Information and Communication Technologies For Development - ICT For People With Disabilities

ICT For People With Disabilities

According to World Health Organization (WHO), 15% of the world's total population have disabilities. This is approximately 600 million people wherein three out of every four are living in developing countries, half are of working age, half are women and the highest incidence and prevalence of disabilities occurs in poor areas. With ICT, lives of people with disabilities can be improved, allowing them to have a better interaction in society by widening their scope of activities.

Goals of ICT and Disability Work

• Give disabled people a powerful tool in their battle to gain employment
• Increase disabled people’s skills, confidence, and self-esteem
• Integrate disabled people socially and economically into their communities;
• Reduce physical or functional barriers and enlarge scope of activities available to disabled persons

At the international level, there are numerous guiding documents impacting on the education of people with disabilities such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), moving to the Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005). The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) includes policies about accessibility, non-discrimination, equal opportunity, full and effective participation and other issues. The key statement within the CRPD (2006) relevant for ICT and people with disabilities is within Article 9:

"To enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and rural areas. (p. 9)"

Another international policy that has indirect implications for the use of ICT by people with disabilities are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Although these do not specifically mention the right to access ICT for people with disabilities, two key elements within the MDGs are to reduce the number of people in poverty and to reach out to the marginalised groups without access to ICT.

ICT Programs:

• Estonian e-Learning Development Centre alongside with Primus- One activity of Primus is to develop and run a support system for students with special needs. This is done by: developing different support services (e.g. digitalising and recording teaching material for students with visual impairments, creating training courses); improving learning environments (assessing physical accessibility of buildings); running a scholarship scheme for students with special needs to support their full participation in studies.
• European Unified Approach for Assisted Lifelong Learning (EU4ALL)- The aim of this initiative is to create an accessible and adapted course addressed to students with different disabilities – cognitive, physical and sensory. The course was designed through an Instructional Learning Design. The learner is given access to a course with activities and resources personalised according to the student’s needs profile.
• Plan Ceibal- aims to promote digital inclusion in order to reduce the digital gap with other countries, as well as among the citizens of Uruguay. In order to support better access to education and culture, every pupil in the public education system is being given a laptop. Within Plan Ceibal an initiative began at the end of 2008 to provide tools to improve accessibility of the laptop for learners with special needs, using particular assistive technology aids in classes equipped with these machines.
• Leren en werken met autisme (Learning and working with Autism)- is a DVD with several tools aimed at helping students with autism or autistic spectrum disorders in their transition from education to work, or workplace training settings. One of the tools is the wai-pass– specific e-portfolio software. This e-portfolio not only provides information about the skills and competences of a particular student, but also about his/her behaviour in particular settings and situations. This type of very relevant information is gathered by teachers throughout the student’s school career and often vanishes when a student leaves school. Through this e-portfolio tool, the information can be easily disclosed to (potential) employers. There is also a Toolkit for workplace learning and traineeship and Autiwerkt, a movie and a website with roadmaps, tips and tricks on traineeship and preparation for regular employment of students.
• Everyday Technologies for Children with Special Needs (EvTech)- is a collaborative initiative aiming to increase the possibilities of children with special needs to make choices and influence their environments in everyday life by developing individualised technical environments and tools for children and their families.
• Discapnet- world's biggest and most visited website dealing with disability issues.