Standardization Called Key to Telecom, Internet Accessibility
GENEVA -- More telecom, broadcast and Internet standardization is needed to implement the 2006 U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, said industry officials. Carrying out the convention means a flurry of regulatory activity, said Axel Leblois, executive director of the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs, short for Information and Communications Technology. It’s part of the U.N. Global Alliance for ICT and Development. Officials spoke at an April 21 forum held by ITU and the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs.
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The convention has been signed by 127 countries since its adoption, the U.N. website said. The U.S. has neither signed nor ratified it. Governments embracing the convention, which becomes binding next week, will enact legislative and regulatory accessibility programs for education, emergency response, personal mobility and independent living applications, Leblois said.
Policy-makers will look to accessibility standards to translate the technology-neutral mandates into reality, said Leblois. Accessibility standardization will lower costs and create a bigger market, Leblois said. Intel, Microsoft, IBM and others see accessibility as an opportunity, Leblois said.
Developers and regulators have a duty to develop and harmonize standards to help the disabled, said Alex Li, manager for public accessibility policies and standards at SAP. A technical report en route from the ISO and the IEC will spell out user needs, standards inventory and guidance for mapping them, said Josee Auber, Hewlett-Packard’s director of European standards activities. According to the World Health Organization, about 650 million people are disabled, said Martin Gould, director of research and technology at the U.S. National Council on Disability. More then 500 million are in developing countries, he said.
Appropriate standardization and policies are the first step to getting health, banking, education and government services to disabled citizens of the developing world, Gould said. Deployed technologies are low-hanging fruit for standards and policy-making, he said. Gains are possible in the worldwide base of a billion Internet users, 850 million PCs deployed, 1.3 billion landlines, 1.5 billion TV sets, 2.4 billion radios, 2.7 billion cell phones, and 1.8 billion text messaging users, about twice the number of e-mail users, Gould said. Incorporating features that make cellphones more accessible to blind and hearing-impaired users will expand the market, he said.
Wiring and programming TV sets for closed captioning and a broadcasting obligation for captions would help 17.2 million people with hearing trouble worldwide, Gould said. Eighty-five countries that have signed the convention have no closed captioning, Leblois said. Making text to speech compulsory in cellphones would help 16.1 million people with vision problems, Gould said.