Regional Conference on "Sharing Experience on best practices in ICT services for persons with disabilities"

1. Ministerio de Comunicaciones REPÚBLICA DE COLOMBIA Regional Conference on "Sharing Experience on best practices in ICT services for persons with disabilities" (Cairo-Egypt, 13-15 Nov. 2007)

2. Guatemala • Haiti • Honduras • Mexico • Nicaragua • Panama • Paraguay • Peru • Uruguay • Venezuela • Argentina • Bolivia • Brazil • Chile • Colombia • Costa Rica • Cuba • Dominican Republic • Ecuador • El Salvador Spanish, french or portuguese speech countries http://www.brazilfield.com/img/mapa_america_latina.png Latin-America:Communications and people with disabilities

3. Compromises in International frame • General profile about Latin America • The sector responsibility in front of disability

4. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, Guatemala – June 7, 1999 The term "disability" Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (AG/RES. 1608, 7 June 1999), begin with a define: The term "disability" means a physical, mental, or sensory impairment, whether permanent or temporary, that limits the capacity to perform one or more essential activities of daily life, and which can be caused or aggravated by the economic and social environment.(art. 1). I am A husband A friend An employee A tax-payer A board member I am a person with a disability, but disability does not define who I am. Robert Martin

5. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against People with Disabilities, Guatemala – June 7, 1999 Discrimination against People with disabilities The term "discrimination against people with disabilities" means any distinction, exclusion, or restriction based on a disability, record of disability, condition resulting from a previous disability, or perception of disability, whether present or past, which has the effect or objective of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise by a person with a disability of his or her human rights and fundamental freedoms. People with disability are excludes, whether in political process as like in a process where there are taken decisions that can to be affect them in their wellbeing, even its common denied them the human basic rights. (Naciones Unidas, 2005)

6. 2004 Iberian-American year of the People with Disabilities • The XIII Ibero-American Summit that met in November 15, 2003, in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, bringing together the Heads of State of 21 Countries, declared 2004 as the Iberian-American year of the People with Disabilities • The main objective was to drive the social inclusion by means of activities oriented to foment the defense of the rights and the comparison of opportunities, breakdown in four specific objectives: • To motivate effective advances in public policies oriented to the improvement the life conditions of the people with disabilities and its families, with special attention to those who live in poverty situation. • To improve the levels of knowledge of the social reality of the disability on national scale and regional Latin American by means of the accomplishment of studies, surveys, censuses, information, etc. • To promote actions oriented: to compile, to analyze and to affect existing the national and international norms in the matter of disability, with the purpose of making a strong one political action. • To stimulate the creation or the fortification of associative movements of national and regional level in the Latin American countries.

7. 2004 Iberian-American year of the People with Disabilities Following the activities of the Ibero-American Year of Disability, there were a II meeting of National Councils and Comisions of Disabilities, in Quito (Ecuador), on july 2004. The principal aspects that the countries were working on are: National policies with emphasis on legislation and regulation Educational inclusion Sport and Culture Substantive area Employment Rights Accessibility AREAS Research Structural area Technical assistance Associationism Decentralization Coordination Intra - Institutional Inter - Institutional Awareness

8. Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesNew York, 13 December 2006 The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 13 December 2006, and opened for signature on 30 March 2007. In Latin-America 18 Signatories to the convention 14 Signatories to the Optional Protocol 2 Ratifications of the Convention 1 Ratifications of the Protocol

9. Compromises in International frame • General profile about Latin America • The sector responsibility in front of disability

10. General profile about Latin America Education. The exclusion is a constant, a few countries have implemented regular schools including children with disabilities, and making strategies for their educative integration. Costa Rica in this matter is the most advanced. Colombia, slowly have been incorporating regulations in this aspect. Employment. Althought some countries have policies oriented toward a laborer integration for people with disabilities, as like as: Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panamá, Uruguay y Venezuela; one of the main problems is unemployment and laborer marginalization. Near the 70% of the people with disability are without job. Health. In this region, the social security depends of the occupational situation. The most of the countries have between 60 and 85 % of the people with disability, been attending for publican health systems Housing. Usually, people with disabilities live with their relatives, there are a few of them with that have obtained independence. Transport. Just in Brazil there are accessibility in the transport (only in some cities). Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, México y Venezuela,the transport is parcially accesible

11. Compromises in International frame • General profile about Latin America • The sector responsibility in front of disability

12. Sector responsibilities • Guarantee of rights in information and communication • Support another sectors for implementing adaptative TIC • Support another sectors on communications for awareness

13. Guarantee of rights in information and communication Telecommunications and People with Disabilities Technology -- particularly electronic devices -- is becoming an increasingly important factor in the lives of many people with disabilities around the world. It is true that assistive technology (technology designed specifically to meet the needs of an individual with one or more disabilities) can open doors by providing assistance with communication, transportation, and other activities of daily living. It is also true that mainstream technology can provide a further barrier if a range of user variability, including disability, age, and body type, is not taken into account. When exploring options for assistive technology, it is critical to remember that there is seldom if ever a "best" technology for a given situation. Rather, technological appropriateness needs to be judged not only on functionality but also on the user's ability to acquire, maintain, and obtain training on the device, keeping in mind that these issues will become more complex with more complicated devices. It should also be kept in mind that technological devices are usually just one tool among many, and that all options should be considered before automatically assuming that technology can provide the optimal solution. http://www.disabilityworld.org/April-May2000/Tech&Access/Websites.htm

14. Guarantee of rights in information and communication Access to the information – A Right E-books for Blind people Argentina – Tiflolibros is the first digital library for the Spanish-speaking blind. Created in 1999 by a group of blind friends that wanted to exchange their digital books in order to widen their access to culture and education, Tiflolibros has grown to have more than 20.000 books in Spanish available for more than 3.000 members with blindness or other severe disabilities in America, Europe and Asia. Each member “reads” the books through synthetic-voice reading computers, Braille tapes or other electronic reading devices for people with disabilities. Ecuador – The Politechnical High School of the Army ESPE has created the Informatic, Bibliographic and Cultural Centre for blind People that was put on service on february 2006 with more than 28.000 digital books. http://www.tiflolibros.com.ar/Inglés/english.asp

15. Guarantee of rights in information and communication Access to the information – A Right Accesibility in the web for Blind people and others Brazil – Across the law 10098/2000 it was established that the web sites have to be accesibles, CORDE is one of them, it permit the use of the software by voice command and is accesible to people with visual disability. Chile – It is working about a technical normativity related to the accesibility of the contens in internet for people with disabilities.

16. Guarantee of rights in information and communication Access to the information – A Right Television for Deaf people Bolivia – The Federation Bolivian of Deaf People in according with the Bolivian Television to implant the sign language in news. Venezuela – The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela have been making (2007) a normative about access to the television for deaf people. Mexico – Since 2004 there is a law to promote the useful of technologies in order to permit the access to the contents of the TV for deaf people. Chile – Is working by the same way.

17. Guarantee of rights in information and communication Communication – A right for a social integration Telephony for Deaf people Argentina – In Argentina was suscribed the Reglament of the Service of Public and Domiciliary Telephony to People Hipoacusics or with an speach Impediment (1996). Chile – There is a normative that recognice that the equal access require that all the people of the Republic can access to any equipment of telecommunication with interconectivity and increasing levels of interactivity even to people with disabilities.

18. Recognitions • - Samaniego de García, Pilar (2006). “Aproximación a la realidad de las personas con discapacidad en Latinoamérica”, a survey with the support of: • Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales de España (MTAS) • Fundación ONCE para la Solidaridad con Personas Ciegas de América Latina (FOAL) • Comité Español de Representantes de Personas con Discapacidad (CERMI) • (http://www.cermi.es/bibliografia/ColeccionCermi/LATINOAM%C3%89RICA%20BAJA%20RESOLUCI%C3%93N.pdf) • - Alvarez, Clara Luz (2007). “Derecho de las Telecomunicaciones”. • - Disability WorldA. A bimonthly web-zine of international disability news and views (http://www.disabilityworld.org)