CAIRO, EGYPT, 13-15 NOVEMBER 2007

1. ICT services to support persons with disabilities

2. REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON “SHARING EXPERIENCE ON BEST PRACTICES IN ICT SERVICES FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES” CAIRO, EGYPT, 13-15 NOVEMBER 2007

3. WHO/EMRO Framework regarding ICTs and people with disabilities By Najeeb Al-Shorbaji, Coordinator Knowledge Management and Sharing WHO EMRO

4. Socio-economic role of ICTs • ICT can play a major role in social and economic development; • “nations that succeed in harnessing the potential of ICT can look forward to greatly expand economic growth, dramatically improved human welfare, and stronger forms of democratic governance, thus playing a specific role in furthering and enhancing sustainable development”; James George Chacko ICT services to support persons with disabilities

5. Socio-economic role of ICTs • ICT directly influences human development through access to information, knowledge and enlarging choices; • ICT breaks barriers to human development in at least three ways not possible before or with other forms of technology: • breaking barriers to human knowledge, • breaking barriers to participation and • breaking barriers to economic opportunities. • Alleviating poverty, enhancing education and improving healthcare. ICT services to support persons with disabilities

6. Target 18: Information andcommunication technology • The Millennium Declaration acknowledges that ICTs are an important tool to achieve its overall goals; ICTs can help alleviate poverty, improve the delivery of education and health care, make government services more accessible, and much more. Target 18 of Goal 8 calls upon the Declaration’s adherents to: “In cooperation with the private sector make available the benefits of new technologies, specifically information and communications”. ICT services to support persons with disabilities

7. The Regional Office’s approach

8. Measuring progress and trend analysis • Provides ability and tools to determine the current status and the progress made towards achieving the MDGs. Increase monitoring and information-sharing on disease and famine. Identification of problems areas and bottle necks; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

9. Use of statistics for quality improvement • It is only through modern surveys and statistical techniques, heavily dependent on the advances of ICT, that one will be able to track employment, health status, income, and other statistics and disaggregate them by gender in a timely fashion; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

10. ICT and health networking • Social, virtual and physical networks enable potential to share values, experience, knowledge, funding, and technologies between the various nodes of the network. Facilitate knowledge exchange and networking among policymakers, practitioners and advocacy groups; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

11. ICT and representation • Through geographic information systems, graphic design, cartoon, animation and multimedia one can structure a useful representation of health concepts and data and geographical knowledge stored as raw data that most useless if not analysed and presented graphically; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

12. ICT and decentralization • With the increased information flows, ICT availability and usage tends to allow greater transparency, accountability and accessibility in the delivery of public services. Greater transparency and monitoring of environmental abuses/ enforcement of environmental regulations; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

13. ICT and health education and learning • Increase supply of trained teachers through ICT-enhanced and distance training of teachers and networks that link teachers to their colleagues; • Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education ministries and related bodies through strategic application of technologies and ICT-enabled skill development; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

14. ICT and health education and learning • Broaden availability of quality educational materials/resources through ICTs; • Deliver educational and literacy programmes specifically targeted to poor girls and women using appropriate technologies; • Enhance delivery of basic and in-service training for health workers. ICT services to support persons with disabilities

15. ICT and delivery of health services • Prevention of diseases, health promotion and education, diagnosis and treatment; • Telemedicine applications to overcome some of the challenges in remote areas of many countries where the population does not have access to basic healthcare; • Health records and registries; • Increase access of rural caregivers to specialist support and remote diagnosis; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

16. ICT for income generation and economic opportunities • ICT provides opportunities for women to work form home, for young people to have their own small businesses, for a country to be part of the digital economy; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

17. Access to information and knowledge • Web access has substantially increased opportunities to access health information, research, literature, training materials for different purposes; • Influence public opinion on gender equality through information or communication programmes; • Increase access to reproductive health information, including information on AIDS prevention, through locally appropriate content in local languages. ICT services to support persons with disabilities

18. ICTs and people with disabilities: A framework

19. Disability is not a barrier to access ICTs and to fully utilize their potential; • Barriers are created by society and the environment. They impose limitations that can be eliminated if thought of at early stage of development of these facilities, products and services; • ICTs open up great opportunities to improve the quality of life of disabled people; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

20. The right to access information is not to be compromised; • Empowering people with disabilities through access to information and knowledge will break the barriers and bridge the gaps in society; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

21. Access to information and its proper utilization will eliminate exclusion and bridge the gap to information society: • Access to health information; • Access to information and available products and services; • Access to information on owns specialized field of work; • Communication with peers, colleagues, friends etc as part of the social network. ICT services to support persons with disabilities

22. The public-private partnership is a prerequisite to creation of a friendly environment and ICT products and service for people with disabilities; • Technological solutions should be considered as part of the mainstream development and not as an after thought; ICT services to support persons with disabilities

23. ICTs in education and in workplace play a major role in creation of the right environment for people with disabilities. • ICTs can support learners with physical disabilities by enabling them to access the curriculum alongside their peers. • ICTs can support workers with physical disabilities by enabling them to share and use resources and tools equally with their co-workers; • ICTs can support tele-workers or work from home by eliminating unnecessary movement, travel, commuting, etc • ICTs can support conducting business from home or remotely on a free-lance basis. ICT services to support persons with disabilities

24. The role of government and non-government organizations should be enhanced; • Providing guidelines, advice, standards and supporting governments to introduce laws, legislation and regulations in support of ICTs for people with disabilities. ICT services to support persons with disabilities

25. Thank you