Introduction

During the 2nd meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro (12-15 November 2007), ITU organized the workshop “Making Accessibility a Reality in Emerging Technologies and the Web”. The event brought together experts from around the world to examine the best way to resolve accessibility needs in ICT and emerging technologies and the Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability was created then.

Users of telecommunications and information technology have a varied capability of handling information and the controls of their presentation. The source of this variation lies in cultural and educational backgrounds, as well as on age-related functional limitations, in disabilities, and in other natural causes.

More info on DCAD at the official website: Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability

Action Plan

The Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability will facilitate interaction between relevant bodies, and ensure that ICT accessibility is included in the key debates around Internet Governance in order to build a future where all sectors of the global community have equal access to the Information Society. We are convinced that the entire community can benefit from an “accessible ICT world," as people can be permanently or temporarily disabled due to personal, environmental (e.g., a phone call in a noisy environment) or cultural (e.g., spoken language diversity) conditions. Moreover, we will all grow old and lose abilities that we take for granted now, thus enlarging the part of the population that would benefit from accessible communication. We cannot allow isolation of a part of the population due to lack of appropriate functionality that prevents the use of ICT resources by everybody to the fullest possible degree. 

1st Deliverable:

Mailing List

A mailing list has been set up to facilitate discussions among DC partners; please note that subscription is mandatory in order to be able to send/receive information to/from this list.

Mailing list address: [email protected]

Subscribe to the mailing list: http://lists.igf-dcad.org/listinfo.cgi/dcad-igf-dcad.org 

Alternatively, to subscribe to the list please send your request to [email protected], indicating name, affiliation and the email address to be subscribed.

Stakeholders

The coalition is open to any organization, entity or individual working in the field, including Standard Developing Organizations (SDOs).

Coordinators
  • Judith Hellerstein
  • Muhammad Shabbir
Partners: Organizations and Institutions

Current coalition partners include individual representatives and affiliates representing the following organizations and institutions:

Individuals

Documents/Reports

Contacts

Coordinators: 

Admin: Joly MacFie – admin[at]igf-dcad.org 

Website: https://igf-dcad.org

Mailing list: [email protected]