Seminar on Internet Accessibility for All
in Central and Eastern Europe

Ljublana, Slovenia, 3-6 September 2001

The Basic Document

Summary
Importance of ICT for Development
Accessibility and the Standard Rules
Regional Approaches
Promotion of Accessibility

Recommended Pre-Reading:
  Accessibility on the Internet
  PC's and the Disabled
  The Standard Rules

Basic Document

This Basic Document provides a brief overview of concepts that will complement the presentations in this seminar.

Summary: ICT for Development

From an international perspective, the importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) for development was considered at the highest levels of the international community during the year 2000. This is evident in the "United Nations Millennium Declaration" and the Economic and Social Council "Ministerial Declaration" on the role of information technology in the context of a knowledge-based global economy.

Moreover, the United Nations Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities provides, in Rule 5, that "States ... develop strategies to make information services and documentation accessible for different groups of persons with disabilities". While Rule 5 does not set forth specific and binding measures to promote accessibility, the fact that the Standard Rules were adopted unanimously at the forty-eighth session of the General Assembly clearly suggests that accessibility is a concern to all: producers and users of information goods and services.

In an operational sense one can define accessibility as provision of "flexibility to accommodate each user's needs and preferences" (from Accessibility on the Internet, by Leo Valdes). The two declarations provide limited guidance on action for the twenty-first century to further the accessibility issues presented in Rule 5 of the Standard Rules.

This project aims to further the equalisation of opportunities in social life and development, as envisaged in the Standard Rules, through promotion of awareness and building of capacities for "lean approaches" to accessible information and telecommunication technologies for all in the Central and Eastern European sub-region.

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General importance of ICT for development

The rapid pace of developments in information technologies and structures, particularly the Internet, has significant social and economic consequences. The Internet - a computer technology based on open standards that define low-level communication protocols - can facilitate rapid and reliable communications across great distances and make information goods and services more easily and efficiently available to all. The importance of information and communication technologies for development has been recognised at the highest levels of the international community during the year 2000 at both the High-level Segment of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and the United Nations Millennium Assembly.

In the United Nations "Millennium Declaration" (General Assembly resolution 55/2), heads of State and Government resolved, "to ensure that the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication technologies, in conformity with recommendations contained in the ECOSOC 2000 Ministerial Declaration, are available to all".

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Ministerial Declaration, "Development and international co-operation in the twenty-first century: the role of information technology in the context of a knowledge-based global economy" states in paragraph 5:

"We are deeply concerned that, at present ICT's huge potential of advancing development has not been fully captured … urgent and concerted actions at the national, regional, and international levels are imperative for bridging the digital divide and building digital opportunities and putting ICT firmly in the service of development for all. In this regard we call upon all the members of the international community to work co-operatively to bridge the digital divide and to foster "digital opportunity".

Paragraph 6 of the Ministerial Declaration underlines the potential of ICT to empower people:

"ICT provides unique opportunities for economic growth and human development. It can shape and enhance a wide range of development applications … from improved agricultural and manufacturing productivity to the empowerment of all sections of society. The potential to help foster sustainable development, empower people, including women and youth … is enormous."

Although not explicitly discussed the paragraph does suggest the importance of empowerment would especially apply to persons with disabilities.

Paragraph 7 of the Ministerial Declaration addresses the question of accessibility:

"Access to information and knowledge-sharing is largely determined by education, capabilities, including resources, transparent societies, capacity to generate and utilise knowledge, connectivity and the availability of diverse content and applications and the policy and legal/regulatory framework. These areas require urgent action at the national and international levels to improve the capacity of all countries, particularly the developing countries and countries with economies in transition, to participate in the knowledge-based economy in order to promote their economic and social development."

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Internet accessibility and international norms and standards: the Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities

Neither the United Nations "Millennium Declaration" nor the Economic and Social Council "Ministerial Declaration" address the issue of accessibility to new and emerging ICT technologies from the disability perspective or in the context of a broad human rights framework.

Accessibility is fundamental to the full and effective exercise of the political and civil rights and the economic, social and political rights that are enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and in other international norms and standards. For persons with disabilities access to the Internet can remove major obstacles to mobility, to communications and to exchanges of knowledge and ideas. However, access to the Internet is not automatic for all. For some persons with disabilities there often is a need for computer software and hardware that accommodate particular sensorial or physical disabilities to facilitate access to the global Internet. EnableNet, the web site of the Disabled People's Association of Singapore, provides a good overview of assistive technologies in a paper called "PCs and the Disabled"

For others, Internet accessibility is a matter of livelihood and well being as well as discretionary time to devote to accessing Internet-enabled resources. Accessibility needs to be considered with reference to the policy setting for ICT, to ICT structures and institutions and to norms and standards on accessibility, which in the main have been developed by voluntary bodies and technical organisations and thus are not obligatory. For example, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a an open, international community of network designers, operators, vendors and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet, whose technical work is done in working groups organised by topic in several areas.

It is possible to identify three dimensions of ICT accessibility:

(a) policies, norms and standards on ICT accessibility for all;

(b) appropriate assistive and enabling ICT technologies; and

(c) structures and institutions concerned with information and communication goods and services

The Standard Rules for the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities provides, in Rule 5, that "States ... develop strategies to make information services and documentation accessible for different groups of persons with disabilities". However, specific measures that are needed to promote accessible information services are not specified in Rule 5. Several countries, including Australia, Canada, Portugal and the United States of America have adopted legislation on information accessibility. The World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative provides an index of existing "Policies Relating to Web Accessibility" by country and region.

Internet accessibility is concisely presented in the "Internet Guide" of Government of Canada:

"Since the end user cannot count on either standard technology or helping devices to ensure access to information on the [World Wide] Web, the onus is on the Web page developer to deliver the message in a way that allows everyone to benefit.

"It is every Canadian's right to receive Government information or service in a form that can be used, and it is Government of Canada's obligation to provide it"

Accessibility is a concern to all: producers and users of information, goods and services. Mr. Leo Valdés, consultant to the United Nations on Internet technologies, has noted in a paper on "Accessibility on the Internet" that "accessibility" is the provision of "flexibility to accommodate each user's needs and preferences". Some may need assistive technologies, such as screen magnifiers, screen readers or Braille interfaces to create, access or use information goods owing to a physical or sensorial disability. Others may need text-based or low-density graphical content since they have limited communications capacity or level of information technology to support robust graphics, streaming audio and video clips.

A basic characteristic of pilot efforts by the United Nations to foster development of accessible information goods and services in the field of social development, with emphasis on global policies and programmes related to persons with disabilities is to focus on service-side solutions rather than client-specific fixes to promote accessibility. Two lessons of these experiences are that accessibility requires constant vigilance and always is under research, development testing and evaluation.

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Regional approaches to building national capacities for Internet accessibility for all

In pursuit of implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons and the Standard Rules, the project aims to promote awareness, build capacities and strengthen institutional capabilities for accessibility for all with emphasis on regionally-appropriate policy options, structures and technologies for accessible information goods and services.

The focus of the sub-regional Workshop on Internet Accessibility among selected countries with economies in transition in Central and Eastern Europe obtains certain urgency in the light of the launching by the European Commission of its "eEurope initiative - An Information Society for all" with the aims of "accelerating the uptake of digital technologies across Europe and ensuring that all Europeans have the necessary skills to use them." As noted above ICT represent factors in the development of countries in the twenty-first century. For countries with economies in transition in Central and Eastern Europe, the eEurope initiative presents both a model for study and important considerations on decisions to take on ICT policy options, strategies and programmes that are appropriate to the respective historical development experience, institutional capabilities and resources capacities. Decisions on ICT should contribute to building societies for all

In this regard it may be recalled that the year 2000 session of the Economic and Social Council Ministerial Declaration states in paragraph 9:

"… Investment in education ... remains the fundamental way of developing human capacity and should be at the heart of any national, regional and international information technology strategy."

Paragraph 14 of the Ministerial Declaration provides guidance as to a desired outcome of the sub-regional Workshop on Internet Accessibility:

"National programmes for putting ICT in the service of development must be integrated into national development strategies. These national programmes could include, inter alia: Establishing a transparent and consistent legal and regulatory framework that fosters ICT development."

Guidance on the organisation of the sub-regional workshop is provided in paragraph 15 of the Declaration:

"The United Nations system, in particular the Economic and Social Council can play a key role in promoting synergies and coherence of all efforts directed to expand the development impact of ICT in the following ways: (d) Emphasizing the importance of universal access to knowledge and information for promoting development."

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Substantive aspects concerning action to promote Internet accessibility for all

The Secretary-General has reported in his progress reports on implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons to the fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly (1999; document A/54/388/Add.1) and the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly (2001; document A/56/169) and to the thirty-ninth session of the Commission for Social Development (2001; document E/CN.5/2001/7) on action to promote awareness and build national capacities for Internet accessibility.

These efforts have been carried out in co-operation with Governments, the non-governmental community and the private sector and they included seminars, workshops, panel discussions and pilot action related to Internet Accessibility.

Here are some previous substantive activities related to this seminar/workshop that were reported by the Secretary-General:

• Internet Accessibility, an ASEAN Perspective, at Bangkok in co-operation with the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the National Institute of Development Administration of Thailand (NIDA)
• International Norms and Standards relating to Disability, at Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China in co-operation with the Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong
• Report on a pilot Internet-based video conference at the XII Jornadas Nacionales de Personas con Discapacidad , and at Guanajuato (México) in co-operation with the Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia - DIF of the Government of Mexico, the Fundación Mexicana de Integración Social I.A.P. and the Organización Internacional Vida Independiente para Personas con Discapacidad, A.C (non-governmental organisations).
• Seminar on Internet Accessibility for All (Latin America), at Mexico D.F., in co-operation with DIF of the Government of Mexico, the Fundación Mexicana de Integración Social I.A.P. and the Organización Internacional Vida Independiente para Personas con Discapacidad, A.C

This seminar on Internet Accessibility for All in the CEE is also part of the General Assembly Report (2001, A/56/169, paragraph 56).

Similar, public presentations on international pilot action for Internet Accessibility and persons with disabilities were delivered in symposia during the year 2000. WorldEnable was involved in two presentations:

• "Internet Accessibility: Lessons of Pilot Action in Support of the United Nations Global Programme concerning Persons with Disabilities" presented at "Designing for the Twenty-first Century; an International Conference on Universal Design" (Providence, Rhode Island (USA), 17 June 2000) and
• "An International Perspective on Web Accessibility", a concurrent session presented at the "Universal Web Accessibility Symposium 2000 (San Antonio TX (USA), 31 October 2000).

Finally, "Barrier-free ICT for all" was the theme of the year 2000 observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons on 3 December at United Nations Headquarters.

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Copyright (c) 2001 AIMS/VisionOffice.
Last updated 11/02/03.