Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and welcome to this special track of the WSIS Forum 2022 on ICTs and Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities and Specific Needs.
It was the late Stephen Hawking that said: “With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded”. The technology that literally gave him a voice was proof of that.
The panellists who have joined us today are truly following the Stephen Hawking’s spirit, showing us the unbounded possibilities offered by digital technologies. Many thanks to all the panellists for being with us.
According to WHO, over 1 billion people live with some form of disability. Of these, 80% live in developing countries, where the challenges and barriers they face—particularly women and children—are often even steeper.
For many of us, going online to pay bills, further our education, or access information and medical advice has become the norm—more so than ever since COVID-19. Advances in digital technology have enabled many of us to cope with and adapt to the new reality. But sadly, for too many persons with disabilities and specific needs, that has not been the case.
To change this, digital technologies must be accessible and inclusive in design. ITU’s standardization work plays an important role by making accessibility a requirement right from the design stage—mainstreaming accessibility in the development of multimedia standards, technologies and services. We also make every effort to include persons with disabilities in our work.
We work closely with WHO on the development of standards and a recent example is standard that defines technical requirements of telehealth platforms to facilitate their access and use by persons with disabilities, older persons with age-related disabilities, and persons with specific needs.
ITU also develops a number of global guidelines, toolkits, reports and other resources on how to build inclusive digital communities, and we help our members monitor and track their progress towards implementation of accessibility.
With the support of the WSIS community and in collaboration with stakeholders from across government, industry and civil society, this special track will run each day this week. It includes workshops raising awareness, discussing trends and perspectives and exploring innovative solutions to the unique challenges. We will be providing live human captioning to all the sessions.
Our Knowledge Café during the final week of the WSIS Forum—which will be held from 30 May to 3 June—will bring all our stakeholders together to share solutions, knowledge and ideas on living healthier, fuller lives and ensuring digital inclusion for all. We will be providing full remote participation but I hope many of you will be able to join us in person that week.
Many thanks to our moderator Morten, I will head back to him and wish you all an enjoyable and fruitful session.
Thank you
