[WSIS CS-Plenary] SV: [Pwd] communication gap

[Kicki Nordström]

Dear all,

It is most unfortunate that language should divide people with disabilities (PWD) over the globe, when we have one common gole, to have a society accessible for all without discrimination. 

Most of us do not speak English and use it because this is the only way for us to communicate with the rest of our world since English has become the UN language and an international trade language. It has taken many of us years to learn English, so as we can connect with likeminded in the world.

It does not serve any good to divide disability interests into different language groups. If English, is not understood, we can not harm our course by divide us in language groups, let us instead use interpreters! Many PWD could have a good job also by being hired as interpreter as the unemployment is so common among PWD. 

Yours
Kicki 


Kicki Nordström
World Blind Union
Immediate Past  President
c/o SRF Iris AB
122 88 Enskede
Sweden
Tel: +46 (0)8 399 000
Fax: +46 (0)8 725 99 20
Cell: +46 (0)70 766 18 19
E-mail: kino at iris,se

-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: pwd-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:pwd-admin at wsis-cs.org] För Hiroshi Kawamura
Skickat: den 21 september 2005 06:43
Till: plenary at wsis-cs.org; Pwd at wsis-cs.org
Ämne: [Pwd] communication gap

Dear all:

In capacity of the WSIS Disability Focal Point, I am writing to clarify the communication gap that caused some misunderstanding among Disability Caucus members.

In the plenary session last morning, as all attended were aware, there was no French to English interpretation.
Since I was wearing SI earphone on my left ear that works fine, my right ear which lost hearing at my childhood did not catch the human talk at all. In addition, I was preparing for the Disability Caucus meeting to follow the plenary immediately, I could not follow the conversation outside of my earphone. I noticed that Nenna volunteered to interpret someone's intervention made in French but I couldn't follow that actually.

At the CS Bureau meeting in the afternoon, I was informed that a new French Speaking Group dealing with Disability is set up and asked why I did not make any comment on that at the plenary.

When I met my colleague from Tunisia, I was told that a new group "Reunion du Caucus Francophone Handicap TIC" hosted by Sindbad Mediterranee will meet on 21st.

Of course anyone may set up a Caucus in line with the objectives of WSIS, however, I am afraid that some sense of exclusion due to language barrier might generate the set up of this new group.

Further more, I checked my e-mail record and official WSIS Disability Caucus e-mail list. I confirmed that Sindbad Mediterranee has been on the list since their first participation in PrepCom. I also found one return e-mail to Sindbad which had a subject in French which I couldn't understand at all. 
I replied to that e-mail instantly on July 26 following my standard procedures for e-mails written in languages that I cannot understand: "Dear
Sir/Madam: I am sorry to say that I cannot read French at all. Please contact me either in English or Japanese." I even did not know it was a personal e-mail since I just filter hundreds of e-mails everyday by senders and delete a lot of spams. What I could do was to get a subject line which I could understand and select those e-mails need to be handled seriously.
What turned out yesterday afternoon by translation of that particular e-mail kindly done by my friend from Tunis, the mail was a personal one describing a sense of isolation from the Disability Caucus information channel written in French. If I knew that contents, I could respond it in quite different manner.
I could easily understand the frustration and share the feeling that the Parallel Event organization process was so complicated and we were left in difficult conditions until early September when we got the final list of events. Actually there was almost no fixed information on the parallel events until September. Communication gap could have increased the frustration.

This is all what happened.

My message to Reunion du Caucus Francophone Handicap TIC in capacity of WSIS Disability Focal Point, please discuss issues in language of your choice and collaborate with Disability Caucus for the fruitful outcome of WSIS in Tunis.
Taking all those happened into my account, I will request my colleagues in Disability Caucus with different language capacity to help us by raising the sensitivity of language and other communication barriers.

I noticed that many people in Palais des Nations expressed me their concerns on the fragmentation of activities on disability in WSIS context. But I believe that there will be a common ground to collaborate and eliminate further misunderstanding.

I am looking forward to the success of Reunion du Caucus Francophone Handicap TIC meeting today to work together for the fruitful outcome of WSIS in Tunis and beyond to bridge the digital divide of persons with disabilities in the world.

Best regards

Hiroshi Kawamura
WSIS CS Bureau Disability Focal Point





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