Welcome remarks, Dr. Eun-Ju
Kim
Head, ITU Regional Office for Asia and the
Pacific
Dr. Kim is currently Head of ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
based in Bangkok, Thailand, representing ITU and responsible for some 40 Member States
in this region.
Before she joined the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – a UN Special Agency
for Telecommunications and ICTs – in 2000, she had served several posts such as
Director for Regulatory Affairs at the ICO Global Communications based in London (1996-1999),
Lecturer for Telecommunication Policies and Regulations at the London City University (1995),
and Senior Adviser to Ministers at the Ministry of Communications in the
Republic of Korea (1990-1994).
She has been educated from the Seoul National University in R. O. Korea for the
first Master Degree and the London City University in the United Kingdom for the
second Master and Ph. Degrees. Some 100 books or articles/papers have been published,
translated or presented at numerous countries in the cross continents from Africa,
the Americas, Asia-Pacific to Europe on professional areas such as: e.g., "telecommunication/ICT
policy, legislation, governance and regulation"; "International relations and organizations
through case studies of ITU, UNESCO, OECD and INTELSAT"; "Telecommunication standardizations
and its international organizations"; "ICT for empowerment of women"; "Satellite communications";
"new emerging issues including e-commerce, cyber-laws and cyber-security, next generation
networks, and management of ICT resources and more in order to bridge digital divide
or optimize digital opportunities in the interdependent information society".
She has also organized, attended, chaired or represented at numerous national,
sub-regional, regional and international meetings and conferences since 1988.
To serve members better through mobilizing the resources based on public-private
partnership (PPP), her recent emphasis has been to pursue partnerships and projects
with various stakeholders from UN Agencies, international, regional, sub-regional and
national organizations to private industry in addition to the ITU Administrations in
the Asia-Pacific region.
She has been awarded by the governments of R. O. Korea and Mongolia with honorary medal
as well as the ITU with a gold medal of excellence.
Welcome remarks, Mr. Shigeru Mochida
Deputy Executive Secretary and Officer-in-Charge,
a.i., ESCAP Secretariat
Mr. Shigeru Mochida of Japan joined the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific as Deputy Executive
Secretary in April 2005. Mr. Mochida has extensive work experience in international relations both in bilateral and multilateral
context as well as in the United Nations.
Prior to his current assignment at UNESCAP, Mr. Mochida was Deputy Director of Africa I Division of the Department of Political Affairs,
United Nations Secretariat, New York. In the United Nations, he was engaged in peaceful uses of outer space and applications of space
technology, prior to moving to a newly created office within the Office of the Secretary-General where he was among those who first focus
on holistic approach to early warning and prevention of conflicts. He subsequently concentrated on prevention of conflicts, peace-making
and post-conflict peace-building covering Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
He also served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, where he dealt with major issues before the United Nations General Assembly
and the Security Council as well as political and international security matters between Japan and the United States.
Mr. Mochida received his undergraduate degree from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. He received his degree of Master of Public Affairs
in international relations from Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.
Welcome remarks, Professor Prasit
Prapinmongkolkarn
Commissioner,
National Telecommunications Commission of Thailand (NTC)
Prasit Prapinmongkolkarn obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Chulalongkorn
University and a Ph.D. in Communication Engineering from Osaka University, in 1969 and 1976,
respectively. He was a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Chulalongkorn University
when he was elected by the majority of Senators to be the National Telecommunications Commissioner
in October 2004. Since then he has been working on regulatory development relating to new technology
deployment, spectrum allocation and telecommunications industrial promotion.
He is currently a Professor Emeritus of Chulalongkorn University. His area of research interests
include Broadband Wireless Access, IP network and regulatory framework development. He was former
President of Chulalongkorn University Intellectual Property Institute, Director of Chula Unisearch
and also Bangkok Area Representative of IEICE, Japan.
Opening address, H.E. Second Lt. Ranongruk
Suwunchwee
Minister for
Information and Communication Technology, Ministry of
Information and Communication Technology (MICT),
Goverment of Kingdom of Thailand
09:30 — 10:45
Session 1 - Introduction to the Accessibility
Agenda
Session Chairman:
His Excellency Luis Gallegos
Ambassador of Ecuador to the United States; Past
Chair of the UN General Assembly Ad-hoc Preparatory
Committee for the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities, and Chair, G3ict
Ambassador Luis Gallegos received his Law Degree and
JD from the Central University of Ecuador and a MA
from the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy-Harvard University.
He joined the foreign service as a career diplomat
in 1966 where he has served as Undersecretary for
Political Affairs and Acting Minister of Foreign
Affairs in several occasions. He is currently the
Ambassador of Ecuador to the United States, member
of the UN Committee against Torture and other Cruel
and Inhuman Treatments, Chairman of the Global UN
Partnership for Inclusive Information and
Communication Technologies and President of the
International Rehabilitation Foundation. He was
previously appointed as Ambassador to the UN-New
York, Australia, UN-Geneva and El Salvador.
Among his accomplishments in multilateral
organizations are to have been Vice-president of the
Commission of Human Rights, Vice-president of the
Assembly of the member States of WIPO; Vice
president of the 57th Session of the UN General
Assembly; Facilitator for the "Revitalization of the
work of the General Assembly"; Facilitator for the
"Strengthening of the United Nations";
Vice-president of the Executive Board of UNICEF;
Vice-president of the Open-Ended Working Group on
Security Council Reform; President of the Political
Committee of the Non Aligned Movement; Chairman of
the Ad-Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral
International Convention to Promote and Protect the
Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.
Ms. Susan Schorr
Head, a.i. Special Initiative Division (SIS),
ITU
Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)
Susan Carroll Schorr joined the ITU Telecommunications Development Buruea (BDT)
Special Initiatives Division (SIS) in January 2009, bringing with her a wealth of
experience in the telecommunications and information and communication technology (ICT)
regulatory domain in order to promote access to and use of ICT by the Special Initiatives
populations: women and girls, youth and children, indigenous people, persons with
disabilities and people living in underserved and rural areas. Since joining SIS,
Ms. Schorr has launched the latest BDT flagship initiative, Connect a School, Connect a
Community, focused on connecting schools to ICT to serve as community ICT centres for the
Special Initiatives populations. Together with G3ict, Ms. Schorr is also developing the
e-Accessibility Toolkit, promoting the accessibility agenda under the UN Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Ms. Schorr’s work in the Regulatory and Market Environment Division of the Telecommunication
Development Bureau (BDT) of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), focused on the use
of market liberalization to promote universal access to ICT. She joined the ITU in March 2000
as Regulatory Officer and was named Acting Head of the RME in January 2008. Ms. Schorr, who
organized the annual ITU Global Symposium for Regulators, also led the ITU team developing
the joint ITU-infoDev ICT Regulation Toolkit. She is the architect of the Global Regulators’
Exchange (G-REX), an online forum and hotline for regulators and policy makers, and developed
the annual ITU publication, Trends in Telecommunication Reform, which has addressed key
regulatory issues such as Interconnection Regulation, Effective Regulation, Promoting Universal
Access To ICTs, Licensing in an Era of Convergence, Regulating in a Broadband World and NGN
Regulation. She has also authored and edited a series of BDT case studies on effective
regulation, interconnection dispute resolution, licensing, and convergence regulation as well
as case studies providing feedback to regulators from investors, consumers and the private
sector.
Prior to joining BDT, Ms. Schorr practiced antitrust law as an associate in the Washington,
D.C. law firm of Howrey & Simon, LLP (now Howrey Simon Arnold & White LLP). She graduated from
the Georgetown University Law Center in 1987 cum laude and is a member of the California and
D.C. bars. Ms. Schorr has also worked as a telecommunications journalist.
Ms. Aiko Akiyama
Social Affairs Officer,
UNESCAP
Aiko received her Bachelor Degree, Honorary graduates, in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California,
Berkeley and her Master Degree in Disability Studies from the University of Leeds.
She was a Policy Aide to a member of the House of the Representatives in Japan. and specialized in promotion
of disability issues within the legislative body by facilitating meetings between organizations of persons with
disabilities and parliamentarians. She was also a project coordinator at the Japan Pacific Resource Network (NGO),
California and Free-lance Interpreter/Translator/Writer. Her publications/translations include translation of “No
Pity” by Joseph Shapiro (2000); journalistic description of the U.S. disability movements; translation of Californian
system for people with Developmental Disabilities,”Retarding Environment” (1998); and, papers on Asian Pacific Decade
of Disabled Persons and others both in English and Japanese (2002-present).
Presently she is an Officer-in-Charge and Social Affairs Officer, of the Social Policy and Population Section, Social
Development Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
Ms. Saowalak Thongkuay
Regional Development
Officer, Disabled Peoples' International
Asia-Pacific Region (DPI-AP)
Ms. Thongkuay currently serves as a regional focal point of DPI national assemblies and the disability movement in the region. Her
responsibility includes promoting and strengthening the movement and network of women with disabilities at the regional and sub-regional
level; promoting the barrier free society; creating the program to mobilize the disability movement in the region and sub region;
strengthening and promoting international and regional collaboration; and, developing disability and knowledge management.
Saowalak has extensive experience in conducting training such Disability Equality Training (DET) and researches and studies related to
disabilities. She also served as a school ambassador for Redemptorist Vocational School for the Disabled (RVSD) for women with disabilities
project and worked in the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, Royal Thai Government.
She was part of committees including: Sub-committee of Women, Youth, Person with Disability for the Thai Parliament; Sub-committee of
Social work on Accessibility, Bangkok Metropolitant; Sub-committee of Accessibility to Telecommunications; Committee of Accessible
Tourism, Ministry of Tourism and Sports; Executive Board Committee of Foundation of Asia Pacific Development Centre on Disability
(FAPCD); and, Committee of Asia Pacific Disability Forum (APDF) on Gender and Development.
Saowalak received her Master degree of Education Program in Human Resource Development, Ramkhamhaeng University and her B.B.A. Public
Relations from Ramkhamhaeng University.
10:45 — 11:00
Coffee break (Supported by the Ministry of
Information and Communication Technology, Thailand)
11:15 — 12:30
Session 2 - Role of ICTs in Accessibility for
Persons with Disabilities
Session Chairman: Professor Prasit
Prapinmongkolkarn,
National Telecommunications Commission of Thailand (NTC)
Mr. Monthian Buntan
Senator, Government of
Kingdom of Thailand
Mr. Monthian Buntan, servant of the Blind and the Poorest, Born in 1965 in a remote village of
Phrae Province (500 KMs north of Bangkok) Thailand, Monthian has been blind since birth. He
received his primary, secondary and first university education in Thailand before earning his
second bachelors at St. Olaf College and a Masters at University of Minnesota, USA. His experience
and education help shaped and strengthen his belief that there is nothing wrong with his blindness
and that the society has made too big deal out of it.
After serving as a university lecturer for eight years, Monthian left his stable teaching career
behind and became a full time social activist in 2002. He has served in a number of positions
within the organized blind movement in Thailand, currently in his second four-year term as
president of Thailand Association of the Blind. His role in the World Blind Union began officially
in 1996 as one of the blind youth committee member before elected to serve as WBU executive committee
member in 2000.
He is proud to be a part of two major contributions: the World Summit on Information Society
(WSIS) from which the first disability-inclusive policy documents in the mainstream society at
the international level were created and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(CRPD) which is the first thematic international human rights law for PWDs and the first international
human rights treaty of the twenty-first century. Monthian loves braille, but also strive to make ICTs
accessible to all including blind people. His career has become even more complicated and more
challenging since he became a senator of Thailand in 2008.
His most favorite slogan is "I've given up on giving up."
Axel Leblois
Executive Director,
G3ict
Axel
Leblois is President and co-Founder of W2i, the
Wireless Internet Institute. Prior to creating W2i,
Axel Leblois spent over 20 years at the helm of
information technology companies in the United
States including as CEO of Computerworld
Communications, CEO of IDC – International Data
Corporation, President of Bull HN Worldwide
Information Systems – Formerly Honeywell Information
Systems and CEO of ExecuTrain. Axel Leblois is an
Associate Fellow of UNITAR, the United Nations
Institute for Training and Research, and founding
trustee of its North American affiliate CIFAL
Atlanta. Axel Leblois holds an MBA from INSEAD and
is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris.
Over the past five years, W2i has developed programs
with the United Nations ICT Task Force, InfoDev
(World Bank) and UNITAR in the context of the World
Summit on the Information Society. In 2006, the
Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for ICT
and Development selected W2i’s proposal to form
G3ict, the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs in
order to facilitate a multi-stakeholder dialogue on
ICT accessibility issues and develop a knowledge
base and best practices sharing platform in support
of the implementation of the new Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities in matters of
accessible and assistive ICTs.
Professor Dr. Pairash Thajchayapong
Senior Advisor and Specialist, the National Science and Technology
Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand
Dr. Pairash Thajchayapong is currently Senior Advisor at the National Science and Technology
Development Agency (NSTDA), Ministry of Science and Technology, Thailand. He currently serves as
Chairman of Assistive Technology Research Grant Sub-Committee at NSTDA. The topics of research
grants are for example prostheses, speech assessment, fall detection, hearing aids, etc. He own
research interest is in medical image processing with emphasis on computerized x-ray scanner for
local applications.
His former positions are, for example, Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Science and Technology,
President of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, President of NSTDA.
He received his Bachelor Degree from Imperial College , University of London, PhD from Cambridge
University, UK.
12:30 — 13:30
Lunch supported by the Ministry of
Information and Communication Technology, Thailand
13:30 — 15:00
Session 3 - Public Policies and Social and
Economic Impact of ICT Accessibility for Persons
with Disabilities
Session Chairman: to be confirmed
Cynthia D. Waddell
Executive
Director, International Center for Disability
Resources on the Internet (ICDRI)
Cynthia D. Waddell is the Executive Director and Law, Policy and Technology Subject Matter Expert for the International
Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI), a public policy center based in the United States working for
the equalization of opportunities for people with disabilities.
She is a senior accessibility consultant with ITU and an internationally recognized expert on the issue of accessible ICT.
She served as the built environment and accessible technology expert for the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee during the
drafting of the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She is Co-Editor and Co-Author of the ITU/G3ict
"Toolkit for Policy Makers on e-Accessibility and Service Needs for Persons with Disabilities." She also wrote the ITU-T
action plan for the implementation of Resolution 70 of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly held in October
2008 in Johannesburg.
Cynthia has served as a U.S. Department of Justice Mediator for complaints under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A frequent writer and speaker, her books and papers have been translated and cited by organizations including the National
Council on Disability, an independent advisor to the President of the United States, in their 2001 report The Accessible
Future. Most notably, she wrote the first accessible web design standard in the United States that led to recognition as
a best practice in 1995 by the federal government and contributed to the eventual passage of legislation for Electronic
and Information Technology Accessibility Standards (Section 508).
Cynthia is the co-author of two books, Constructing Accessible Web Sites and Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory
Compliance. Named to the “Top 25 women on the Web” by Webgrrls International in 1998, she received the first U.S. Government
Technology Magazine award in 2004 for “Leadership in Accessibility Technology and for Pioneering Advocacy and Education.”
She holds a Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law where she was designated a Public Interest Disability
Rights Scholar.
Mr. Gerard Ellis
Special Advisor to the
Universal Access Committee of the European
Disability Forum (EDF)
Gerard Ellis is a consultant in the area of
Accessibility and Usability under the name of Feel
The BenefIT. He is a Fellow of the Irish
Computer Society, which is the primary Irish
organisation "serving ICT professionals and
specialistss in Ireland".
www.ics.ie He has
been involved both nationally and internationally in
organisations concerned with the social inclusion of
people with disabilities for over 20 years.
He is the former Chairperson of the Irish Council of
People with Disabilities (ICPD), which is the
largest organisation in Ireland representing people
with disabilities, their parents and carers. ICPD
has now been renamed to People with Disabilities in
Ireland (PWDI). He was a National Board member of
PWDI for around 5 years up to October 2006. He has been
active on the National Boards and subcommittees of
various mainstream organisations in Ireland which relate
to ICT issues. This includes the Information Society
Commission which was set up by Government to advance
Ireland’s readiness to take advantage of the Information Age.
Gerard hold a Degree in Economics from University College Dublin.
He is a former member of, and a current special adviser to,
the Universal Access Committee of the European Disability Forum.
EDF promotes the interests of over 50 million people with
disabilities in Europe.
www.edf-feph.org
He has spoken at conferences in 18 countries on 3 continents
on various disability-related issues. These include Washington DC,
Portugal, Spain, Germany, Austria, Greece and Brussels.
He spoke at both phases of the First World Summit on the Information
Society in Geneva and Tunis. He is part of the group working to
produce a CEN Agreement on a curriculum for training ICT Professionals
in Universal Design. CEN is one of the 3 European
Standardisation organisations.
http://www.cen.eu/cenorm/sectors/sectors/isss/workshops/ws-ud-prof-curriculum.asp
Mr. Joon-Ho Hyun
Korea Agency for Digital
Opportunity and Promotion (KADO), Republic of
Korea
Joon-Ho Hyun is a researcher for KADO which is a specialized government subsidiary
devoted to providing comprehensive support for domestic and international digital divide
closure. He received his master degree in Management Information Systems from Hankuk
University of Foreign Studies in 2002.
Now, He is a PhD candidate in Management Information
Systems at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. His research focuses on ICT accessibility
policies and standards. His work has been published in International Cross-Disciplinary
Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A), HCI International 2007, Asia-Pacific Conference on
Computer Human Interaction.
He is a secretariat to make web accessibility and automated
teller machine (ATM) for Korean national standards. In order to promote accessible information
technology for persons with disabilities in Korea, he collaborates with governments, academic,
companies, disability consumer groups and NGOs. He has consulted many governmental agencies
and companies on ICT accessibility issues in Korea since 2002.
Dr. Ow Chee Chung
Executive Director, Society
for the Physically Disabled (SPD), Singapore
Dr. Ow Chee Chung joined SPD in 2003 as the Executive Director. He initiated the high performance
management WOW! Journey in 2004 and since then, the number of clients served has increased five
fold from less than 500 in 2004 to about 2,500 in 2008. Correspondingly, the turnover also grew
from about $4 million to more than $10 million. The high performance management culture has
enabled SPD to successfully stage its first TV charity show raising $3.9 million and establish a
second centre in 2007 to better serve people with disabilities.
Under his leadership, SPD was honoured with the Non Profit Organisation Award in 2006. Prior to
joining SPD, Dr Ow worked as Director, Corporate Services in the Ministry of Community
Development, Youth and Sports for three years where he was responsible for the finance, human
resource, infrastructural development and emergency planning of the whole Ministry.
His earlier experience was in the health industry where he spent 7 years doing clinical rotation
and administrative duties with the Ministry of Health, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and
the National Cancer Centre.
Dr Ow had his education in Singapore and he obtained his MBBS at the National University of
Singapore in 1993. He later went on to pursue a Master Programme in Business Administration
with the University of Surrey (UK) which he completed in 1999.
Ms. Wong Shiow Pyng Assistant Director, Digital
Inclusion Sports & Social Cluster, Infocomm
Development Authority of Singapore (IDA)
Ms Wong Shiow Pyng is the Assistant Director of the Sports & Social Cluster in the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.
Ms Wong is currently heading a team looking into areas of Digital Inclusion, aiming to bridge digital divide in Singapore.
Ms Wong has been in the industry for more than 20 years. She has developed numeral nation-wide projects to promote IT Culture and IT
adoption in Singapore. She was responsible for the formation of the National Trust Council as well as the conceptualisation and
implementation of a national Trust Mark programme for Singapore. In addition, to achieve cross border trust mark recognition, she
was also key and instrumental in the establishment of Asia Trust Mark Alliance involving Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand
later extended to Mexico and other countries. Ms Wong was also one of the pioneering members in the Japan-Singapore AI Centre to
promote the use of Artificial Intelligence in the industry. Her experience included looking after rolling out training programmes
for developing countries while at the Information Technology Institute, the research arm of the National Computer Board.
15:00 — 15:30
Coffee breaksupported by the Ministry of
Information and Communication Technology, Thailand
15:30 — 17:00
Session 4 - Promoting Accessible
Telecommunications for Persons with Disabilities
Session Chairman: to be confirmed
Dr. Alexandra Gaspari
ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector
Dr. Alexandra Gaspari currently works at ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector and provides support for the
accessibility coordination project in ITU-T. She also serves as Secretariat for the Joint Coordination Activity
on Accessibility and Human Factors as well as the Internet Governance Forum Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and
Disability. She holds a specialization doctorate in Political Science with a focus on International Studies and
Human Rights, a master degree in Economics and European Studies and a Degree in International Relations.
Mr. Ryuji Nagata
Manager of Product Department,
NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan
Ryuji Nagata was named a Manager of Product Department, NTT DOCOMO, Japan in April 2005. He was
temporarily transferred to NTT DOCOMO from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in April 2005 and
then he has permanently been transferred to NTT DOCOMO in April 2009. Since working at NTT
DOCOMO, he continues to take charge of product planning at NTT DOCOMO.
Before joining NTT DOCOMO, he took part in developing pen computer at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
from October 1998 to July 2000 and then he had charge of product planning for a third-generation
cellular phone there from August 2000 to March 2005. From July 1993, Mr. Nagata was seconded to APRICOT
COMPUTERS Ltd, where he worked on developing personal computer as a project manager.
Mr. Nagata joined Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in 1987. He was in charge of making a plan for personal
computer since then.
Mr. Alan Chalmers
Manager, Consumer Interests,
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
Alan Chalmers has an Economics degree from the University of Sydney and a Diploma of Education
from the University of Melbourne. He has worked at the Australian Communications and Media
Authority and its predecessor organisation, the Australian Communications Media Authority since
1997. In that time, he has been involved with number portability, numbering and consumer
protection issues. He has been the manager of the ACMA's Consumer Interests Section since
August 2008 and has has an extensive knowledge of the self-regulatory and co-regulatory
environment in Australia.
Dr. Tohru Takagi
Senior Research Engineer, Science and Technology Research
Laboratories, NHK, Japan
Tohru Takagi received his B.E. and M.E. degree in electrical engineering from University of Electro-Communications,
Tokyo, Japan. He also received the Dr. Eng. degree from Toyohashi University of Technology in 2006.
He joined NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) in 1981. Since 1984, he has been with the Science and Technology
Research Laboratories, where he has been engaged in speech synthesis, voice conversion, speech perception, speech
rate conversion, and development of speech recognition-error correction system for real-time closed captioning.
19:00 — 22:00
Gala Dinner at the Amari Watergate Hotel (hosted by ITU)
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
09:00 — 10:30
Session 5 - Promoting Accessible
Telecommunications for Persons with Disabilities -
Country Experiences
Session Chairman:
Ms. Susan Schorr,
Head, a.i. Special Initiative Division (SIS),
ITU
Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)
Ms. Silvia Superina
Manager, Service Access and
Management, Australian Communications and Media
Authority (ACMA)
Silvia Superina has a Bachelor of Arts from Melbourne University. She has worked in the
Telecommunications Industry for 15 years. Silvia recently commenced work at the Australian
Communications and Media Authority as the Manager of the Service Access and Monitoring Section,
which is responsible for managing the contracts for the National Relay Service. She previously
worked at the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman as the Policy and Research Manager.
Professor Kenryu Nakamura
Professor, University
of Tokyo, Japan
Anyone can fall into a situation where he or she finds it difficult to cope with everyday life because of the
deterioration of mental and/or physical capabilities due to advanced aging, illness, injuries, or other
disabilities. For those who actually find themselves in such a situation, science technologies must provide
significant support. Facing a rise in the elderly population and a shortage of labor, the need is arising to
create a techno-welfare society where people with disabilities will be supported by various supportive technologies,
such as personal computers and robots, to lead an independent life, rather than entirely relying on personal
supports such as nursing care and rehabilitation services.
Mr. Nakamura hitherto conducted application research of two types of technology to support people with disabilities:
(1) assistive technology and (2) alternative and augmentative communication (AAC). At the same time, he has been
nurturing and assisting those who develop a database of medical and welfare devices and thereby deliver adequate
supportive technology to individuals with disabilities.
At the moment, however, the situation has yet to reach a point where various supportive technologies are easily
accessible to everyone. He believes that one reason for this lies in the dysfunction of the development-delivery-use
cycle; that is, research on the development of supportive technology is not always accompanied by research on the
use of such technology. More specifically, even if supportive technology has been developed, chances are that it
is not backed by sufficient scientific evidence because of the absence or scarcity of research on the use of the
technology. For instance, information on the needs of users that is available in developing some kinds of technology
is merely what has been obtained by conducting interviews with users, with no efforts made to collect data on the
needs by using scientific means. Also, surveys to assess the size of the market are virtually nonexistent and so
is the evidence for promoting the relevant development efforts and institutional reforms.
He believes that a blueprint for future technologies that everyone can readily understand and use and
"techno-welfare" will begin to emerge if we can present a clear direction for the development of science
technology based on sound evidence. He therefore seeks to create a new interdisciplinary field of research,
"advanced simple assistive technology toward the realization of a techno-welfare society," by scientifically
analyzing the use of various supportive technologies.
Mr. Wares Borvonsin
Director of USO Project & Pilot Project Division,
National Telecommunications Commission of
Thailand
Mr. Borvonsin is currently in charge of National Telecommunications Commission Universal Service Obligation (USO) project and Pilot
Project Division. He oversaw a number of projects such as: Tele-Center for Rural Area Education and Development using ADSL and WiMAX;
Tele-Center for Rural Area Education and Development ; ICT Development for High School Education Project including establishment of a
Digital Library; Tele-health projects; Daisy Telecommunication for Blind Project aimed to provide the information access to the blind
by using the telecommunication network and Daisy software. He is now leading a team in studying a model for Telecommunication Relay
Services (TRS) anticipated to be launched in 2010.
Wares was among those who drafted the 2nd National Telecommunication Master Plan (2008-2010) especially Universal Service Obligation
(USO) part. Being a member of Internet Digital Divide Task Force, he conducted research and study on “Internet Policy Thailand
Reducing Internet Digital Divide”.
Before joining the National Telecommunications Commission of Thailand, Wares worked as management in private telecom companies and was
responsible for various products such as Voice Over IP, Audio-Tex Service telephone system, SMS system, etc.
His diverse background includes politics in which he was a member of the New Aspiration Party and an editor of the party’s magazine.
He also served as an assistant to a senator and a Member of Parliament as well as
part of advisor team to a Deputy Prime Minister.
Wares was a lecturer in the topic “Public Relations for Politics” Master degrees curriculum of the Bangkok University.
He received his Master Degree in Public Administration from the University of La Verne California U.S.A and Bachelor Degree from the
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thailand.
Ms. Noshin Masud Manager-Communications, Universal Service
Fund, Pakistan
Ms. Masud is currently working as Manager-Communications at Universal Service Fund (USF) -Pakistan (An independent
company established by Ministry of IT & Telecom which aims to promote development of telecommunication services in
un-served and under-served areas of Pakistan). She has been involved in Special Projects of USF which include
'Enabling Persons with disabilities to use telecom Services', Establishment of Multi-purpose Community Tele-centres
(MCTs) and Expansion and Creation of Tele-medicine Networks.
Previously Noshin had worked with Ministry of IT and Telecom where in the capacity of Senior Project Manager, she
was reviewing and inspecting projects pertaining to HR Capacity Building, National Productivity Enhancement,
Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Product Development and ICT Market Development. Her experience also
includes serving as Assistant Director Programmes at Commission on Science & Technology for Sustainable Development
in South where she was responsible for Developing, implementing, managing and evaluating program portfolios of 21
member countries and 14 Centers of Excellence of COMSATS.
She has a Masters degree in Business Administration from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad-Pakistan and also has
papers regarding sustainable development to her credit.
11:00 — 12:30
Session 6 - Promoting Accessible Websites and
Internet Access for Persons with Disabilities
Session Chairman: to be confirmed
Mr. Shadi Abou-Zahra
Activity Lead, W3C/WAI
International Program Office, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Shadi Abou-Zahra coordinates WAI outreach in Europe, and accessibility evaluation techniques.
He is the Activity Lead of the WAI International Program Office, which includes groups that are
responsible for education and outreach, coordination with research, general discussion on Web
accessibility, coordination with the WAI Technical Activity, and WAI liaisons with other
organizations including standards organizations and disability groups. Shadi chairs the W3C
Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG), is a staff person of the WAI Ageing
Education and Harmonisation (WAI-AGE) project, and participates in the W3C Education and Outreach
Working Group (EOWG). Shadi previously worked with the United Nations and other international
organizations providing Web design and development. He holds a masters degree in computer
science from the Technical University of Vienna, Austria.
Ms. Cynthia Waddell
Executive Director,
International Center for Disability Resources on
the Internet (ICDRI see above
Mr. Gerard Ellis
Special Advisor to the
Universal Access Committee of the European
Disability Forum (EDF) see above
Ms. Nirmita Narasimhan
Programme Manager,
Centre for Internet and Society, India
Nirmita Narasimhan is a Programme Manager with the Centre for Internet and Society
and works extensively in the area of technology access for disabled persons.
The nature of her work ranges from research and policy drafting and review to
advocacy through campaigns, workshops etc.
Nirmita’s current work focuses on certain specific areas, namely, working towards
policy formulation for internet and electronic accessibility for disabled persons
in India, reviewing the Indian Copyright Act and working towards amendments to
the Act to include exceptions and limitations for the print challenged, working at
a national level towards support of the World Blind Union treaty at the WIPO,
organising workshops on web accessibility for web developers in different cities
around the country, supporting a wiki on accessibility, working towards making
accessible materials available for the visually challenged etc. Nirmita’s work can
be viewed at www.cis-india.org.
Nirmita graduated from Law College in 2002 and since then has worked in different
areas ranging from research to practice. She received the MS Lyn scholarship for
young lawyers in 2005. Over the years Nirmita has been very interested in working
on issues of copyright and access to knowledge for disabled persons and has developed
a keen understanding of the issue in India. Nirmita is also a proficient vocal classical
singer and has completed her MPhil in Karnatic music from the Delhi University with honours.
12:30 — 13:30
Lunch supported by the National Telecommunication
Commission of Thailand (NTC)
11:00 — 12:30
Session 7 - Promoting Assistive Solutions for
Persons with Disabilities
Session Chairman: to be confirmed
Ms. Debra Ruh
Founder and CEO of TecAccess
Debra Ruh is the Chairman and Founder of TecAccess, an award-winning suite of services that ensures our clients
meet their Section 508 Compliance, ADA, Accessibility, and Diversity Goals, while simultaneously maximizing their
ROI and becoming socially responsible corporate leaders.
We are an SBA 8(a) Certified, Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), Virginia SWaM, and Woman-Owned Company with
international reach. All of our associates are expert accessibility consultants, many of whom have disabilities.
We are proud to also be a leading employer of veterans with disabilities. As a result, customers realize the
business advantage of reaching and better serving people with disabilities, the mature audience, and veterans with
disabilities - three groups that make up the world's fastest growing minority group and a powerful spending force.
Debra created TecAccess in 2001. She has grown the organization into a profitable multi-million dollar company
and it is the most awarded provider of professional accessibility and usability testing and training, diversity
solutions, targeted marketing solutions, focus groups and usability studies in the world. As a unique differentiator,
Debra utilizes a one-of-a-kind telecommuting model that allows employees, many of whom have disabilities ranging from
intellectual, mental health to physical disabilities, to work from their homes, rehab facilities, and hospital rooms.
TecAccess has over 60 associates with disabilities, and is also a leading employer of disabled veterans and baby
boomers.
Debra serves proudly as an officer and board member of the US Business Leadership Network (USBLN), Virginia Business
Leadership Network (VABLN), VA CEO Council, and the Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center (PEATC) Advisory
Panel. Debra has won many awards for her efforts including: Federal Computer Week’s 2008 “Fed Top 100 Award,”
ANCOR Foundation’s 2008 Community Builder Award, 2007 Enterprising Women Magazine’s Advocacy Award, Northrop
Grumman’s 2007 Community Support Award, 2007 Wells Fargo/NAWBO “Trailblazer” Award, 2006 Women in Technology (WIT)
Leadership Award, 2005 Rising Star award by the National Association of Women Business Owners, 2005 Social
Responsibility Award by the America-China Foundation, 2005 SBA Small Business Person of the Year for Region III, and
was picked as one of the “Most Powerful Women in IT” by Virginia Business Magazine.
TecAccess has been awarded the prestigious US Department of Labor (NFI) Presidential New Freedom Initiative Award,
Virginia Business Magazine’s - 2008 “Small Business Success Story of the Year” Award, Virginia Venture Forum’s 2007
“Top 10 Companies to Watch” and Growth Companies to Watch Award, 2006 Virginia Board for People with Disabilities
Achievement Award, and the 2005 Lighthouse International Employer of the Year.
Debra has been invited to speak on Accessibility, Transition, Disabilities and Workforce Initiatives all over the
US and world, including recent requests to present before the European Union, Qatar, Poland, UK, Germany, Brussels,
Ireland, Russia, Asia and Africa. Debra has authored many articles for national publications and is a major
supporter for the rights of people and veterans with disabilities. TecAccess has been featured on CNN, NPR, CBS,
ABC NBC and US News & World Report. Debra's work experience includes CEO and Founder of TecAccess, Founder and
Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Performance Solutions, Vice President and Dean of Distance Learning with
Market Street Mortgage, Vice President of Training & Development and Quality Control for SunTrust Mortgage.
Mr. Tat Leong
Chew
Microsoft Singapore
As National Technology Officer (NTO), Tat Leong is responsible for engaging current and next
generation policy makers on technology trends and policy. He drives Microsoft’s efforts to
promote the use of innovative technologies for the community.
Tat Leong has 21 years of working experience. Prior to joining Microsoft, Tat Leong was
previously Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Renault Retail Group (RRG), Paris, a wholly owned
subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan. RRG handles sales and servicing of Renault, Nissan and Dacia
cars over the whole of Europe.
At Renault, he worked on IT systems across all domains of car manufacturing, from assembly line,
production planning, car sales and distribution. In particular, he was head of the Operations
Research team Renault's IT Division and was the company’s resident OR expert. Before France,
Tat Leong was in Singapore where he worked on the Port of Singapore Authority’s ship and yard
planning project for which he received the National Science and Technology Award in 1993.
Dr. Pansak Siriruchatapong
Director,
National Electronics and Computer Technology
Center (NECTEC), Thailand
Dr. Pansak Siriruchatapong is the Director of National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC).
He earned the undergraduate and master degrees of Electrical Engineering from Kasetsart University, Thailand.
Dr. Pansak received the D.ING degree from INPG (Institut Nationale Polytechnique de Grenoble), ENSERG
(École Nationale Supérieure d'Électronique et de Radioélectricité de Grenoble), France in 1984. During
1984-1993 he worked as a lecturer at the Engineering Faculty of Kasetsart University and became an Assistant
Dean of Research in 1994. Meanwhile, he also served as a member of the Electrical Committee of the Engineering
Institute of Thailand under H.M. The King's Patronage, Board Member of Electronics Association of Thailand, Board
Member of Communication Authority of Thailand, and Board of Measuring Equipment Member of Thai-Japan Technology
Advancement Association.
Dr. Pansak was a Deputy Director of NECTEC since
1993. His current research interests are electronics
and computer technologies, microelectronics,
software, and embedded systems. He also serves as a
President of Thai Embedded Systems Association, and
the Director of Government Information Technology
Services during 2003-2006.
Dr. Pansak was appointed the Executive Director of
NECTEC in October 2006. During the period 2006-2009
serving as the Director of NECTEC, he emphasizes on
ICT development in three key areas: microelectronics,
software, and embedded systems with the aim of
providing research and development to create and
support the ICT industry in Thailand.
Dr. Emdad Khan
Founder, President and CEO, InternetSpeech
Dr. Emdad Khan is president and CEO of InternetSpeech. He founded the company in 1998 with the vision to develop innovative technology for
accessing information on the Internet anytime, anywhere, using just an ordinary telephone and the human voice.
As a pioneer in the Internet voice space, Khan is a frequent speaker at voice-recognition, Internet application and other industry trade
shows and conferences. He holds 14 patents and has published more than 40 papers on the advent of voice technology on the Internet, neural
nets, fuzzy logic, intelligent systems, VLSI and optics. Khan’s acute technical knowledge and keen understanding of emerging markets has
played an important role in the development of InternetSpeech’s first product/service netECHO, the only product available today that
delivers complete voice Internet access.
During his career, Khan invented, defined, developed and deployed worldwide new intelligent software products for micro-controller-based
home appliances. He has also created and deployed speech recognition Internet applications. He has over 20 years of experience with large
semi-conductor companies, including Intel and National.
Khan has taught courses at universities and industry conferences on VLSI, neural net and fuzzy logic. He holds a doctorate in computer
science, master of science degrees in electrical engineering and engineering management and a bachelor of science degree in electrical
engineering.
15:00 — 15:30
Coffeesupported by the National
Telecommunication Commission of Thailand (NTC)
15:30 — 17:00
Session 8 - Promoting Assistive Solutions for
Persons with Disabilities - Country Experiences
Session Chairman: to be confirmed
Dr. Joyojeet Pal
University of Washington,
Seattle, USA
Joyojeet Pal is a research associate at the Center for Information and Society and the Department of Computer
Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. His work is primarily in the use of technology
in low-resource scenarios. He heads a project at the University of Washington, looking at the impacts of
technology centers on issues of employability for people with disabilities. His team is currently examining the
role of technology within the larger ecosystem of socio-economic opportunities for people with disabilities in
Guatemala, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico, and El Salvador.
Joyojeet's past work has been in design ethnography for
children's technology use in schools and computer centers in the developing world. As part of this research,
he has been involved in the conceptualization of shared-use models of computer use for children. Joyojeet is an
US National Science Foundation (NSF) Computing Innovation Fellow for 2009-2010. He received his doctorate in
City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley.
Asst. Professor Dr. Proadpran Punyabukkana
Associate Dean, Faculty of Engineering,
Chulalongkorn University (on behalf of the
Ministry of Information and Communication
Technology Thailand)
After working for an Airline as a computer analyst for several years, Dr. Punyabukkana joined the Department of Computer Engineering,
Chulalongkorn University in 1993. She received a Fulbright scholarship in 1996 to pursue her graduate study at Claremont Graduate
University in California, where she earned her Ph.D. in Information Science.
The complexity and the beauty of languages have captured her interest be they human languages or that of computer. Her Ph.D. hence
focuses on the understanding of computer language design in general, the object oriented in particular. When she resumed her position
after her graduation, she and her colleague joined forces in pioneering a research group at the Department of Computer Engineering to
dedicate to the spoken language systems where her ambition is simply to make computer understands Thai. Later, it became apparent that
most of her works are applied to applications that help the disabled, particularly the blinds. Since then, she has shifted her research
focus to the field of Assistive Technology. Dr. Punyabukkana has started and led the Assistive Technology Lab at the Department of
Computer Engineering to answer the needs of the locals.
Dr. Punyabukkana is currently an Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering. Since 2008, she holds an administrative function as
Associate Dean for Information Technology at Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Engineering. Dr. Punyabukkana joined IEEE Region 10
Executive Committee 2009-2010 as the Educational Activities coordinator.
Professor Dr. Arun Mehta
President, Bidirectional Access Promotion Society (BAPSI),
India
Professor Metha obtained a B. Tech degree from IIT Delhi in 1975, a Masters in Computer Sciences from the State
University of Stony Brook in two semesters thereafter with the equivalent of a 4.0 GPA. He then worked with
Siemens AG in Erlangen, Germany for three years, designing the electricals, electronics and process control
software for steel rolling mills. In 1979, he returned to Mumbai, India, where he designed and marketed hard
wired and programmable solutions for a large variety of industrial control problems. In 1982 Arun joined the PhD
program of the Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, as a fellow of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. His solution for
a time-optimal crane controller demonstrated a 5% improvement in the throughput of a 35-ton grab crane at
Hamburg-Wedel, and was also presented at the World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control
in Munich, 1987. he was awarded the "Dr.-Ing" title the same year.
On returning to India, he became the Managing Director of Indata Com Private Limited, in which capacity he write
software, teach, and provide consultancy services. His clients include Tata Iron and Steel Ltd, Jamshedpur, and
the University of Pittsburgh, for whom he developed software that helps in the early detection of Alzheimers'
disease. He has written extensively for publications in India, Pakistan, the US and Germany. In 2000, Arun started
radiophony.com together with Vickram Crishna, a .com dedicated to audio-centric solutions to the problems of the
under-privileged. At the request of Professor Stephen Hawking, he wrote eLocutor, free and open source software
that allows persons as severely disabled as him to write and speak. He has taught programming as a volunteer at
the National Association for the Blind, helping my students become members of international development teams of
cutting edge software that will help improve the lives of not just the blind.
Currently, his passion is software that might make it easier for children with autism, cerebral palsy and
dyslexia to communicate, which is being made available free of cost at skid.org.in and documented at
arpitblog.wordpress.com. This software received the Manthan Award in 2008.
He has conducted three workshops, each a week long, with autistic children and their care givers, to find ways
that persons with severe communication disorders might learn to use the computer to communicate. He mentor a few
students at school and college level with severe disabilities, helping them with their computing problems,
even writing special software to make it easier for them to communicate.
From 1989 to 1991, he was President of the Indian section of Amnesty International, and has since been at the
forefront of initiatives to improve cyber rights and telecommunications policy, to allow rapid spread of the
benefits of information technologies to all segments of society. He is part of the ONI-Asia project, in which he is
seeking to make the monitoring of Internet filtering in India sustainable.
He moderate several Internet discussion groups, most notably india-gii@cpsr.org which brings together experts
from academia, government, industry and the media to critically examine India's bumpy progress along the
information highway. He is a professor and chairman of the computer engineering department at JMIT, Radaur,
an engineering college in rural Haryana, 180km from Delhi. He has taught Pascal, PL/1, Visual Basic, Ruby, Perl,
C and C++ programming, as well as web technologies, including Ruby on Rails.
He has co-authored a book "Technology and Competitiveness", which was published by Sage, and compares the machine
tool industries of Brazil and India. In 2007, O'Reilly published "Beautiful Code", in which the world's leading
programmers, including Brian Kernighan and Matz, contributed a chapter each. In this Jolt-award winning book, he is
proud author of a chapter on eLocutor, entitled "When a button is all that connects you to the world."
Professor Dr. D.P.M. Weerakkody
University
of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Professor Weerakkody obtained his B.A. in Western Classical Culture in 1971 from the then
University of Ceylohn Peradeniya, now the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and Ph.D. in
Classics in 1977 from the University of Hull, UK. He is currently the Professor of Western
Classics at the University of Peradeniya. He is also the present coordinator of the Special
Needs Resource Centre at the same university, and the current vice-chairman of the DAISY Lanka
Foundation.
In addition to lecturing on various aspects of classical culture, Professor Weerakkody is engaged
in research and publications on Greek and Roman contactts with South Asia as well as on the
ancient history of persons with disabilities. His book "Taprobane: Ancient Sri Lanka as Known to
Greeks and Romans" (Turnhout, Belgium, 1997) is now the standard reference work in English on the
subject.
Professor Weerakkody has conducted many training workshops on ICT for persons with vision
impairments and the production of digital talking books using the DAISY standard and technology.
In July he conducted a very successful six-day training workshop on the braille music notation
for twelve music teachers with vision impairments from various parts of Sri Lanka.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
09:00 — 10:30
Session 9 - Regional Mechanism, International
Cooperation, and Ways Forwards
Session Chairman: to be confirmed
Dr. Mamoru Iwabuchi
Associate Professor,
University of Tokyo, Japan
Our research theme consists of two key components, information technology and assistive technology for people
with difficulties, such as elderly people and people with disabilities. In order to have effective use of
assistive technology, fringe information, such as information about living environment, family and friends,
interest, and life goals, is important, as well as direct information about their disabilities. Advanced network
technology and mobile technology enable effective collection and sharing such information. Technical empowerment
includes not only physical effect but also psychological effect; helping the user to have self-confidence and
find their potential, which will change what people see toward disabilities/difficulties in the society.
Ms. Kanitta Kamolwat
Director, Asia-Pacific Development Center on
Disability (APCD)
Ms. Kanitta Kamolwat has been involved in community development for more than 20 years, especially in the context of empowerment of
people’s organization in rural areas and poverty alleviation. Currently her area of expertise has been utilized for disability and
development in Thailand and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, as the director of the Asia-Pacific Development Center on
Disability (APCD), and also the director of policy and strategy bureau, the National Office for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities
(NEP), the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, Royal Thai government.
Mr. Ryuhei Sano
JICA Expert on Networking & Collaboration on Knowledge Management,
APCD
Mr. Ryuhei Sano has committed to work on disability since his accident at the age of 6. As the knowledge management expert from the
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), he has been engaged in his job at the Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability
(APCD) in Bangkok, Thailand. His main assignment is to document good practices in various formats, particularly focusing on tacit
knowledge which persons with disabilities have uniquely accumulated according to their experiences. Formerly he was in charge of
newsletter publication and website management at the Japan Association of Community Workshops for Persons with Disabilities in Tokyo
as well as the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington D.C.
Mr. Jagath Ratnayake Assistant Director,
Policy and International Relations, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission
of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
Jagath Ratnayake holds a bachelors degree in Arts with honours from University of Peradeniya, specializing in the field
of Sociology. He obtained his Masters degree in Sociology from the University of Peradeniya , and completed a course in
telecom policy at the University of Blekingy Sweden.
He served as a Senior Community Relations Officer at the Ministry of Housing Public Utility (Community Water Supply
Programme Unit) and worked as an Assistant Sociologist in the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA) project programme in
Sri Lanka from 1991 to 1997. Since 1998 he has been with the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka as
Assistant Director (Policy)in the “Policy and International Relations Division”.
His work involves telecom policy issues, research and development activities with Universities & Research Institutions
and emergency telecommunications activities. He is actively involved in co-ordinating the eNABLE project under which
ICT facilities will be provided for persons with disabilities in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Wisit Atipayakoon Telecom/ICT Specialist, ITU Regional Office for
Asia and the Pacific
Mr. Atipayakoon joined the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2005 as a Telecom/ICT Specialist in the Telecommunication
Development Bureau (BDT) based in the ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok. He is in charge of the Asia-Pacific
regional initiatives and activities on Rural communication development; Emergency telecommunications, and Cybersecurity.
Bringing with him many years of professional experience in Information and Communication Technology and project management, he is
currently leading a number of projects such as: Project on rural ICT policy advocacy, knowledge sharing and capacity building –
a joint project with the Asian Development Bank; Universal Service Obligation (USO) policy development project in Thailand; Project
on building capacity of harnessing ICTs for disempowered/marginalized communities in Sri Lanka; Project on rural/outer island
communications in the Pacific, and etc.
Wisit has extensive exposure in ICT development especially in remote and rural areas in the Asia-Pacific region as well as in remote
islands of the Pacific. His projects have set up a number of community information centres providing access to ICTs through various
communication technologies and models for children, farmers, persons with disabilities and other under privileged people and
communities.
Prior joining ITU, he worked for Lucent Technologies, Global Crossing, Asia Netcom, and SAS whereas he practised engineering and
management in transmission network design and implementation, sub-sea cable networks, data mining and data warehousing, business
process reengineering and continuity programme.
Wisit received his Bachelor Degree in Computer Engineering from King Mongkut Institute Technology of Ladkrabang in Bangkok, Thailand
and is a Certified Project Management Professional.
10:30 — 11:00
Coffee supported by the Department of Broadband,
Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE),
Australian Government
11:00 — 12:30
Session 10 - Workshop: Self Assessment Tool
Conducted by:
- Mr. Axel Leblois, Executive Director,
The Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (G3ict)
- Ms. Susan Schorr, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)
Special Initiative Division (SIS)
12:30 — 13:30
Lunch supported by the Department of Broadband,
Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE),
Australian Government
13:30 — 15:00
Session 11 - Workshop: Public Procurement
Conducted by:
- Ms. Cynthia Waddell, Executive
Director, International Center for Disability
Resources on the Internet (ICDRI)
15:00 — 15:30
Coffee supported by the Department of Broadband,
Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE),
Australian Government
15:30 — 17:00
Session 12 - Workshop: Web Accessibility
Conducted by:
- Ms. Cynthia Waddell, Executive
Director, International Center for Disability
Resources on the Internet (ICDRI)
- Mr. Shadi Abou-Zahra, Activity Lead, W3C/WAI International
Program Office, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
(WAI)
17:00 — 17:30
Closing Session
Closing Remarks, United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific (UNESCAP)
Closing Remarks by Dr. Eun-Ju Kim,
Head, ITU Regional Office for Asia and the
Pacific
Welcome remarks, Dr. Eun-Ju
Kim
Welcome remarks, Mr. Shigeru Mochida
Welcome remarks, Professor Prasit
Prapinmongkolkarn
Opening address, H.E. Second Lt. Ranongruk
Suwunchwee
His Excellency Luis Gallegos
Ms. Susan Schorr
Ms. Aiko Akiyama
Mr. Monthian Buntan
Axel Leblois
Professor Dr. Pairash Thajchayapong
Cynthia D. Waddell
Mr. Gerard Ellis
Mr. Joon-Ho Hyun
Dr. Ow Chee Chung
Ms. Wong Shiow Pyng
Dr. Alexandra Gaspari
Mr. Ryuji Nagata
Mr. Alan Chalmers
Dr. Tohru Takagi
Ms. Silvia Superina
Professor Kenryu Nakamura
Mr. Wares Borvonsin
Ms. Noshin Masud
Mr. Shadi Abou-Zahra
Ms. Nirmita Narasimhan
Ms. Debra Ruh
Mr. Tat Leong
Chew
Dr. Pansak Siriruchatapong
Dr. Emdad Khan
Dr. Joyojeet Pal
Asst. Professor Dr. Proadpran Punyabukkana
Professor Dr. Arun Mehta
Professor Dr. D.P.M. Weerakkody
Dr. Mamoru Iwabuchi
Ms. Kanitta Kamolwat
Mr. Ryuhei Sano
Mr. Jagath Ratnayake