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The state of the Internet and Accessibility
in the Czech Republic

Libuse Brabcova
3 September 2001

Internet accessability and general computer and Internet awareness has been in the process of rapid progress in the last years in the Czech Republic. The basis was set both by the change of the political orientation of the country after 1989 bringing the government support to information technologies development and the fast changes in the technical background in the last years, e.g. the fast improvement of the telephone network quality.

A few years ago it was hardly possible to get a connection with "the whole world" at a petrol station in the middle of fields as well as to find a computer connected to Internet at a usual middle-class household . This used to be a kind of luxury available only to IT companies staff or a few rich computer-lovers.

The crucial steps towards better accessability have been taken after 1991 when the first companies offering limited but free connections started to appear at the Czech market.

Another major project bringing Internet closer to a "normal"user was the establishment of many Internet Cafes and kiosks not only in the capital and large cities but also at public places all around the country (post offices, petrol stations, airports, libraries etc.).

The Czech government tries to introduce and develop IT in organizations run by the state, partly owned by the state or financed by the government, e.g. the doctors discussion forums (neurochirurgie.cz as an example).They also support the "Internet for Schools" project, announced this year, focused on all levels of the Czech educational system.Some Universities have introduced independent specialized IT courses for specific areas such as economy, education, transportation, libraries etc.The first private school of IT technologies in Prague received the status of a non-university tercial education institution on the level of bachelor studies with the certificates being internationally accepted(June 2001)." The Month of the Internet" represents another activity supported by the Czech government trying to bring the Internet literacy closer to all groups of the Czech popoulation . It is a nation- wide multimedia campaign presented under the slogan "The Internet is for everyone" aimed at specific needs of different target groups . During the 3 years of existence it has reached very good results. According to the survey of the Market agency in 2000 it has affected about 30 percent of the respondents.

The lateszt news have been presented every morning on the Trafika.cz server with the possibility of immediate open discussion.

As considers the needs of the people with special needs we must highlight the "Internet for the Handicapped project - a long- term project of BMI in cooperation with the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Television Club of the Deaf who have broadcasted a special series about the Internet for the people with disability.( first broadcast March 2000).A group of deaf children was invited to the Junior Internet Conference organized on March 11 in Prague. The BMI Association also ccoperates with the LMC jobs company which organizes zke O- zone on the www. jobs.cz server ( www. prace.cz)server in order to get the potential employers of the people with a handicap into contact with those who are looking for a job.Some of these projects are also being supported by the Jistota Charity of the emploees of Komercni Banka.

Many significant project have also been run by the Petit company which is a non-profit organization set up by a General Meeting on 28 January 1998 trying to help with integration of children with physical and mental handicap through special educational, vocational and diagnostic computer programmes that they develop themselves ( e.g. MEDA 99 programme created in cooperation with the specialized teacher training college in Ostrava- Kuncice and the Early Care Centre in Olomouc, with psychologistst, special pedagogues, instructors and the children, supported by the Phare programme of the European Union Commission.). As a part of the "The Stronger Should Help the Weaker" campaign they contact companies who change their computer equipment for new modern versions and in cooperation with them they provide the organizations and families of the handicapped with the machines that they would not be able to afford.

Discussion

The whole situation in the Czech Republic has been gradually improving thank to the new and ,seems to be ,effective aproach of the government and all the organizations involved. Nevertheless there are still problems, some of them general for the Eastern European countries or all European countries, some of them very specific for the Czech republic.
As an example a few of them :

• often lack of appropriate and understandable information for all target groups of the population
• not equal economical accessibility of the Internet services for all.
• low support of new technologies from the head officials in specific areas ( economical aspects, low flexibility , not enough information ?)
• though great theoretical support of new technologies for example at universities ( similar situation in hospitals, some companies etc.) and schools, not always corresponding technical background and chance to really use it in practice for students, including basic accessability of a computer ( machine) , which is often vital for studies.
• Low number of experienced teachers with appropriate education in the state educanional system ( influenced strongly by their usual salaries ) high prices of courses organized by other organizations, possible REAL beginners are always not counted with which is often quite discouraging for them.
• Computer studies still not a compulsory part of the curriculum of many schols.
• A very discouraging law system of disability pensions and assessment system for disabilities which often influences very badly the motivation of the patient to reintegrate into the normal working process ( this is in the process of change at the moment , not accepted by the parliament in the final version yet.)
• Not enough support of the companies who are willing to employ the disabled and low support of e.g. requalification courses for the persons with disability in all areas including computer studies often demanded by the disabled.

Suggestions

• To try to set a better information exchange between the official institutions and the real users.
• Provide a better economical accesability of the Internet services.
• Enhance the support of new technologies both on the theoretical and practical levels including finding possible ways how to effectively finance the technical equipment of the institutions ( if no other possibility , why not for example cooperation with companies who have to modernize their equipment very often-donation is for the time being actually cheaper than ecologic way of destruction.)
• Support IT studies , make the computer studies a compulsary part of the education on all levels, corresponding with the type of the school, solving the situation around the lack of qualified IT teachers in the state education system.
• Make computer courses more accessible for everybody ( price, level of demanded knowledge at the beginning)
• Change the laws seting norms for the disability assessments, pension schemes and employability of the disabled.
• Support from the health insurance companies in the question of making a computer a real assistive device for the disabled.

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