ITU - Accessibility

05 April 2013 - In Memoriam: Cynthia Waddell

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:00:31 +0000

It is with the deepest regret that I announce the death of my colleague and close friend, Dr. Cynthia Waddell, a lifelong advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities and a world-renowned expert in disability rights law, public policy and electronic and information technology.

The improving accessibility of technologies, the built environment and the job market owes an incredible amount to Cynthias achievements over a lifetime dedicated to enhancing social inclusion for the roughly 650 million people across the world living with some form of disability.

Cynthia was held in the highest esteem by all those fortunate enough to have worked with her. She will be sorely missed by her colleagues, friends and the millions of people around the globe to have benefited from her tireless advocacy and activism.*

*This is an extract from a blog piece in tribute to Cynthia Waddell. Entitled Accessibility Loses a Great Champion, the article is authored by Andrea Saks, Convener of ITUs Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF) and Coordinator of the Internet Governance Forums Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability (DCAD).

Read the full blog piece here

25 February 2013 - ITU Blog: Working with our Members to promote ICT access for persons with disabilities

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:38:14 +0000

According to the World Report on Disability issued jointly by the World Health Organization and the World Bank approximately one billion people worldwide live with some form of disability.

The importance of extending ICTs to persons with disabilities and special need has become more critical than ever.

Within this context, Article 8B in the recently amended International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) calls on ITU Member States to promote access for persons with disabilities to international telecommunication services.

The ITU Development Bureau has been supporting ITU Members to ensure accessible ICTs for persons with disabilities through a range of activities and resources.

Read more...

28 September 2012 - Workshop on The Sustainable Benefits of Inclusion on the Internet, Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability, 7 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:45:10 +0000

Workshop on The Sustainable Benefits of Inclusion on the Internet, Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability, 7 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

10 September 2012 - Joint Workshop on Remote Participation reality and principles, Diplo Foundation and Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability, 8 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:47:07 +0000

Joint Workshop on Remote Participation reality and principles, Diplo Foundation and Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability, 8 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan

28 March 2012 - ITU Workshop on Making Television Accessible - from Idea to Reality hosted and supported by NHK Tokyo, Japan, 28 May 2012

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:42:44 +0000

ITU Workshop on Making Television Accessible - from Idea to Reality hosted and supported by NHK Tokyo, Japan, 28 May 2012

20 January 2012 - Tutorial on Audio Visual Media Accessibility - New Delhi, India, 14 - 15 March 2012

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:12:08 +0000

Tutorial on Audio Visual Media Accessibility - New Delhi, India, 14 - 15 March 2012

Convening Letter

01 December 2011 - ITU Secretary-General at M-Enabling Summit on ICT accessibility

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:13:22 +0000

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Toure will be delivering keynote remarks and chairing an international panel on policies and programmes for ICT accessibility at the M-Enabling Summit being held in Washington DC on 5 December. This multi-stakeholder Summit will bring together key players from industry, government and regulatory agencies, civil society, international and regional organizations and funding partners among others to share experiences and showcase the latest mobile applications and services for seniors and persons with disabilities.

03 November 2011 - ITU Workshop on "Telecommunications Relay Services for Persons with Disabilities", Geneva, Switzerland, 25 November 2011

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:56:06 +0000

ITU Workshop on "Telecommunications Relay Services for Persons with Disabilities", Geneva, Switzerland, 25 November 2011

Convening Letter (TSB Circular 207)

On-line Registration

03 November 2011 - Meeting of Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF) , Geneva, Switzerland, 24 November 2011

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:48:30 +0000

Meeting of Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF) , Geneva, Switzerland, 24 November 2011

Online Registration

JCA-AHF

13 July 2011 - Workshop on relay services for persons with disabilities

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:39:38 +0000

ITU is calling for contributions to a workshop on relay services for persons with disabilities. The event will take place at ITU Headquarters, Geneva on 25 November 2011.

Relay services allow people with disabilities to communicate with standard telephone users. Communication may be made by speech, text, video or any combination. Video connections are particularly important for those who wish to use sign language. Modern relay services are making increasing use of the Internet, which permits a much wider range of communication terminals for users with disabilities. Smartphones, laptops, tablets and normal desktop PCs have all been used and more devices will appear in the future.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) promotes the use of ICTs to enable full participation of persons with disabilities in all aspects of life, on an equal basis with others. It requires governments to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access to communications and information technology. The increasing number of countries adopting the UNCRPD will need advice on the provision of relay services and this workshop aims to meet that need. ITU-T Question 26/16 is currently studying relay services with an aim to advise in those areas through ITU-T Technical Papers and Recommendations. In this context, the workshop is intended as a forum where ideas, problems and good practices can be shared. Existing and future relay service suppliers will be able to share experiences with governments, regulators, standards makers, user groups and users; the outcomes will be fed into the Q26/16 studies.

This workshop will address the following topics:

Experience with operation of relay services, both positive and negative
User requirements
Performance parameters
Innovation in the design or implementation of relay services
The use of relay services to access emergency services
Regulatory aspects
Funding of relay services
User experiences that have improved the lives of persons with disabilities
Good practices on improving awareness of relay services.

Anyone wishing to make a presentation during the event should contact the organiser, Bill Pechey, (bpechey@computency.co.uk, +44 1491 681236) by 31 August 2011 at the latest. Requests will be honoured based on speaking slot availability and thematic consistency. Contributions on other topics relevant to the theme may be accepted.

31 May 2011 - Audiovisual Media Accessibility group outlines work programme

Tue, 31 May 2011 08:24:36 +0000

The kick off meeting of the Focus Group on Audiovisual Media Accessibility (FG AVA) took place on 26 May 2011 and was a great success.

There was wide participation from key stakeholders, both physically and virtually using remote participation tools. Those participating included universities and research centres, organizations representing persons with disabilities, AV media companies, network and service providers, vendors, organizations representing consumer electronics manufacturers, WIPO, government and regulatory bodies. The aim of this first meeting was to define the scope of the Groups work interpret the objectives, define core terms and agree on procedures.

The Focus Group addressed the need to mainstream audiovisual media accessibility focusing on making digital media accessible for all, in particular for the elderly and persons with disabilities.

It was decided to organize the work within the following areas:

Captioning
Audio/Video description and spoken captions
Visual signing and sign language
Emerging access services
Electronic Programming Guides and on-air promotion
Participation and digital media
Digital Broadcast Television
IPTV
Mobile and handheld devices
Key Performance Indicators for the accessibility of broadcast television, IPTV and metadata, mobile and hand-held devices

Eight deliverables were agreed, one of which covers guidelines on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. During the 18-month life of the Focus Group, participants will collect issues and problems related to implementation of the Convention as well as real-world problems from persons with disabilities and persons with age-related functional impairments. In addition it will collect examples of good practice through case studies and other means, and prepare guidelines for the inclusion of access services in all new digital AV user devices.

The next meeting will take place 15 September 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland.

24 May 2011 - Group to focus on accessibility for all

Tue, 24 May 2011 14:30:36 +0000

The first meeting of the Focus Group on Audiovisual Media Accessibility will take place in Geneva 26 May.

The group, open to all, will address the need to make audiovisual media accessible for all, but in particular, persons with disabilities. It will encourage the concept of universal design, the development of services taking into account the needs of all users, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Interoperability of devices and features that boost accessibility will also be an area of discussion.

One expected deliverable of the group will be guidelines on the implementation of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. Focus Group participants will collect issues and problems related to implementation of the Convention as well as real-world problems from persons with disabilities and persons with age-related functional impairments. In addition it will collect examples of good practice through case studies and other means, and prepare guidelines for the inclusion of access services in all new digital AV user devices.

24 May 2011 - Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF), Geneva, 2 June 2011

Tue, 24 May 2011 09:11:03 +0000

Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF), Geneva, 2 June 2011

On-line Registration

Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF)

24 May 2011 - Focus Group on Audiovisual Media Accessibility (FG AVA) , Geneva, Switzerland, 26 May 2011

Tue, 24 May 2011 08:16:31 +0000

Focus Group on Audiovisual Media Accessibility (FG AVA) , Geneva, Switzerland, 26 May 2011

Meeting Announcement (TSB Circular 191 )

On-line Registration

Focus Group on Audiovisual Media Accessibility (FG AVA)

24 November 2010 - Workshop on accessibility identifies priorities for international standardization

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:38:53 +0000

An international workshop on accessibility has identified priority areas where the development of International Standards could ease the lives of the estimated 650 million people worldwide with some form of accessibility problem.

The workshop Accessibility and the contribution of International Standards was organized on 3 to 5 November 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland, by the World Standards Cooperation (WSC), which is the focal point for strategic cooperation set up by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). A core objective of the workshop was to lay the groundwork for a road map of future initiatives on accessibility standards and related support for these standards, with the involvement of the key stakeholders.

After three days of input and discussion, the recommendations were viewed as highest priority for consideration by the WSC organizations:

Establish a "Strategic Advisory Group on Accessibility between the WSC organizations
Develop a common accessibility policy between the WSC organizations
Encourage national members of the WSC organizations to actively promote the implementation of accessibility standards
Strengthen WSC organization linkages with the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and with disabilities organizations
Revise ISO/IEC Guide 71: 2001, Guidelines for standards developers to address the needs of older persons and persons with disabilities, to ensure consistent concepts in the area of accessibility
Identify accessibility-related content in proposed new standards of the WSC organizations

The workshop which was supported by sign language interpretation explored how International Standards could strengthen accessibility aspects in the design of products, services, environments and facilities. Break-out groups addressed the following subjects:

Accessibility and everyday products
Accessibility and buildings
eAccessibility and eInclusion

The workshop was opened by Rob Steele, ISO Secretary-General; Malcolm Johnson, Director, ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, and Gabriel Barta, Head of Technical Coordination, IEC Central Office, representing the IEC General Secretary.

Welcoming the participants, Rob Steele, highlighted the importance of identifying and understanding the areas where standards are needed and where the three organizations can work together. He said: There are particular benefits and opportunities in using the standards process to gather representatives from a diversity of interests who may not usually meet together to discuss and resolve accessibility issues. The issue requires input from government, regulators, policy makers, industry, accessibility equipment providers, civil society NGOs, accessibility organizations, academia and researchers.

Malcolm Johnson, Director, ITU Telecommunication standardization Bureau, declared: The recent ITU Plenipotentiary Conference held in Mexico adopted the first ever Resolution on ICTs and accessibility which endorses and reinforces the actions we have initiated in recent years: facilitating the active participation of persons with disabilities in our work, for example by providing captioning and sign language, and wheel chair access etc. All our new standards have to be checked to ensure they meet accessibility criteria. Many of the new ICT devices to assist persons with disabilities need international standards to ensure interoperability."
Gabriel Barta, Head of technical coordination, IEC Central Office, stated: "At the IEC, the need of persons with temporary or permanent disabilities are taken very seriously. We have issued at free guide that helps standards developers and manufacturers to build those needs into their work. We're delighted at the very positive outcome and the many promising directions that have been identified in the workshop, and look forward to seeing them implemented."

Participants in the workshop agreed that as a background to the recommendations, they wished to underline that Accessibility is not limited to addressing the needs of persons with disabilities, elderly people or persons with temporary impairments, but aims at the usability of a product, service, environment or facility by people with the widest range of capabilities.

Accessibility is the degree to which a product, device, service, environment or facility is usable by as many people as possible, including by persons with disabilities. Its importance is underlined by the fact that the number of persons with disabilities, either congenital, acquired or as a result of age is estimated to be around 650 million worldwide. International standardization can be a powerful tool for strengthening accessibility in all the above areas by setting the same standards for use worldwide.

Key stakeholder groups participating in the Geneva workshop included disability organizations and consumer groups, governments and regulators, product designers, manufacturers and industry addressing accessibility needs, and standards developers from around the world. Under discussion were the current and future needs in the field of accessibility, as well as the possible contributions international standardization can make in facilitating the development of accessible solutions around the world.

Among those attending the opening plenary were: Wan Hea Lee, on behalf of Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Convention for the rights of persons with disabilities; Imed Eddine Chaker, International Disability Alliance, represented through the Arab Organization of Disabled Persons, Chairman of the Tunisian National Union of the Blind (UNAT); Inmaculada Placencia-Porrero, Deputy Head of Unit, European Commission, Unit for the Integration of People with Disabilities, and Joan Durocher (USA), Executive Director, US National Council on Disability.

16 August 2010 - United Nations to promote the rights of persons with disabilities at country level

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:15:30 +0000

A copy of the guidance note for the United Nations country teams to include the rights of persons with disabilities in their programming at country level has been recently published by the United Nations Development Group /Inter-Agency Support Group for the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The guidance note is a crucial tool for the UN Country teams and can play a significant role in supporting States to implement the UN Convention. This will be carried out through the design and implementation of the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and through the work of individual agencies in their areas of mandate, ITU being one of the agencies actively working in this area.

Copy of the guidance note is available in the section Resources on accessibility in the ITU-T accessibility portal at:
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/accessibility/Pages/default.aspx

03 August 2010 - ISO, IEC and ITU to hold international workshop on accessibility

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 07:58:51 +0000

Difficulty trying to access products, services, environments and facilities is an issue for any of us let alone the millions of people around the world living with disabilities. To this end, an international workshop will be held on 3 and 4 November 2010 to review and examine the standards needed for facilitating the development of accessible solutions around the world.

The workshop is the latest initiative organized by the three partner organizations of the World Standards Cooperation (WSC): IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), ITU (International Telecommunication Union), and ISO (International Organization for Standardization), which are also raising awareness of accessibility in this year's World Standards Day, celebrated each year on 14 October.

Accessibility is the degree to which a product, device, service, environment or facility is usable by as many people as possible, including by persons with disabilities. Its importance is signified by the fact that the number of persons with disabilities, either congenital, acquired or as a result of age is estimated to be at around 650 million worldwide.

The WSC workshop on Accessibility and the contribution of International Standards will bring together key stakeholder groups from all over the world representing disability organizations, government and regulators, standards developers, consumers, as well as product designers and manufacturers faced with accessibility requirements. It will address three key subject areas:

    Accessibility in the field of everyday products
    Accessibility and buildings
    eAccessibility and eInclusion (in Information and Communication Technologies)

In a combination of plenary and break-out group meetings, these three subject areas will be discussed and the potential of standardization in particular international standardization to contribute to strengthening accessibility aspects in the design of products, services, environments and facilities will be addressed.

The results of the conference will result in a better understanding of both the work on accessibility issues in standardization in the various areas and the needs of those most concerned. It is hoped that the groundwork will be laid and a road map drawn for future standardization initiatives and awareness creation initiatives with the involvement of the key stakeholders.

For further information, including the full programme and registration form for the workshop, please refer to http://www.iso.org/sites/WSC_Accessibility_2010/.

27 May 2010 - ITU Workshop: Accessibility to ICTs World Expo 2010

Thu, 27 May 2010 07:33:58 +0000

ITU will be co-organizing a one day workshop on Accessibility to ICTs at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. The event will be held on 23 July 2010 as part of i-CREATe 2010.

i-CREATe 2010s 4th International Convention for Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology is dedicated to the promotion of assistive technologies that can improve the lives of the elderly and people with disabilities and to provide a platform to address current and future development in these areas.

In the field of accessibility to ICTs, ITU focuses on a series of strategic issues ranging from the rights of the disabled, making technical design standards accessible and providing education and training on accessible ICT. With more than 650 million people in the world living with disabilities today the most important goal of ITU standards work on accessibility is to make sure that newly developed standards contain the necessary elements to make services and features usable for people with as broad a range of capabilities as possible.

The three main objectives of this workshop will be to discuss current trends and the future for accessibility to ICTs in ITU, encourage organizations to implement accessibility in their daily work, and highlight the impact of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRDP) on future standardization work. With registration open to all, we eagerly invite you to get involved. You may go online for more information and find it here.

16 April 2010 - UN Magazine Accessibility articles

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:42:38 +0000

The United Nations magazine "UN Special" ran two articles in its April 2010 issue on the recent ITU/WIPO workshop on how to improve the accessibility on the web.

http://www.unspecial.org/UNS694/t33.html

http://www.unspecial.org/UNS694/t41.html

See also the ITU-T Newslog report here.

17 February 2010 - ITU helps UN agencies improve accessibility to online information

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:04:47 +0000

Strong commitment to leveraging the potential of the web and advanced communication tools to empower persons with disabilities

Geneva, 15 February 2010 ITU has again demonstrated its commitment to improving access to the information society for all, through a joint workshop aimed at promoting awareness of the importance of taking accessibility principles into account when developing websites within the UN system.

In 2006, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which obliges its signatories to provide public information in formats and technologies appropriate to different kinds of disabilities. Universal Design principles which make new technologies accessible for persons with disabilities are now becoming more of an imperative, with the wide adoption of the Convention.

Organized jointly with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and held from February 2-5, the workshop was designed to help UN technical staff engaged in web design better meet the needs of disabled users.

Speaking at the opening session, Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITUs Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, highlighted the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve access to information for persons with disabilities, noting that ITU has been "embracing the challenges of accessibility through standardization efforts, and has long championed the principles of inclusion and Universal Design enshrined in the UN Convention." Johnson also stressed that ITU practices what it preaches, and is working hard to make itself more accessible to the disabled.

WIPO Director General, Francis Gurry, underlined the general importance of accessibility and reaffirmed WIPOs commitment to establishing a web environment that promotes easy access to intellectual property information. This, Gurry said, is in line with WIPOs visually impaired persons (VIP) initiative, launched in 2008, which is exploring ways to facilitate and enhance access to literary, artistic and scientific works. He noted that only five per cent of all published works are currently available in formats accessible to the VIP community. A first web accessibility workshop was hosted by WIPO in May 2009, following a request from the VIP community.

This years workshop brought together leading experts in the field of accessibility from around the world, including the World Wide Web consortium, the Mobile Web Initiative, Yahoo!, Adobe Systems, and the Royal National Institute for Blind People. It also featured a full day of training sponsored by Adobe.

In the field of accessibility, ITU focuses on strategic issues ranging from the rights of the disabled, to ensuring that new ICT technical standards incorporate accessibility principles, to providing education and training on accessible ICTs. An estimated 650 million people live with disabilities worldwide.

This years participants agreed on the need for an annual workshop to keep abreast of technological developments and to share knowledge and experience within the UN system. "There is no better place to demonstrate our accessibility than the online resources that act as our window to the world. This is why this workshop has been so important," concluded ITUs Johnson.

For further information please contact:

Sarah Parkes
Senior Media Relations Officer
ITU
Tel: +41 22 730 6135
Mobile: +41 79 599 1439
E-mail: mailto: pressinfo@itu.int

Toby Johnson
Senior Communications Officer
ITU
Tel: +41 22 730 5877
Mobile: +41 79 249 4868
E-mail: mailto: toby.johnson@itu.int

01 February 2010 - Accessibility Workshop (2 - 5 February 2010)

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:38:12 +0000

ITU together with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will host a Web Accessibility Workshop for United Nations systems and other international organizations 2 5 February at WIPO headquarters, Geneva.

The objective is to promote encourage webmasters within the United Nations system and other international organizations to take accessibility into account in their daily work. Specifically, it aims to promote article 9 of the recent United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which requires that measures are taken to ensure that accessibility is taken into account in the design of new information technologies and systems.

More information available at http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/2010/wipo_itu_wai/

23 October 2009 - ITU-T Workshop, Geneva, 2 November 2009

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:48:04 +0000

ITU-T Workshop on "The impact of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the work of the ITU-T"

Geneva, 2 November 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T SG 16 Collective Letter 4 for more information.

More information

29 June 2009 - New accessibility resource

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:02:54 +0000

A new portal bringing together many standardization resources on accessibility has been launched.

The page is a one stop shop for accessibility resources with links to all ITU-T work areas, tools, workshops, news, photos and other resources. For example it carries links to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, an ITU Tutorial: "Making ITU Accessible: Web Design, Web Conferencing and Real Time Web Captioning" and the G3ict-ITU Toolkit for Policy Makers on e-Accessibility & Service Needs for Persons with Disabilities.

In addition it links to the Telecommunications Accessibility Checklist which allows standards authors to ensure that they are taking into account the needs of those to whom accessibility to ICTs are restricted. The checklist is a tool which helps to ensure that accessibility needs are taken into account at an early stage of the standards development process, rather than "retrofitted".

The new page can be found at: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/accessibility/index.html

Bookmark with Del.icio.us

18 December 2008 - Accessibility Declaration at Internet Governance Forum

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:03:04 +0000

A Declaration on Internet Accessibility was adopted by the Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability at the recent Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in Hyderabad, India. DCAD counts ITU as one of its founder members.

ITU took part in twelve sessions at the IGF, organizing seven of them. As well as opening remarks from the Secretary General, and various addresses from the Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, six other ITU staff participated. In addition ITU sponsored the participation of 39 people (27 from developing countries).

DCAD aims to facilitate interaction between relevant bodies and ensure that ICT accessibility is included in the key debates around Internet Governance in order to build a future where all sectors of the global community have equal access to the Information Society. It held its first face-to-face meeting on 6 December 2008 during the third Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Hyderabad.

The Declaration urges all governments to support the process of adoption, ratification and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It also strongly urges that the needs of persons with disabilities be included in all aspects of designing, developing, distributing and deploying of appropriation strategies of information and communication technologies, including information and communication services, so as to ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities, taking into account the universal design principle, existing standards, and the use of assistive technologies.

The Coalition has also approved an Action Plan for activities to be carried out in 2009.

Organizations that are members of the DCAD include ACMA, Council of Europe, DAISY Consortium, Digital Accessible Information System Consortium, G3ict, ICDRI, ISOC, ISOC-AR, Mais Diferenças, NCC, People Who, UNESCO, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. A new member joined during the IGF: the Indian Centre for Internet & Society.

Also during the IGF, ITU, in collaboration with DCAD members organized a workshop Including Accessibility and Human Factors in the Universalization of the Internet - How to reach persons with disabilities, the 10% of the next billion. Most of the panelists were persons with disabilities who brought varied experiences of Internet accessibility from various perspectives.

The DCAD, lead by ITU, will continue to facilitate inclusion of the needs of persons with disabilities in the global information society.

29 November 2008 - Global broadband subscribers exceeded 400 million in November 2008

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:01:47 +0000

TelecomWeb is reporting that the number of broadband subscribers in the world surpassed the 400 million mark in November 2008. Global broadband subscribers amounted to only 57,000 ten years ago in 1998, but are projected to exceed 680 million in another five years (2013), despite the current economic situation.

Source: Point Topic.

However, the geographical distribution of broadband subscribers is very concentrated. ITU monitors prices for fixed broadband access around the world and estimates that commercial fixed broadband access was available in some 181 countries in 2007. According to Point Topic, only forty countries account for some 98% of all global broadband subscribers presently.

Such an intense concentration of broadband subscribers (in mainly OECD countries, China and a few other countries) has strong implications for reshaping the digital divide - broadband technology offers opportunities for using advanced applications in enhanced Internet access, but Internet users in many countries may continue to be excluded from high-speed Internet access. ITU continues to monitor the development of the digital divide and is undertaking many projects to bring high-speed broadband Internet access to rural and underserved areas.

27 October 2008 - Egyptian Government launches new ICT stats portal

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:03:11 +0000

The Egyptian Government launched a new ICT portal on 23 October 2008 as a collective effort between Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) and its affiliates, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) and Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). The portal covers many different sectors, including telecommunication infrastructure, households, the business sector, the Governmental sector, public access points (IT clubs and Internet cafes) and the education sector.

The project builds a database within MCIT for ICT indicators which will help in measuring and analyzing the information society in Egypt, according to international standards and analysis. It aims to build capacity in the area of ICT indicators, monitor ICT usage in Egypt within different sectors and across different geographic regions. Providing decision-makers with early, accurate ICT indicators will help them in setting policies and strategies related to the ICT sector.

The portal uses the categories of ICT indicators as defined by the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, of which ITU is a founding member.

16 October 2008 - What living in a Hyperconnected world means - juggling devices & applications

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:29:16 +0000

Maravedis is reporting that, according to a recent survey by Nortel (based on a survey of 2,400 people), there is a growing trend towards hyperconnectivity: 16% of Internet users live a hyperconnected life, meaning they regularly use more than 7 devices and more than 9 applications; 36% are increasingly connected, meaning they use 4 devices and 9 applications; 20% are passive online users, and 28% are not very connected. Todays users want networks that support voice services, while entertainment and media applications are also increasingly popular.

03 October 2008 - Different business strategies for WiMAX deployments

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:00:18 +0000

Business News Americas conducted an insightful interview with Aptilo Networks' CEO Torbjorn Ward. Aptilo Networks, a Swedish vendor of integrated service management and access control solutions for WiMAX networks, is witnessing considerable growth in WiMAX markets in the Caribbean and South American regions.

Speaking from the WiMAX World conference in Chicago earlier this week, Ward noted that the business case for WiMAX in developing markets is very different to that in developed markets. In developing nations, wireless infrastructure is deployed to provide voice and Internet coverage to remote areas lacking fixed-line infrastructure. While mobile penetration is often high, broadband penetration is typically very low. In developed markets, WiMAX operators are pushing the concept of advanced 4G connectivity.

On the debate about whether WiMAX or LTE will prove more dominant, Ward observed "this not a horse race in which there is going to be a winner or loser". He noted that there are a variety of technologies competing to provide fixed broadband to the home (such as DSL over copper or fiber and cable). Ward suggested that LTE is the obvious migration path for mobile operators, while WiMAX may appeal more to greenfield operators. "Who is winning [between cable or wireline operators]? If you are a cable operator you can only work with cable and if you're a wireline operator you can only work with DSL," Ward said. "My point is that's exactly the same thing when it comes to WiMax and GSM and LTE. If you're a GSM operator, you can offer that over mobile broadband and later LTE. If you're not a GSM license holder, you can offer WiMAX".

Ward quoted Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum, as stating that there are 1,700 WiMAX licenses in the process of being issued worldwide, in addition to the 300-400 WiMAX operators already active today.

For more information, please see here.

25 September 2008 - Point Topic Survey - mobile broadband has finally overtaken WiFi as the most popular mobile Internet access

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:04:42 +0000

The UK research firm Point Topic report in the results of their latest survey that mobile phone networks have finally overtaken WiFi hotspots as UK consumers' most popular way of accessing the Internet, whilst on the move. Point Topics recent survey of mobile broadband users shows that the UK mobile phone companies have managed to grow their market share to 47% of users accessing the Internet away from home or work, compared with 42% who prefer WiFi hotspots. One year earlier, the ratio was 40:30 in favour of WiFi.

Point Topic suggest that a year of heavy marketing of mobile broadband in the intensely competitive market is the main reason for the growth inmobile broadband's popularity, with five operators fighting for market share. Their research suggested that 26% or a quarter of those who use a mobile network to access the Internet are customers of O2, while Orange and Vodafone each take about a fifth or 20% of the market. T-Mobile and 3 have 14% and 12% respectively.

Mobile operators have a big size advantage over the WiFi service providers, who are relatively small and fragmented. But it is a lot cheaper to send data over WiFi and, unlike the mobile networks, WiFi has no problems with capacity. Point Topic predicts that "dual-mode operation, with mobile broadband users defaulting to WiFi where its available, will be the way of the future".

For more information, see here.

02 July 2008 - European Commission wants a web that is better enabled for the disabled

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:23:13 +0000

15% of Europeans suffer from some form of disability, and many face barriers such as reading a website's small text or even knowing how to access websites and online services. Despite repeated calls by the EU and government leaders to improve this situation, progress remains limited: by far the majority of websites fail to use universally accepted user-friendly solutions. Today the European Commission launched a public consultation on further measures to make websites in Europe accessible, starting with those of public administrations, and invites stakeholders to give their views. It also addresses other technologies like digital television. The consultation is open until 27 August 2008. [More...]

ITU and accessibility

18 April 2008 - ITU-T forms Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:14:31 +0000

Following an ITU-T workshop on accessibility last year at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio, a Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability (DCAD) has been established by ITU-T. The DCAD will facilitate interaction between relevant bodies and ensure that information and communications technologies (ICT) accessibility and tools to facilitate it are included in the key debates around Internet governance.

DCAD aims to help build a future where all sectors of the global community have equal access to communications and online information as well as the ability to participate in IGF discussions and seminars. The initiative takes into account the fact that all communities can benefit from ICTs and improve their quality of life, a view supported by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The coalition is currently composed of eight organizations, and is open to any entity or individual working in the field. If you wish to be part of this effort please contact the Dynamic Coalition Secretariat.

Further information on ITU and ICT accessibility can be found here.

10 April 2008 - ITU organizes ICT accessibility tutorial

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:15:45 +0000

ITU will host a tutorial on how to improve websites and meeting facilities, in order to meet the requirements for an accessible ICT infrastructure. The event will take place 22 April 0900 1300, at ITU headquarters in Geneva.

Accessible ICT is one of the key obligations of the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Recently, a Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF) has been established by ITU-T's Study Group 2 to coordinate standardization activities in the field. See previous story on ITUs latest work in the field of accessibility.

The tutorial is aimed at ITU staff but open to staff of similar organizations working on public policy, web content management, web development and conference organization.

The event will provide a high-level overview of the delivery of accessible content on the web, including a discussion of the problems of inaccessible web content, markup of images, online forms and PDFs, as well as the solutions for addressing these barriers. Public policy benefits will also be addressed including the benefits of the accessible web for people without disabilities. Emergence of technical standards for the accessible design of ICTs will also be covered. Practical demonstrations of remote web captioning will be conducted and free resources for checking websites for accessibility will be highlighted.

See the event's website for more information. The tutorial is free of charge, if you need assistance to obtain access to the ITU premises in order to attend please contact the JCA-AHF Secretariat at: tsbjcaahf[at]itu.int

26 March 2008 - Forum examines accessibility in light of UN Convention

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:53:45 +0000

ITU together with G3ict is holding a joint Forum to review areas of challenges and opportunities for international ICT accessibility standards in light of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The event will take place at ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday, 21 April 2008. See previous story on ITUs latest work in the field of accessibility.

The Convention has been signed by an unprecedentedly high number of UN Member States in a relatively short time 126 since 30 March 2007. This makes it all the more urgent to promote ICT accessibility standards that will support a better and faster implementation around the world of the many dispositions of the Convention regarding ICTs.

For the first time since the Convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly, an international group of experts from industry, standards development organizations, NGOs representing persons with disabilities, international development institutions, governments and academia will examine in detail its many implications for ICT accessibility standards. Proceedings will be edited to serve as a reference for future accessibility standards developments.

The event will review existing and in-progress technology standards and standardization of product development methodologies; discuss the role of public policy and procurement in support of standardization and the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and identify follow-up actions to facilitate its implementation.

19 March 2008 - It's good to collaborate

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:51:32 +0000

Increase productivity, save time and money while reducing your companys carbon footprint; this is the ambitious sales pitch for a new family of tools that promise to offer the 3Cs - communication, collaboration and coordination - without the requirement for physical travel. For ITU-T, whose basic mission is to encourage collaborative work among a global membership on the development and adoption of international standards, remote collaboration is a daily necessity.

A new report, the fifth in a series of ITU-T Technology Watch Briefing Reports, describes how Remote Collaboration Tools can facilitate collaboration with colleagues, and support businesses in overcoming the geographical limitations of everyday work. Remote collaboration tools can be used alongside, or integrated with, traditional office applications (such as e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets) or as an enabler of collaboration, communication and coordination. Using online meetings, collaboration that might not have occurred otherwise (as a consequence of tight schedules, long distances, or the high cost of business travel), may now take place.

For developing countries, remote collaboration tools can thus be seen as a helpful instrument in overcoming the digital divide and for Bridging the Standardization Gap, an ITU initiative to facilitate the participation of developing countries in the standards development process.

Furthermore, replacing long-distance travel by online meetings makes remote collaboration tools a clean, green technology, which is particularly important in the context of current global concerns over climate change. In 2007, ITU-T organized and provided logistical and secretariat support for some 85 meetings/workshops, representing a total of 339 meeting days, as well as numerous smaller informal meetings, such as rapporteur groups of steering committees. Holding even a small number of those meetings online would reduce travel and therefore have a significant impact on ITU-Ts carbon footprint.

Two upcoming ITU Symposia on ICTs and Climate Change (April 15-16 in Kyoto, Japan, co-organized and hosted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and 17-18 June 2008 in London, supported and hosted by BT) will be available as a webinar in order that remote participants can see and hear presentations from wherever they are in the world. Provision will also be made for remote participants to submit comments and questions.

Download Technology Watch report on Remote Collaboration Tools

18 March 2008 - New group focuses on accessibility and human factors

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:55:18 +0000

The website for a new group to coordinate standardization activities on accessibility and human factors issues has gone live. The joint coordination activity on accessibility and human factors (JCA-AHF) is open to experts working in the field to improve access to the information society by people with varied capability of handling information and the controls for its presentation. Participation will be mainly by electronic means to take part simply send a mail to tsbjcaahf@itu.int.

ITU has been active in accessibility and human factors for many years. Two of the best known standards are one relating to the designation of a tactile identifier - the number five on a telephone keypad - for easy identification for those with impaired sight (ITU-T Recommendation E.161) and a standard for text telephony (ITU-T Recommendation V.18). Recently accessibility guidelines have been drawn up to ensure that new standards are developed with the needs of those with disabilities taken into account (see previous newslog entry here).

JCA-AHF has organized a tutorial session on web design, web conferencing and real time web captioning to improve current ITU practices. It will be held in Geneva on 22 April. Details will follow.

For more detail on ITU-Ts work on accessibility see here.

Another ITU initiative related to the topic is the Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability which has been created under the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). See here. More details will follow.

05 October 2007 - Making accessibility a reality in emerging technologies

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:10:26 +0000

ITU is holding a workshop - Making accessibility a reality in emerging technologies - at the second meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro, 13 November, 1430-1600.

ITUs standardization arm - ITU-T - has a long history of providing standards in the field of accessibility. It started in the early 90's with the international text telephone standard, ITU-T Recommendation V.18, which ties together text telephone protocols allowing different textphone types to communicate.

ITU-Ts accessibility experts have helped to incorporate accessibility needs into standards for multimedia, network interoperability, multimedia service descriptions and multimedia conferencing.

The latest work has focused on taking accessibility needs into account in the development of all standards. For this reason an Accessibility Checklist has been created for the makers of standards to ensure that they are taking into account the needs of those to whom accessibility to ICTs are restricted, the deaf or hard-of-hearing for example. Experts say that such a list will help to ensure that accessibility needs are taken into account at an early stage, rather than retrofitted.

An area of current intensive standardization activity is that on the next generation network (NGN). Accessibility features have been included at the first stage of standards work where requirements are defined. However it is important that these needs are taken into account as work progresses.

This workshop, organized by ITU, as part of the Internet Governance Forum brings together experts from around the world to examine how best to take into account accessibility needs in emerging technologies.

Further information here (ITU page) here (IGF page).

06 February 2007 - Key architecture and requirements documents for IPTV progressed

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 08:14:44 +0000

Standards that will ease the wide spread rollout of video over IP networks took a step forward in January.

IPTV architecture and requirements, two fundamentally important areas in standards work were progressed at a recent meeting of the ITU-T Focus Group on IPTV. There was general consensus in the meeting that FG IPTV will successfully develop documents which will accelerate introduction of IPTV to the global market. Setting the architecture and requirements in stone allows the rest of the work to continue with greater ease.

Meeting at the Microsoft conference center, Mountain View California , at the invitation of the Alliance for Telecom Industry Standards (ATIS) the group saw a record number of contributions and experts worked often late to keep up with the workload. Nearly 90 documents were dealt with in the fields of architecture and requirements alone.

Malcolm Johnson, newly elected Director of ITUs Telecommunication Standardization Bureau said in a message he sent to the event: The excellent cooperation between ITU-T and ATIS is an example of the spirit of cooperation that I believe now pervades in the standards world... From what I have seen there is a great deal to be satisfied by in terms of the progress that FG IPTV has achieved so far.

In opening comments, ATIS President & CEO Susan Miller shared with the 200 meeting attendees that IPTV is serving as a change agent for the industry, and as both the business case and principal driver for accelerating deployment of the next generation network. Miller noted that for North American service providers in particular, IPTV is a critical ingredient to bundled service offerings that encompass television services, mobile services, Internet access, and much more. We have seen in the last decade, enormous investments in broadband, and fiber deployments to the home and to the premise, said Miller.

Also important a document outlining terms and definitions in the field was created. While seemingly mundane this work is crucially important in ensuring consistency of comprehension in an area where many standards outlining different aspects of IPTV will co-exist.

Further discussion is expected on whether and how to treat the issue of redistribution of content to a point past an IPTV terminal device, and, in particular, how content protection and content management functions can or should apply in a home network environment.

Other issues examined and progressed were accessibility issues for people with disabilities, AV codecs and content format requirements. Output (and other) documents can be seen here.

The next meeting of FG IPTV will be held from 7 to 11 May 2007 in Bled , Slovenia .

25 May 2006 - Accessibility Checklist for Future Standards

Thu, 25 May 2006 15:32:13 +0000

Study Group 16 has published an Accessibility Checklist for the makers of standards to ensure that they are taking into account the needs of those to whom accessibility to ICTs are restricted, the deaf or hard-of-hearing for example. Experts say that such a list will help to ensure that accessibility needs are taken into account at an early stage, rather than retrofitted. The list will be published on a new webpage acting as a repository for accessibility in standards information.

Study Group 16s standardization work in the field of accessibility aims to ensure that all sectors of the global community have equal access to communications and online information. This effort goes back to the 1990s with V.18 (an ITU-T Recommendation on a multi-function text telephone).

The work takes into account the fact that users of ICTs have a varied capability for handling information and the controls for its presentation. The source of this variation lies in cultural and educational backgrounds as well as in age-related functional limitations, in disabilities, and in other natural causes. Everyone can benefit from this accessibility standardization work as anyone can be permanently or temporarily disabled due to physical, environmental (e.g. a phone call in a noisy environment) or cultural (e.g. spoken language diversity) conditions. Moreover, we will all grow old and lose facilities that we take for granted now, thus enlarging the part of the population that benefits from accessible communication.

The most important goal of ITU-Ts accessibility activity is to make sure that newly developed standards contain the necessary elements to make services and features usable for as broad a range of people as possible. Standards describe how equipment should interact and what quality is necessary for media to be usable for all, additionally suitable methods of media delivery for people with disabilities are described.