[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