[vicsireland] INTERNET ACCESS FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED IS FOCUS OF UN WORKSHOP

From: "Frank Mulcahy" <fmulcahy@xxxxxx>
To: <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2010 11:04:19 -0000
Hi folks,

UN Press Release which may be of interest to some of you.

Kind regards,

Frank

Frank Mulcahy
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INTERNET ACCESS FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED IS FOCUS OF UN WORKSHOP


New York, Feb  5 2010 11:05AM

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Nearly 200 cyber experts and other stakeholders seeking access to the Web for 
scores of millions of people with visual and other disabilities wrapped up a 
four-day United Nations workshop in Geneva today, stressing the need for 
universal access despite handicaps.

“The key to the information society is universal access and no one should be 
denied the potential benefits of ICTs [information and communication 
technologies], not least because they are hampered by their disabilities,” UN 
International Telecommunication Union 
(<"http://www.itu.int/en/pages/default.aspx";>ITU) Secretary-General Hamadoun 
Touré said, noting that an estimated 650 million people live with disabilities 
worldwide.

“ICTs have the great merit of serving as a powerful equalizer of abilities, 
empowering persons with disabilities to fulfil their potential, realize their 
own dreams and ambitions, and take their place as active members of society.” 

ITU, which co-organized the workshop with the UN World Intellectual Property 
Organization 
(<"http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2010/article_0001.html";>WIPO), 
focuses on a series of strategic issues ranging from the rights of the disabled 
to making technical design standards accessible to providing education and 
training on accessible ICTs.

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry underlined the importance of accessibility 
in general and reaffirmed his agency’s commitment to establishing an accessible 
web environment that promotes easy access to intellectual property information 
in line with its visually impaired persons (VIP) initiative launched in 2008 to 
explore ways to facilitate and enhance access to literary, artistic and 
scientific works for the VIP community.

Mr. Gurry, noting that only 5 per cent of all published works are currently 
available in formats accessible to the VIP community, said WIPO and its member 
states are actively seeking to improve this situation. WIPO’s copyright 
committee is currently considering a draft treaty that would create an enabling 
legal environment to address exceptions and limitations to international 
copyright law.

A first workshop was hosted by WIPO last May, and the forums are in line with 
the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities which entered into 
force in 2008, which requires that accessibility be taken into account in the 
design of new information technologies and systems. 

This week’s meeting brought together experts from the World Wide Web 
consortium, Mobile web initiative, Yahoo!, Adobe Systems Incorporated and the 
British Royal National Institute for Blind People. Participants agreed on the 
need for an annual workshop to keep abreast of technological developments and 
to share knowledge and experience of the issue within the UN system.
________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
[vicsireland] INTERNET ACCESS FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED IS FOCUS OF UN WORKSHOP

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