Document :

ITU-D SG01 RAPPORTEUR GROUP MEETING  Contribution  74

Title :

Strengthening Consumer Protection and Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) through Regulatory Standards and Compliance Monitoring - The Case of the United Republic of Tanzania

Date :

2026-09-11

Source :

Tanzania

AI/Question :

Q5/1

Meeting :

2026-09-28

Access :

Restricted to TIES users [ITU-D]

Abstract :

Persons with disabilities (PwDs) represent 11.2% of Tanzania's population according to the 2022 Population and Housing Census, compared with 9.3% in the 2012 Census, an increase of 1.9 percentage points; yet remain disproportionately excluded from accessible communication services. Monitoring conducted by the National Regulatory Authority across five (5) mobile network operators found uneven compliance with existing accessibility guidelines, underscoring persistent gaps between policy commitments and lived consumer experience.
This contribution presents Tanzania's multi-pronged approach to strengthening consumer protection and meaningful accessibility for all, anchored on a newly published (TZS 4591:2025) Communication and ICT Products and Services Accessibility Standard for Persons with Disabilities (PwD) with an assigned-responsibility implementation roadmap.
The approach combines structured compliance monitoring of mobile network operators with direct feedback from persons with disabilities and the use of the ITU ICT Accessibility Self-Assessment Toolkit to assess national accessibility implementation.