Description:
A large majority of Persons with Disabilities globally are excluded from reaping “digital dividends” because most digital technologies are, by their design, not accessible to them. Today, more and more aspects of political, social and economic life are being shifted to the online sphere where the societal exclusion of PWD is amplified. At the same time there is evidence that not only persons with disabilities, but everyone could benefit if ICTs were designed inclusively. Universal Design – designing ICTs to be usable for all from the start – improves the user-friendliness for everyone and widens the customer base. Still, inaccessibility is often times “built-in” and accessibility features are added as expensive “after-the-fact” solutions. This workshop will bring together a diverse set of stakeholders – development cooperation, civil society, the private sector and academia mainly from East Africa and Western Europe to discuss two main aspects. First, the speakers will discuss the state of the art of digital accessibility with a special focus on Low- and Middle-income countries (LMIC). Second, systemic barriers to accessibility will be illuminated, in order to develop concrete recommendations for implementation of accessibility policies by governments, development cooperation and the private sector in order to increase the accessibility of ICT and thus improving usability for communities who currently by and large excluded from digital development.
