Knowledge Exchange on ICT Accessibility: Making ICTs Accessible and Inclusive for All will take place on 18 April, 13:30 - 14:30.
This session will examine ICT accessibility challenges and opportunities and discuss links to the Sustainable Development Goals.
This event is organized within the framework of the Regional Initiative for Europe on Accessibility adopted by the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2014, Dubai. The European Regional Initiative aims at promoting e-accessibility in the ICT ecosystem, providing the administrations with the most suitable solutions available, while sharing the best practices at the regional level with the use of e-education solutions.
AGENDA
Context Introduction:
- Jaroslaw Ponder, Coordinator for Europe Region
Moderation:
- Susan Schorr, Head of Special Initiatives Division, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU
Panelists:
- Sarah Herrlinger, Senior Manager, Global Accessibility Policy & Initiatives, Apple
- Jean Judes, Executive Director of Beit Issie Shapiro, Presentation
- Andrea Saks, G3ICT
Panelists' Biographies
Sarah Herrlinger is a Senior Manager, Global Accessibility Policy & Initiatives for Apple. Sarah leads Accessibility for Apple — including Apple's award winning VoiceOver screenreader software for people who are blind, Made for iPhone Hearing Aids, and other initiatives we create that support Apple's culture of inclusion. At Apple, Accessibility is championed as a basic human right and influences all Apple platforms. Since joining Apple in 2003, Sarah has served in several key Accessibility roles, including in Apple's Education organization, focusing on the use of Apple technology to support all learners, as well as defining the Accessibility product strategy across the Apple ecosystem.
Jean Judes is the Executive Director of Beit Issie Shapiro, Israel's leading non-profit organization in the field of disabilities, which impacts on over 30,000 people annually. Beit Issie Shapiro is providing direct educational and therapeutic services, and also works to change attitudes in the community, influence policy, and develop knowledge through research and training. Jean has been working in the field of disabilities for the past 20 years. She is dedicated to bringing about social change in the field of disabilities in Israel, and believes that in order to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities and bring about social change, it is important to focus on lowering barriers: physical, social, psychological, financial, and educational.
Andrea Saks is an international telecommunications specialist for the deaf. She has been a key person in the creation of all ITU accessibility initiatives and events. She began her work at the ITU starting in 1991 with assisting engineers in writing the first accessibility standard for Text Telephony ITU-T V.18. Her accessibility experience began very early in her life with aiding her deaf parents with telephone calls at the age of two and then later she went on help her father in his work in founding the first deaf text telephone network in the early 1960. She is the Chairman of the Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (ITU-T JCA-AHF), which coordinates the accessibility work throughout all of the ITU and communicates directly with other UN agencies. She is also the coordinator of the Internet Governance Forum’s Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability (DCAD) helping to raise accessibility awareness for industry responsibility and for direct inclusion of persons with disabilities globally.
In 2008 she was given the ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award and made a Laureate for her lifelong work in accessibility to telecommunications and ICTs for persons with Disabilities.
