Abstracts

Shadi Abou-Zahra, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, Austria
“Web Accessibility Now”

Making websites accessible to people with disabilities is a process rather than an end-goal in itself. It requires the commitment and involvement of the designers, developers, managers, and policy makers to set the right measures and take the necessary actions. The WAI-ACT Project develops resources to support these stakeholders in applying the W3C/WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, that is internationally recognized as the standard for web accessibility. This presentation introduces the resources developed through the WAI-ACT Project. It highlights how you can benefit from these resources, and how you can get involved in developing and promoting them locally.

Peter Major, DCAD Co-coordinator, Switzerland
"Activities of ITU and the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) on Accessibility for persons with disabilities: an overview"

The ITU has been in the forefront of promoting and providing recommendations and standards to facilitate the implementation of relevant provisions of the Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In the presentation activities of the ITU in this field are reviewed. Possible outcomes related to accessible telecommunication of future major ITU events such as the World Conference on International Telecommunication or World Telecommunication Policy Forum will be discussed. Relevant recommendations of the CSTD Working Group on Improvements to the IGF will be presented.

Jorge Plano, ISOC, Argentina
"The growth of the e-book market: Promises and dangers for accessibility"

This presentation will show the present state of the e-book market from an accessibility view point, considering the technical standards, the characteristics of the devices and the rights and related regulations.

Arun Mehta, Bidirectional Access Promotion Society, India
"Those who fall between the cracks: the case of the deaf-blind"

Information and communication technologies have been revloutionary, for those who managed access to them. Those who do not succeed in getting onto the information highway find themselves in no better a situation than they were centuries ago. A glaring example of this are the deaf-blind, for whom the only means of accessing a computer was via refreshable Braille, an exorbitantly expensive device, prone to mechanical failure in dusty conditions. Consequently almost none of the estimated million deaf-blind in India had Internet access.

We developed a free Android-based app that makes it possible for the deaf-blind to gain access to SMS via a smart phone, but the poor uptake in the community prompted us to look closer at the problems of the community. The census does not count them, the school system has no idea how to educate them -- if you do not know your ABC, a texting app does little for you.

The deaf-blind lack basic human rights as a result of their inability to communicate. As such, they offer a sobering reminder of how much still has to be done, to achieve inclusion.