| I.5-1 Reports, guidelines, and checklists relating to accessibility of telecommunications/ICTs. |
| I.5-2 Mobilization of resources and technical expertise, for example, through promoting greater participation in international and regional meetings by persons with disabilities and specific needs. |
| I.5-3 Further development and implementation of the ITU Accessibility Policy and related plans |
| I.5-4 Advocacy, both at UN level and at regional and national levels |
I.5-1 Reports, guidelines, and checklists relating to accessibility of telecommunications/ICTs /
I.5-2 Mobilization of resources and technical expertise, for example, through promoting greater participation in international and regional meetings by persons with disabilities and specific needs /
I.5-3 Further development and implementation of the ITU Accessibility Policy and related plans /
I.5-4 Advocacy, both at UN level and at regional and national levels
In 2016 ITU advanced in the implementation of Resolution 175 (Rev Busan, 2014) through activities such as the Intersector Rapporteur Group Audiovisual Media Accessibility (IRG-AVA), ITU-R study group 6 (SG6),
ITU-T Study Group 2 (Operational aspects),
ITU-T Study Group 16 (Multimedia), ITU-D Study Group 1 (Question 7/1), or the Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF), among others. In addition to these study groups, ITU implemented other activities, like the
3rd IPTV App Challenge, and supported a broad number of projects through most of the regional offices, such as the establishment of a Regional Center for ICT for Persons with Disabilities in the Arab Region, or the launch of a project for the creation of Internet Access and Training Centre for PwDs in the CIS region, among others.
During 2016 ITU continued its advocacy and capacity building work concerning the role that ICTs play to promote the independent living of persons with disabilities. Such advocacy work took place in events organized by ITU, like the Open Consultation of ITU's Council Working Group on international Internet-related public policy issues (
CWG-Internet),
WSIS Forum 2016 (session on the role of public procurement in ensuring accessible ICTs for PwD), the
Accessible Americas III event, as well as an important number of workshops, seminars, and meetings organized by most ITU regional offices. ITU also joined a number of international meetings related with the social inclusion of persons with disabilities, like the meetings related with the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons Disabilities (CRPD), the 2016 Zero Project Conference, the 2016 m-Enabling summit, the 2016 IPC Inclusion Summit (organized in the context of the 2016 Rio Paralympics Games), the 2016 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Telecommunications and Information Working Group (APEC-TEL) Seminar on "Social inclusion of people with disabilities through access to telecommunications/ICTs", the 2016 European Foundation Forum for Inclusion or the 2016 Social Forum of the Human Rights Council, among others.
Looking into 2017, an important part of ITU's work in the area of accessibility will be to monitor the implementation of the new accessibility target of the
Connect 2020 agenda (target 2.5B
[101]) which establishes that by 2020 all countries should introduce enabling environments ensuring accessible telecommunication/ICT for persons with disabilities. The publication of the ITU-T Model ICT Accessibility Policy Report is an important tool to support the implementation of this target. For further information on these activities please refer to the section of this report dedicated to the work of ITU-D under Output 4.3.
Finally, ITU continued working in improving the accessibility of the services that it provides to staff, delegates and the general public. An example of this was the provision of captioning services in ITU's main events, such as the 2016 Session of Council, WTISD-16, or ITU Telecom World 2016, among others, as well as the deployment of the new publication system which improves the accessibility of the documents produced by ITU.
A key instrument to support these activities is the
ITU Accessibility Fund, established in 2010 by Resolution 175 (Rev. Busan, 2014). Since its establishment the Fund has supported different types of activities, which include the organization of an app competition in the Americas region, the organization of training and awareness sessions, the support to the implementation of model ICT accessibility policy, or providing funding to support the participation of experts with disabilities in selected ITU meetings. ITU membership is invited to make further voluntary contributions to the fund to support ITU's work in the area of ICT accessibility.
Further information about ITU's activities in accessibility is available at
www.itu.int/accessibility.
[101] Target 2.5.B: Enabling environments ensuring accessible telecommunication/ICT for persons with disabilities should be established in all countries by 2020
