Workshop on Accessibility for Emerging Technologies

ICTs have been contributing to improving the everyday life of persons with disabilities and persons with specific needs. Assistive technologies (AT) are good examples. These technologies maintain or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish or had great difficulty accomplishing (ITU-T F.791).    

In the era of rapid evolution of ICTs, new technologies are often featured as the hot topics of high-level discussions. Research and development on new technologies, such as IoT, AI, and other emerging technologies, are highly prioritized and are rapidly entering the market. Unfortunately, accessibility considerations and features may not always be highlighted or even included.  This may be because there is a lack of knowledge about accessibility features required for these new services and technologies. Some governmental policies and regulatory frameworks may not cover the inclusions of some accessibility features for new technologies yet. Another possible reason may be a misperception of the market demand.  Some may think accessibility features would not be a determining factor for the mass market. This is often not the case, taking captioning on television as an example. If accessibility is not taken into consideration in the beginning, a new technology may not be useable by a large number of consumers, including persons with disabilities and persons with specific needs.

In the spirit of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), appropriate measures should be taken to ensure persons with disabilities to access, on equal basis with others, to information and communications, including ICTs (UNCRPD Article 9). One way to implement accessibility features in ICTs is to recognize and deploy Universal Design. Universal Design means to make usable by as many people as possible from the beginning. If this is not done from the beginning, it can be more costly to retro fit or rectify these omissions later.

This workshop session will highlight accessibility by design for emerging technologies. Leading players in this area will show accessibility features and various solutions that can be taken into consideration for new technologies. The session will also discuss possible future steps, and possibly identify high priority areas for future work and discussion at ITU. This will include topics for standardization for global promotion in an efficient manner. The workshop session is organized by ITU-T Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF).