Tunis Declaration on Information Society for Persons with Disabilities
By Monthian Buntan, Thailand Association of the Blind
Recalling the historic success of the first Global Forum on Disability and the over all first phase of WSIS;
Being encouraged and moved by the spirit of the Geneva Declaration on Inclusive Information Society, WSIS Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action;
Noting, however, with great concern the difficulty of transforming words on paper into real actions/implementation, given the fact that the concept of "inclusiveness" in general often leaves disability aspects out, causing persons with disabilities to be excluded, marginalized, forgotten and left behind;
Having high hope and confidence in the ultimate power of the united force, among persons with disabilities, our representative organizations our friends and our empathetic allies of all sectors around the world, to work for the true inclusive information society,
Therefore, we, participants of the Second Global Forum on Disability, held during the second phase of WSIS, on the 18th day of November 2005, in the City of Tunis, Republic of Tunisia:
- Call upon all governments to make the implementation, evaluation and monitoring of all WSIS documents, both from the first and second phase, inclusive to persons with disabilities;
- Strongly urge that persons with disabilities and our needs be included in all aspects of designing, developing, distributing and deploying of appropriation strategies of information and communication technologies, including information and communication services, so as to ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities, taking into account the universal design principle and the use of assistive technologies;
- Strongly request that any international, regional and national WSIS-related development program, funding or assistance, aimed to achieve the inclusive information society be made disability-inclusive, both through mainstreaming and disability-specific approaches;
- Urge all governments to support the process of negotiation, adoption, ratification and implementation of the International convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, in particular enactment of national legislation, as it contains strong elements concerning information and communication accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Program of the Second Global Forum on Disability in the Information Society
15th and 18th November 2005
Tunis, Tunisia
November 15, 2005, 09:00 - 13:00,
Room Amilcar, Kram PalExpo, Tunis, Tunisia
(09:00-09:40 will be by invitation only due to security code)
November 18, 2005, 09:00 - 13:00,
Room Amilcar, Kram PalExpo, Tunis, Tunisia
Event description
The DAISY Consortium organized the first Global forum on Disability in the Information Society as part of the summit events during the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva in December 2003.
The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society was held in Tunis on 16-18 November 2005.
This event was an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of ICT and disability and for persons with disabilities to get to know about different ICT programs. Disability awareness must be included in all ICT programs, through its development, to the design stage, into its implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
The 2nd Global Forum was facilitated jointly by the DAISY Consortium and the Association BASMA pour la Promotion de l'Emploi des Handicap, as a part of the parallel events of the WSIS in Tunis.
The objectives of the Forum were to:
- Promote accessible information and communication worldwide,
- Share the knowledge of best practices for ICT, and
- Establish a global link to implement, monitor and evaluate ICT for further development of the outcome of WSIS.
The forum program was organized as follows:
15 November 2005
Day 1
09:00-09:40
Opening:
Her Excellency Mrs. Leila Ben Ali will officially open the 2nd Global Forum on Disability in the Information Society (to be confirmed)
09:40-09:45 Break
09:45-09:55
Keynote address:
Andre Van Deventer, South Africa
World Federation of the Deafblind.
09:55-13:00
Session 1: ICT Best Practice Showcase
Moderators:
Judy Brewer, USA, (WAI/W3C)
Souad Lamine, Tunisia, (BASMA)
Access to information on the Internet
Jun Ishikawa, Japan
Development of Screen Readers and Machine Understandability of Software
University of Shizuoka
Jim Fruchterman, USA
Overcoming Barriers to Building a Global Library for People with Print Disabilities
Benetech
Mobile phone technology
Kajsa Ritzen Frisell & Johnny Kristensen, Sweden
The 3G Pocket Interpreter
Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency
Dipendra Manocha, India
Mobile Phone - a Multi-utility tool for the blind
DAISY for All Project (DFA)
Andre Van Deventer, South Africa
Deafblind persons calling friends
World Federation of the Deafblind
Education and training
Saida Agrebi, Tunisia
ICT and disability learning
ATM
Maud Hedblom & Lotta Stegmar, Sweden,
IT-training for visually impaired persons
IRIS Hadar
Employment and income generation
Catherine Roy, Canada,
E-Collaboration for Capacity Building in the Community of Persons with Disabilities of Quebec
W3Quebec
Tim Pap, United Kingdom,
Web Accessibility and Social Enterprise
Shaw Trust, UK
How users and survivors use ICT
Kohei Yamane, Japan
Participation in reinvention of safe and caring in Urakawa Town, a view of psychiatry users group, Bethel's House
Urakawa Bethel's House
Inclusion of indigenous people with disabilities
Malia Nobrega, Hawaii
Making our voices heard
University of Hawaii
Conventions and Regional Initiatives
Imed Eddine Chaker, Tunisia
Presentation of the Arab Decade of persons with disabilities
Khalfan H. Khalfan Al-Salmany, Tanzania
Presentation of the African Decade of persons with disabilities
Kicki Nordström, Sweden
Presentation of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, Copyrights and disability
Linda Misek-Falkoff, USA
Presentation of the Matrix RESPECT
12:30-12:45
Special Report:
Houlin Zhao, Switzerland
Overview of ongoing ITU initiatives for disaster prevention
International Telecommunication Union
14:00: Visit to BASMA Initiatives
e-Services; Electronic market (Ariana) Presentation of Zeineb Kilani
Call Center (Ghazala) Presentation of Fatma Moussa
Day 2
18 November 2005
9:00-10:00
Session 2: Disaster Preparedness of Persons with Disabilities
Moderator: Hiroshi Kawamura, Japan
National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities Research Institute
Markku Hakkinen, USA
Accessible ICT for Disaster Preparedness and Warning; Human-centered Design of Standards and Technology for Effective Communication
DAISY Consortium
Stephen Shore, USA
Preparing persons with autism and those who support them for times of disaster: The past with a look to the future
Autism Society of America
Open discussion
10:00-11:30
Session 3: International Disability Alliance (IDA) panel discussion on equal partnership in ICT development
Moderators:
Ms. Raja Ismail, Tunisia (BASMA)
George Kerscher, USA (DAISY Consortium)
Panelists:
Khalfan H. Khalfan Al-Salmany (Disabled Peoples' International)
Betty Dion (Rehabilitation International)
Kicki Nordström (The World Blind Union)
Antti Raike (World Federation of the Deaf)
Andre Van Deventer (World Federation of the Deafblind)
Sylvia Caras (World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry)
11:30-12:00
Special Reports:
Yvonne Grandbois, Switzerland
Accessible contents sharing of health and disability information on the web
World Health Organization Library
Wantanee Panthachart, Thailand
The movement of ICT Accessibility in Thailand
National Electronics and Computer Technology Center
12:00-12:40
Session 4: Adoption of the Tunis Declaration
Chair:
Imed Eddine Chaker, Tunisia, (UNAT)
Presentation of the draft declaration:
Monthian Buntan, Thailand, Thailand Association of the Blind
Adoption of the Tunis Declaration
12:40-12:45
Closing:
Khédija Hammouda Ghariani, Tunisia
Secretary of State for Computer Science, Internet and Free open Source Software
Visit the World Federation of Deaf's lively Blog and Photos of World Summit on Information Society, Tunis at http://wfd-ict.blogspot.com/
New Website Documenting Outcomes of WSIS Meetings
Thanks to Misako Nomura, Deputy Director of the JSRPD Information Center, and her team, WSIS Disability Focal Point has launched a bilingual website on Global Forum on Disability in the Information Society including outcomes of Tunis Summit in both English and Japanese.
 printer-friendly format
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