IGF 2018 WS #217 I Can't Use This App: Closing The Web Accessibility Gap
Panel - 60 Min
Organizer 1: Datta Bishakha, Point of View
Organizer 2: Gunela Astbrink, Women With Disabilities Australia
Speaker 1: Shadi Abou-Zahra, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Vashkar Bhattacharjee, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Gerry Ellis, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Nidhi Goyal, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 5: Andrea Saks, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
A whopping 177 countries have ratified the global Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which makes it obligatory for states to "promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems, including the Internet." Yet more than 12 years since this convention came into being, web accessibility remains a distant reality for people with disabilities. This panel foregrounds the experiences, realities, needs and concerns of internet users who are disabled - and makes concrete recommendations for closing the accessibility gap. The panel embodies the CSTD Working Group's recommendation to "involve new stakeholders, in particular from developing countries and especially LDCs, and persons with disabilities and other underrepresented groups." Thus it is of direct relevance to internet governance at the global level.
This panel will explore the accessibility needs of persons with motor, vision and hearing impairments through their own experiences of using digital devices. The focus will be on presenting new research such as a 2017 study on mobile phone and internet usage by people with disability in Vanuatu, and a 2017 demo video on the challenges faced by a visually-impaired user in India using popular messaging apps such as Wire and Slack. Building on state-of-the-art examples, the panel will present empirical data and evidence-based research on several barriers to accessibility at different levels, as per the W3C classification: • content - including ◦ natural information such as text, images, and sounds ◦ code or markup that defines structure, presentation, etc. • web browsers, media players, and other “user agents” • assistive technology, in some cases - screen readers, alternative keyboards, switches, scanning software, etc. • users’ knowledge, experiences, and in some cases, adaptive strategies using the web • developers - designers, coders, authors, etc., including developers with disabilities and users who contribute content • authoring tools - software that creates websites • evaluation tools - web accessibility evaluation tools, HTML validators, CSS validators, etc. Based on these, the panel will make key recommendations for improving accessibility at all levels - and for further policy advocacy and public education on this issue.
The speakers have been selected to represent diverse geographies, disabilities and stakeholder groups. They will provide a mix of perspectives based on personal experiences, programmatic interventions, and policy work. Nidhi Goyal, Point of View, India (civil society) is a visually-impaired woman who runs a program on gender, sexuality and disability. Based on her own experience, she will speak about the lack of solutions for the digital security needs of disabled internet users. Shadi Abou-Zahra, W3C, Egypt (technical expert) is an accessibility, strategy and technology specialist at the WorldWideWeb consortium. He will discuss the policy barriers to ensuring accessibility across disabilities and how these can be overcome. Andrea Saks, United States (private sector) is an international telecommunications specialist for the deaf. She has been a key person in the creation of all ITU accessibility initiatives and events. Based on her own experience, she will talk about barriers to making the web accessible for the hearing-impaired. Vashkar Bhattacharjee, Young Power In Social Action, Bangladesh (civil society, government) is a person with visual disabilities who has been working as a National Consultant in developing web accessibility with the Access to Information (A2I) initiative in the Office of the Prime Minister. He will share personal and policy experiences of putting accessibility into practice. Ellis Jerry from Ireland (private sector) is an Accessibility and Usability consultant under the name Feel The BenefIT. He has worked for over 30 years as a Software Engineer with a bank in Dublin
The speakers and co-organizers represent diversities of gender, geography, stakeholder group - and most importantly, disabilities. Of the five speakers, two are women, three are men. The two co-organizers and moderators are women. Of the five speakers, three are visually-impaired, one is hearing-impaired, one is motor-impaired. The five speakers are from five different countries - India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ireland, USA, representing the following continents: Asia, Africa, Europe, America. The five speakers represent the following stakeholder groups: civil society, technical experts, government, private sector.
We will live tweet the whole session to ensure that the conversation does not just stay inside the room, or just at the IGF. This will also include provisions to take questions from the online participants via social media as well as from those participating remotely on the IGF platform. We will also set up a Sli.do page which will be promoted before and during the session to allow for more continuous inputs and questions from the participants, both onsite and remote.
There will be a question and answer, and input round after the speakers present. A mic will be passed around in the room for taking inputs and questions from the onsite participants. The remote moderator will read out the questions and inputs from the remote participants to the whole room so that they are a part of the discussion and not isolated from it.
Reference Document: https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-usability-inclusion/
Resources
Additional Information
Contact Information
United Nations
Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
Villa Le Bocage
Palais des Nations,
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
igf [at] un [dot] org
+41 (0) 229 173 678
