UN Launches Campaign For Inclusive Technology

The Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication
Technology, an international campaign to widen access to digital
technologies, has been launched by the United Nations. It aims to
encourage technology vendors to build accessibility into mass-market
products by promoting worldwide adoption of new standards,
regulations and legislation.

Launched at the UN’s New York headquarters in March 2007, the
Global Initiative ( http://www.g3ict.com/index.htm )
aims to remove the need for people with disabilities to buy assistive
products that are often expensive and difficult to maintain. In this it
supports Article 9 of the recently unveiled Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities, which requires governments to ensure that
“technologies and systems become accessible at minimum cost.” For
more, see: http://fastlink.headstar.com/unaccess2 .

Hendrietta Ipeleng Bogopane-Zulu, a vision impaired politician from
South Africa, told the UN that a screen reader is essential for her work
as a member of parliament. “I use [the Freedom Scientific Screen
reader] ‘Jaws’. But it’s very expensive because it’s dollar-based. When
converted to [South Africa’s currency] the rand, it becomes
unaffordable for most people,” she said.

The main challenge is to strike a balance between changing industry
practices while enabling global markets in accessible products to
develop, which will help to drive down costs, said Axel Leblois,
executive director of the Global Initiative. “Legislation and regulation
can do a lot of good, but they can also fragment markets,” he told the
meeting.

In March 2008 the Global Initiative will meet in Geneva to hear
commitments from industry and international organizations to pursue
specific standardization efforts. Regional meetings will be held in
Turkey, Brazil, South Africa, and India, before the campaign draws to
a close in March 2009.

Source: E-ACCESS BULLETIN, ISSUE 88, APRIL 2007