living. Assistive computer technology and other augmentative communication products make for easy access to information and communication for people with disabilities. However, people with disabilities in the Asian and Pacific region still face multiple barriers in accessing ICT and the skills and knowledge required to benefit from it.

The transformation of the Internet from a text-based medium to a multimedia environment is also resulting in difficulties for people with visual disabilities. With a text-based medium, people with visual disabilities could use a paper-less Braille keyboard to access the Internet. However, the predominantly graphical web-pages that characterize current Internet traffic pose a new challenge.

In 2003, UNESCAP initiated a new venture to disseminate web-based information with a fully accessible non-graphic web-page for blind users. In addition, documentation is distributed by CD-ROM, which is non-graphic and accessible for alternative output devices such as a speech synthesizer or paperless Braille (Braille keyboard/terminal).
Emerging as an issue of importance during the latter part of the first Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, the BMF has identified access to information and communications, including information, communication and assistive technologies, as one of the seven priority areas for action during the next 10-year period from 2003 to 2012. The targets of the BMF in this area require that persons with disabilities should have at least the same rate of access to the Internet and related services as the other citizens in their country. It also strongly recommends that international organizations should incorporate accessibility standards for persons with disabilities in their international ICT standards and Governments should adopt ICT accessibility guidelines for persons with disabilities in their national ICT policies.

The case studies in this section indicate the serious attention that is being placed on developing the means to make information fully accessible to persons with disabilities, as described in the story of ‘DAISY’. Particular emphasis is placed on accessibility for students with disabilities as they pursue higher education. The partnership between the international ICT company INTEL and the National Association for the Blind in India is an indication of the way forward. With initiatives such as these, the fear that persons with disabilities will remain on the wrong side of the digital divide will be unjustified. These are exciting initiatives in a vitally important and rapidly emerging area.