As part of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) goal to transform the country from social exclusion to an all-inclusive that would guarantee  communications services for all, the commission convened an awareness and engagement programme for persons with disabilities in Lafia, Nasarawa State.  The ongoing programme has accorded the commission opportunity to develop policies and regulatory guidelines that would address concerns of persons with disabilities  regarding ICT accessibility.

In the welcome address read by Mr. Isa Olatiwo Deputy Director, Zonal Operations of the NCC  on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said: ‘An industry consultative meeting on service provision with respect to the disability group which was held in July, 2008 in order to sensitise both operating companies and equipment manufacturers on the need to jointly address challenges faced by people with disabilities. To join the information-rich countries of the world, the government of Nigeria pursued a continuous programme and aggressive market liberalisation policy that has made Nigeria one of the most liberalised telecom markets in the world.’

 

U.S Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) joined by several other Senators, have written a letter to the U.S  Department of Justice (DOJ), through the Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging the department to provide better guidance and regulations to help State and local governments better comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) accessibility requirements on their websites, mobile applications and other forms of technology .
The letter read in part ‘For people with disabilities, website accessibility and other forms of accessible [technology] are necessities—not luxuries or conveniences—that foster independence, economic self-sufficiency and active, meaningful participation in civic life. Although the Department has clearly stated that the ADA applies to such digital spaces, the lack of specific requirements or technical compliance standards incorporated in regulation has led to a widespread lack of meaningful digital accessibility for people with disabilities. It is past time for the Department to issue robust clarifications and remedy this exclusionary status quo.’

Workers with disability were among the hardest hit during the pandemic, and now millions of  these workers face a living standards emergency – with lower pay than their non-disabled peers, but higher energy and transport costs.

With an estimated 1.3 Billion Persons with disability globally, let’s focus on the workplace power and potential being harnessed from this statistic when looked at as an under-tapped talent pool. 

According to the Valuable 500 report , 54% of companies have an active disability inclusion accessibility policy.

The research reveals encouraging progress towards disability inclusion across  business processes, from recruitment to advertising, with 81% of respondents declaring an improvement on their pre-pandemic disability strategies.

A consideration of disability is now central to many recruitment processes, to improve Persons with disability representation and foster an inclusive work ethos from the offset. 65%  of respondents report adjusting their interview process, whilst 74% advertise as an inclusive employer, and 62% explicitly encourage applications from Persons with disabilities.

According to UN statistics, there are currently over 80 million persons with disabilities living in Africa. In Ghana persons with disabilities are estimated to be 3% of the total population. In 2018, internet penetration in Ghana was estimated to be 30.8%; in 2021 it is reported to have increased to 50% penetration. The global pandemic that introduced restrictions to physical gatherings including workplaces, educational institutions, shopping opportunities, etc. all moved toward the digital space, accelerating this transition.
However for the persons with disabilities in Ghana, things either remained the same or grew worse due to lack of digital access, digital literacy, financial empowerment, and other related challenges.

To improve access to digital and assistive technologies for Persons with disabilities, Ireland’s Minister for Disabilities, Ms. Anne Rabbitte, announced the call for projects under a new once-off €2 million Digital and Assistive Technology Fund. The call went out in December, 2021. After a rigorous selection process, 11 projects out of 79 submissions were selected, under the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) CREATE initiative.
The Cooperative Real Engagement for Assistive Technology Enhancement (CREATE) initiative seeks to ensure that service users and providers work together to identify what will make a real difference to individual users of digital and assistive technology (DAT).These projects demonstrated the extent to which they were person-centered, willingness to work collaboratively across different service providers and to really engage with digital and assistive technology users through a clear process of co-design.

The Minister secured €2 million for the initiative in Budget 2022. Announcing the allocation of the funding, Ms. Rabbitte said: “I am delighted to see this funding supporting a range of innovative projects which will greatly assist people with disabilities. Digital and Assistive Technologies are a crucial tool to allow people with disabilities to live a more independent life of their own choosing.”