Digital skills are an integral part of achieving ICT accessibility for everyone and form the basis of quality and inclusive education, business opportunities, communication and entertainment, and e-government services.
ITU members are fully committed to promote ICT accessibility and disseminate digital skills to all people, regardless of their physical and mental health, their countries and regions. This commitment is clearly reflected in ITU's mandate and objectives and in a number of resolutions adopted by ITU Members in support of building inclusive digital communities.
At the 2022 World Telecommunication Development Conference, Regional Initiative (RI) 4 Digital skills and information and communication technology accessibility for the public, in particular for persons with disabilities, was adopted for the CIS Region. It aims to provide assistance to ITU Member States of the region in formulating recommendations for the development of the public's digital skills, paying particular attention to persons with disabilities.
In 2023, to implement the objectives of RI 4, a study titled “Methodology for teaching digital skills to Persons with Disabilities“ was conducted in cooperation with experts from the Belarusian State Academy of Communications (BSAC) and the Institute of Inclusive Education of the Maksim Tank Belarusian State Pedagogical University. To collect the most relevant and applied data, a survey was conducted among ITU Member States, ITU Sector Members, ITU Academic Members, national statistics bodies of ITU Member States, organizations, and associations of persons with disabilities. The survey is based on statistical data and information materials on the state policy of social protection of persons with disabilities in CIS countries, as well as on the provided data and information of respondents. The focus of the study is on training methods and the potential of assistive technology.
The Global report on assistive technology, published in 2022 by WHO and UNICEF, notes that «Access to Assistive Technology deserves greater attention now than ever before. In fact, access to appropriate, quality assistive technology can mean the difference between enabling or denying education for a child, participation in the workforce for an adult, or the opportunity to maintain independence and age with dignity for an older person. Put simply, assistive technology is a life change”.
The thematic chapter of the study presents categories and types of assistive technologies, providing an overview of modern assistive technologies for the visually impaired, hearing impaired, speech impaired, cognitively impaired, and mobility impaired. Additionally, it presents the experience of CIS countries in the development and production of assistive technologies.
The chapter dedicated to methodologies for teaching digital skills emphasizes the peculiarities of teaching ICT skills to persons with various forms of disabilities.
On the one hand, technologies offer great advantages. Firstly, ICT extends the boundaries of communication and information search (messengers, webcams, communities, games, e-mails, internet, etc.). Secondly, ICTs are themselves quite visual and do an excellent job of focusing attention on them or their content. Thirdly, the use of ICT in some cases allows leveling or reducing secondary psychosomatic disorders.
On the other hand, the difficulties of teaching ICT include the need to memorize all sorts of commands and combinations, overcoming the fear of using unfamiliar commands in an unfamiliar environment, and, to some extent, the complexity of ICT. The study presents the list of special technologies and programmes that are used to achieve positive dynamics in teaching and learning children with disabilities. The paper reflects the didactic principles underlying the organization and implementation of digital technologies in the educational process of children with disabilities and presents educational programs for different categories of children with disabilities that facilitate easier, better, and more interactive learning of ICT skills.
One of the authors of the study, senior lecturer of the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology of Inclusive Education at the Institute of Inclusive Education, Tatiana Chigir, emphasized:
'Modern digital gadgets and technologies play a key role in the education of children with disabilities, providing them with effective tools for the learning process.'
Accessibility of employment for persons with disabilities in the CIS Region is an important issue. Analysis of the legislation of the CIS Region states has shown that the common goals of the state policy in the sphere of employment of persons with disabilities, due to the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) adopted in 2006, make the legislation on employment of persons with disabilities quite uniform in its principle provisions. Nevertheless, the mechanisms used in this process differ. Along with the existence of requirements and obligations for the employment of persons with disabilities established by the legislation of countries, according to open sources, these requirements are not always and not everywhere fulfilled to the proper extent. In this regard, the need to continue to promote the employment of this category of persons has been identified.
In the course of the study, a review of classifiers (directories) of specialties and professions of workers and employees was conducted to identify those that require digital skills. Based on the results of the analysis, it was found that the classifiers do not clearly identify professions (specialties) for the employment of different categories of persons with disabilities with digital skills. Not all countries in the region have an electronic register of vacancies created under the established quota of employment of persons with disabilities, which also complicates the monitoring of the implementation of this mandatory quota. Nevertheless, the analysis of normative legal documents and open sources allowed making an approximate list of available professions (specialties) for employment of various categories of persons with disabilities with digital skills.
Svitlana Mikhnevich, Head of the Department of Info-Communication Technologies of BSAC, who is a co-author of the study, notes:
'In the labor market, digital skills are becoming a critical factor in the competitiveness of an employee regardless of health, age, and gender. The study considers approaches to the classification of people with disabilities and shows the need to take into account the nature and severity of impairments in training.'
The study revealed that to ensure accessibility of education, reduce the digital divide, and support the employment of persons with disabilities, organizational, technological, and methodological issues need to be addressed. The study resulted in a chapter with recommendations for various stakeholders on effective digital skills training for persons with special needs.
The first presentation of the prepared study “Methodology for teaching digital skills to Persons with Disabilities“ will take place on
11 December 2023 at the ITU Regional Roundtable on Digital Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities. We invite you to participate in the discussion and share your experience in shaping a comprehensive inclusive digital environment.
You can read the study by clicking
here.
