[WSIS CS-Plenary] The final texts of Disability Caucus Intervention attached in the body of the mail

[Hiroshi Kawamura]

Dear all:

Here you will find two texts of Disability Caucus intervention during the
PrepCom2 attached to the end of this e-mail in the body so that blind
readers may not find garbages by attachment in Word format..
25th intervention on Financial Mechanism was limited to 5 minutes 23rd one
on Political chapeau was also limited to 3 minutes. Both speaking
opportunities came with ultra short notice and sometimes cancelled like 23rd
one. However, both interventions in writing are being compiled by the
Executive Secretariat as Civil society input for consideration.

The sound recording of the 25th one is available at:

http://www.andycarvin.com/podcasts/plenary-disability.mp3

All documents are available at WSIS official website. The next PrepCom is
going to take place on 19-30 September in Geneva. I volunteered to organize
an adhoc working group for logistics support for WSIS participants with
disabilities with attendance of several volunteers including government
delegations so that we may have more representation of persons with
disabilities at PrepCom3 and WSIS Summit in Tunis. I am looking forward to
seeing questionairs attached to the registration forms for WSIS meetings
from now on.

The disability caucus met twice and decided to hold 2nd Global Forum on
Disability in the Information Society as a follow-up of the firt one held in
Geneva under Swiss colleagues leadership. In Tunis, with leadership of
Tunisian colleagues, we are going to have 2 days Forum including following 4
sessions: (1) best practices, (2) thematic session on disater preparedness
of pwd, (3) panel session of persons with disabilities on assistive ICTs and
universal design development, (4) adoption of the declaration for decade
implementation plan to be adopted by the summit. A study visit and
Exhibition on ICTs for persons with disabilities will be organized.

I would like to thank you all who contributed to the PrepCom2 by either
attendance or via e-mail or telephone calls from the disatant.

Best

Hiroshi Kawamura
Civil Society Disability Focal Point

[attached document 1]
Intervention on behalf of the Civil Society Disability Caucus to the
PrepCom2 of WSIS II delivered on 25th February 2005 at Room XIX, Palais de
Nations.

Re: Revised Chapter 2 of the Operational Part; WSIS-II/PC-2/DOC/3-E
Add.1(Rev.1)

 Thank you Madam Chairperson,

People with disabilities are poorest among the poors in particular in
developing countries. Affordable ICTs need to be accessible and usable for
individuals with disabilities to guarantee full participation in the
community as active partners. So far, ICTs in many cases created new
man-made barriers for persons with disabilities in developing countries in
terms of affordability, accessibility and usability.
For example, a screen reading software for blind people prices US1,000 per
license in addition to the standard computer equipment, an intelligent
keyboard for persons with cognitive/intellectual disabilities costs more
than US1,000 per unit even though assistive technology manufacturers are
strongly encouraged to reduce the cost.

Promotion of low cost assistive technologies and accessibility standard
development for mainstream ICTs are keys to realize the $B!H(Bdigital
opportunities$B!I(B for persons with disabilities. Inclusive and universal
access to ICTs requires development of assistive technologies and universal
design as stipulated in the Geneva Declaration of Principles.

Therefore I would like to urge governments, international organizations and
business sectors to promote existing accessibility standards, such as W3C
Web Accessibility Guidelines for example, and to encourage development of
accessibility standards for persons with disabilities.
Effective financial mechanisms to promote accessibility standards of
national as well as international level will include following 3
suggestions:

1.     Duty/Tax free requirements for the use of ICTs by persons with
disabilities
2.     Requirements for application of government or international donor$B!G(Bs
grant
3.     Requirements for procurement

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to ongoing recovery process of
Tsunami Disasters and preparedness issues from disability view point.
Tsunami killed more than 300,000 people including those who could not hear,
could not see, could not evacuate, and who could not react to save their
lives. Those survivors are still struggling against physical as well as
mental injuries including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The rescue and recovery activities need to have a seamless transition to
reconstruction stage with clear vision of safe and inclusive society to
prevent another disasters to come. Early warning system should provide
timely information in accessible format to everybody. Preparedness including
knowledge, training and support for evacuation for persons with special
needs need to be developed immediately. Inclusion of persons with
disabilities in the disaster preparedness development is, in fact, the most
effective and economical way to guarantee a safe community for everybody
including foreign travelers. Because people with disabilities may act as
role models of a person in extreme conditions such as Tsunami, earth quake,
thunderstorm or blackout of the subway.

Based on this fact, I would like to propose a special financing mechanisms
to be established for disaster recovery and preparedness development that is
inclusive of persons with disabilities.

Thank you very much Madam Chairperson for your attention.

Hiroshi Kawamura
Disability Caucus Focal Point
The DAISY Consortium Representative for WSIS


[attached document 2]
Intervention from Civil Society Disability Caucus on Political Chapeau
paragraph 5 submitted on 23rd February 2005

On behalf of the Disability Caucus of Civil Society, I would like to suggest
as follows.

In the Political Chapeau paragraph 5, I am afraid that one of the most
important key principles to bridge the digital divide is missing. Geneva
Declaration of Principles paragraph 25 identifies $B!H(Buniversal design and the
use of assistive technologies$B!I(B as one of the key principles. This is the
design goal of ICT development to guarantee the digital opportunity for all
of us including persons with physical, cognitive/intellectual or mental
disabilities.

Everybody has special needs to be met by assistive technologies and
universally designed ICT as part of whole life. It is always very important
to develop use scenarios or use cases to develop Information and
Communication Technologies.

For example, Tsunami alerting system must deliver information to those who
cannot hear, see and have difficulty to understand in the language used.
People need to be well informed and trained to evacuate safely with
neighbors who may not able to evacuate by themselves with various reasons.
Signs and symbols in accessible format must clearly indicate where to go and
what to do in the event of disasters. Based on realistic use scenarios, we
will be able to develop ICT applications that will  support safe evacuation
of all people in the region.

We learned a lot from those victims of disasters, who lost their lives or
injured physically and mentally, to identify the requirements to develop
universally designed early warning system that is accessible and easy to
understand for everybody. Persons with disabilities are best collaborators
to identify use scenarios from different point of views to develop not only
assistive technologies but also inclusive ICT design for all.

Therefore, in order to stipulate such principle design goal for ICT
development for everybody and guarantee participation of persons with
disabilities as equal partners in ICT development process, I propose to
insert $B!H(Bpromote universal design and assistive technologies$B!I(B in the
paragraph 5 of political chapeau.
The Civil Society Disability Caucus will be very pleased to collaborate to
implement this design principle throughout the implementation process of
action plan to be adopted in Tunis as one of stake holders.

[Annex: proposed revised text of Political Chapeau paragraph 5]

5.         We reaffirm our resolution in the quest to ensure that everyone
can benefit from the opportunities that ICTs can offer, by recalling that
governments, as well as private sector, civil society and the United Nations
and other international organizations, should work together to: improve
access to information and communication infrastructure and technologies as
well as to information and knowledge; build capacity; increase confidence
and security in the use of ICTs; create an enabling environment at all
levels; develop and widen ICT applications; foster and respect cultural
diversity; recognize the role of the media; address the ethical dimensions
of the Information Society; promote universal design and assistive
technologies; and encourage international and regional cooperation...


Submited by:
Hiroshi Kawamura
CS Disability Focal Point
The DAISY Consortium
Contact address:
National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities Research
Institute
4-1 Namiki, Tokorozawa-shi 359-8555
Japan
hkawa at attglobal.net