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Workplace Solutions Champions Consultative Workshop
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/workplace-solutions-champions-consultative-workshop
<b>A two day workshop was held on January 21 - 22 at Ecumenical Christian Centre in Bangalore. The workshop was organized by Enable India. Nirmita Narasimhan attended the workshop. </b>
<h2>Agenda</h2>
<h3>Day 1: January 21, 2017</h3>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Sl. No.</th><th>Agenda Item </th><th>Description</th><th>Timings</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>Context Setting for the Workshop</td>
<td>What outcomes we hope to achieve during the workshop<br /></td>
<td>9.30 - 10.00</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>Reflections and Sharing</td>
<td>Sharing on achievements and impact, through discussions and activities</td>
<td>10.00 - 10.45</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Tea Break</td>
<td></td>
<td>10.45 - 11.15</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>Reflections and Sharing (Continued)</td>
<td>Sharing on achievements and impact, through discussions and activities</td>
<td>11.15 – 12.45</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Lunch Break<br /></td>
<td></td>
<td>12.45 - 13.45</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>Situational Context for WPS Champions Network</td>
<td>Understanding the background of workplace solutions and their critical role in shaping livelihoods for persons with vision impairment</td>
<td>13.45 - 14.30</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>Curriculum Development</td>
<td>Creation of curriculum for development of quality WPS Implementation professionals</td>
<td>14.30 - 16.30</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Tea Break</td>
<td></td>
<td>16.30 - 17.00</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>Curriculum Development</td>
<td>Creation of curriculum for development of quality WPS Implementation professionals</td>
<td>17.00 - 19.00</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Day 2: January 22, 2017</h3>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Sl. No.</th><th>Agenda Item</th><th>Description</th><th>Timings</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>WPS Champions Network Long Term Vision and My Personal Vision</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Understanding the future of WPS implementation, and personal vision alignment</td>
<td>9.00 - 10.00</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Tea Break</td>
<td></td>
<td>10.00 - 10.30</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>National track: Top Actions for the Year, and Who Will Do What</td>
<td>Understanding the roadmap for WPS across India</td>
<td>10.30 – 11.00</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>Regional Tracks for North, South and West regions: Top Actions for the Year, and Who Will do What</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Preparing a region-specific roadmap for WPS in the north, south and west regions</td>
<td>11.00 - 12.00</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>Open Session on Employment</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Group discussion on WPS in the context of employment and livelihoods</td>
<td>12.00 - 13.00</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Lunch Break</td>
<td></td>
<td>13.00 - 14.00</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>Logistics and communication channels for next steps</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Service management tool demo, Whatsapp group and other information</td>
<td>14.00 - 15.00</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/workplace-solutions-champions-consultative-workshop'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/workplace-solutions-champions-consultative-workshop</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2017-02-03T01:23:38ZNews ItemWIPO Treaty for the Visually Impaired — Moving from a Treaty on Paper to a Treaty that is Workable on the Ground
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/wipo-treaty-for-the-visually-impaired
<b>After many years of hard lobbying by the World Blind Union, it appears that the WIPO Treaty on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities (TVI) could become a reality next year. However, due to pressure from the European Union and the United States, and their insistence on several untenable provisions, there is a real risk that the TVI could become unworkable on the ground.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The following is a list of concerns that must suitably be addressed if the TVI is to make a realistic dent in the “book famine” in which only a few per cent of books are available in accessible formats that persons with print disabilities can read.</p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Definition of authorised entity to be widened.</b><br />The current definition of authorized entity prescribes that only authorized entities that address the needs of beneficiary persons as one of their primary (in brackets) activities or institutional obligations can undertake conversion and distribution of books in accessible formats. This requirement is unacceptable since it will exclude many legitimate organisations and institutions that undertake these activities but who do not address the needs of beneficiary persons as a "primary" activity or institutional obligation. Some examples of such organisations/institutions are mainstream education institutions and mainstream libraries. Delhi University which has a large number of blind students will be excluded and this is unacceptable.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Authorised entities must be required to follow simple rules and procedures when converting and distributing works in accessible formats.</b><br />As is proposed now, authorized entities could be required to follow complex rules and procedures with respect to the permitted activities. In this connection it is critical to note that:<br />
<ul>
<li>Smaller organisations will not be in a position to keep organised records. Therefore smaller organisations that serve rural or small populations must not be subject to a requirement to keep records where they do not distribute accessible formats in electronic form.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>There must be no requirements for organisations to apply Technology Protection Measures to accessible formats in electronic form.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>While organisations can inform beneficiary persons to whom they supply accessible formats that there must be no subsequent distribution to non-beneficiary persons, an organisation should have no obligation to oversee the use by the beneficiary persons they supply accessible formats to, or any responsibility for misuse by beneficiary persons they supply accessible formats to.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>There must be no requirement to share the records that organisations are required to keep with any person or entity other than in the eventuality of copyright infringement proceedings.</li>
</ul>
The rules and procedures must therefore be simplified to reflect the above.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>The exception must automatically kick in if the relevant accessible formats are not available in the market on the same day as the mainstream format.</b><br />At present there is no clarity on when the exception kicks in and the existing wording can be interpreted such that the exception may apply only after significant time has passed after the books are available in the market in the mainstream format. If a work is made available in the market in a mainstream format it is essential that beneficiary persons can enjoy the work in the relevant accessible format at the same time. Failure to do so is discriminatory towards beneficiary persons. In this connection, the TVI must expressly clarify that if the accessible format copy is not available on the same day as the mainstream format, the exception automatically applies and authorised entities and beneficiary persons can create accessible format copies on the same day that the mainstream format is commercial available. <br />This will also be an incentive for rights holders to take steps to ensure that accessible format copies are made commercially available on the same day as mainstream formats.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">“<b>Making available” to be possible through wire and wireless means.</b><br />One of the proposed changes to the TVI is the clarification that “making available” accessible format copies to the public should be as per Article 8 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty thereby expressly providing for communication to the public, by wire or wireless means, including the making available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access works from a place and at a time individually chosen by them. Given that technology is making it increasingly possible for beneficiary persons to access accessible format copies over wire and wireless means, this is clarification is very critical.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>The Authorised Entity in the exporting country must not have any obligation to verify any form of legal eligibility in the importing country</b>.<br />As per the current wording of the TVI an authorized entity in one Member State: <br />
<ul>
<li>Must, when exporting to beneficiary person in another Member State, verify whether that other Member State would permit that beneficiary person to make or import that accessible copy; and </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Can only export to an entity or organization in another Member State that the originating authorizing entity has identified as another authorized entity. </li>
</ul>
It is obvious that authorised entities in one country cannot verify the above with any degree of certainty and therefore it is impossible for authorised entities to comply with this requirement. Moreover, as in the case of all copyright exceptions and limitations, rights holders have the right to take copyright infringement action against any person or entity that operates outside, or exceeds, the exception. This requirement relating to the verification legal legibility must therefore be deleted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Member states having the flexibility to decide whether to link exceptions to commercial availability</b>.<br />At present, the draft TVI provides Member States the flexibility to decide whether to confine permitted activities to instances where there is no commercial availability of accessible format copies. This flexibility is critical for Member States since the economic and distribution ground realities in each Member State vary widely and only a Member State can decide this issue conclusively for its own circumstances. Any attempt to change this position in the TVI must be opposed.<br />In short, barring the above issues, the Treaty appears to heading in the right direction. The upcoming intersessionals in Geneva (17-19th October 2012) to discuss the text of the Treaty will be crucial to decide the fate of the Treaty. Watch this space.</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>Rahul is the founder of Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability Law and Policy and he advices the World Blind Union on legal issues relating to the WIPO Treaty for the Visually Impaired.<br /></i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/wipo-treaty-for-the-visually-impaired'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/wipo-treaty-for-the-visually-impaired</a>
</p>
No publisherRahul CherianAccessibilityAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-09-28T04:41:08ZBlog EntryWIPO to Convene a Diplomatic Conference in Morocco to Finalise TVI
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/wipo-to-convene-conference-to-finalise-tvi-next-year
<b>In a landmark development, on December 18, 2012, the Extraordinary General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation agreed to convene a diplomatic conference, likely to be in Morocco, in June of next year to finalise the Treaty for Visually Impaired Persons/Persons with Print Disabilities.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This comes about five years after a team of about ten of us sat down in the offices of <a href="http://keionline.org/">Knowledge Ecology International</a> in Washington D.C. to draft the first cut of the Treaty.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Even as late as December 17, it was uncertain as to whether the outcome would be positive, particularly as the United States was fixated on the word "instrument" and not "treaty". At one point during the EGA it was rumored that the US and the EU were insisting on a "kill switch" in the decision document of the Extraordinary General Assembly. Essentially the US and the EU were apparently pushing for wording in the decision text stating that if the text of the Treaty was not fully agreed by the end of the upcoming WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights in February, then the diplomatic conference was off. Luckily none of this type of wording was reflected in the decision of the EGA. The EU was insisting on a non-binding instrument as opposed to a treaty till November this year when they finally capitulated due to the extensive pressure applied internally by blind groups such as the European Blind Union and the Royal National Institute of Blind People in the United Kingdom.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, it is not smooth sailing from here on since there are still some very critical issues to be resolved in the text of the Treaty. Possibly the most critical issue from the perspective of blind groups is the outstanding issue of commercial availability. The European Union and the United States insist that the Treaty should apply only when works in accessible formats such as Braille or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAISY_Digital_Talking_Book">Daisy</a> are not commercially available. The contentious provision in the Treaty in relation to export of accessible format copies is the following: "The Member State/Contracting Party may limit said distribution or making available of published works which, in the applicable accessible format, cannot be otherwise obtained within a reasonable time and at a reasonable price, in the country of importation." There is also a similar clause with respect to national exceptions as well.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The problem that we have with this clause is that it places the burden on exporting organizations to determine, prior to export, whether a work is available in an accessible format in the importing country within a "reasonable time" and "reasonable price". In reality, this will be impossible for organizations to verify this position with any degree of certainty without spending substantial amounts of money or dedicating significant resources for this. As a result the organizations will not export accessible format copies because they are nervous about copyright violation thereby meaning that the treaty will not be used in reality. Obviously from our perspective there is no point in having a treaty which cannot be used to benefit the millions of persons with visual impairment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Another outstanding issue that is crucial to us is that a beneficiary (such as a visually impaired person) in one country should be able to import accessible format copies directly from organizations abroad. The European Union does not want to permit this and insists that export and import should only be between organizations. The position of the European Union will be counterproductive because it will add too much burden on organizations in developing countries to serve their disabled populations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We get the opportunity to fix these issues during the next session of the Standing Committee meeting in February 2013. If required there could another session called to sort out text related issues before the diplomatic conference in June.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Ultimately, the success or failure of the Treaty will boil down to whether the US and the EU actually end up ratifying the Treaty. After all, they have the largest collections of material in accessible formats which we need to import into India. The <a href="http://www.hathitrust.org/">Hathi Trust</a> in the United States has approximately 10 million books in accessible formats which will be invaluable for the visually impaired community in India. Given the recent rejection of the United States of the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/human-rights-watch/us-senate-misses-opportun_b_2244885.html">United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities</a> it remains to be seen what the future holds.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Rahul Cherian is the legal advisor to the World Blind Union on the Treaty and is the founder of the <a href="http://www.inclusiveplanet.org.in/">Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability Law and Policy</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/wipo-to-convene-conference-to-finalise-tvi-next-year'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/wipo-to-convene-conference-to-finalise-tvi-next-year</a>
</p>
No publisherRahul CherianAccessibilityWIPO2012-12-24T06:18:58ZBlog EntryWIPO Proposals Would Open Cross-Border Access To Materials For Print Disabled
https://cis-india.org/news/WIPO-Proposals-for-Disabled
<b>The print disabled feel that the possible UN recommendations being negotiated upon may come up short, reports Kaitlin Mara in this article.</b>
<p>Negotiators trying to find a solution for the world’s print disabled, who have said copyright law is limiting their access to an already meagre supply of reading material in usable formats, began discussing a possible UN recommendation this week. But the print disabled and their strongest supporters have said such a recommendation – which would not be legally binding – would fall short of meeting their needs.</p>
<p>The critical issue is the ability to trade accessibly formatted books across country borders, which is currently restricted by copyright law. The World Blind Union drafted a <a class="external-link" href="http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=133353">treaty text</a>, which was submitted a year ago to the World Intellectual Property Organization by Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay.</p>
<p>The United States this week submitted <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/US-proposal-consensus-instrument.pdf">draft proposal for a consensus instrument</a> [pdf] to WIPO, where these discussions are being held. This instrument has a list of recommendations for governments on national laws to aid the import and export of accessible books.</p>
<p>The US delegation told Intellectual Property Watch that their consensus instrument was intended to be a “faster” solution, and is not mutually exclusive with – and indeed could be a step towards – the treaty that has been called for.</p>
<p>At the last meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights in December 2009, some delegations – notably the European Union – refused to discuss a possible treaty, saying more facts were needed (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/12/22/big-step-forward-on-treaty-for-the-visually-impaired-at-wipo/">IPW, WIPO, 22 December 2009</a>).</p>
<p>At the December meeting, it was decided to hold an open consultation on the issues – the 27 May meeting – before the next SCCR meeting, scheduled for 21-24 June. Also, on 28 May, WIPO is discussing aspects of a proposed treaty to protect audiovisual performances.</p>
<p>But the governments behind the treaty proposal and civil society representatives of the print-disabled community expressed their doubts about the US’s intermediary solution.</p>
<p>“Our initial reaction… is that [the US proposal] falls short of our objectives, at least in a vital element – the format – for it is not a legally binding instrument,” Brazil, on behalf of these countries, said in a statement, available here <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Statement-Brazil-VIP.doc">Statement Brazil VIP</a> [doc]. They added they needed more time to fully analyse it.</p>
<p>The US proposal fails in several ways, Brazil said. Among them: it does not create a legal obligation for countries to make exceptions, meaning if either an exporting or importing country lacks an exception, the transfer cannot be made; it discriminates against different kinds of media and does not seem to cover works shared online, it does not address the potential need to circumvent technological protection measures or contractual restrictions on needed exceptions, and doesn’t express the specific needs of developing countries.</p>
<p>“This is far from what we need,” Chris Friend, chair of the World Blind Union Global Right to Read Campaign told Intellectual Property Watch, saying it would just lead to “more procrastination” rather than more speed.</p>
<p>Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Paraguay also submitted this week a proposed timetable, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/treaty-timetable-ecuador-brazil-mex-paraguay.pdf">available here</a>[pdf], for the adoption of a treaty for the visually-impaired that would see its completion in the spring of 2012. </p>
<p>If speed is desired, members might support this timetable proposal, said Dan Pescod, vice chair of the Right to Read Campaign.</p>
<p>Voluntary processes are unacceptable, said Jace Nair, the National Executive Director of the South African National Council for the Blind. “We have been depending on a voluntary process from rights holders for decades… it hasn’t helped.”</p>
<p>Pescod added that the World Blind Union respects the needs of rights holders and the copyright system, but added a “similar level of seriousness” is needed “to address this issue.” If rights holder’s needs are immediately moved to a treaty, why when it comes to disabled people’s needs are we not able to talk about the same thing, he asked. There is not an ACTA-style [Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement] recommendation; it is a treaty, he said.</p>
<p>But some were pleased the US proposal. “We welcome the [United States] recommendation,” said Jens Bammel of the International Publishers Association in a later interview with Intellectual Property Watch, adding that there had not yet been a chance to digest it in detail.</p>
<p>The element of the US proposal that has the “greatest potential” to resolve the issue, Bammel said, is that it “recognises the value of trusted intermediaries.” These intermediaries can bring together rights holders and the visually impaired to find practical solutions on all issues of access to literary content, “not just the tiny sliver that is copyright.” Other issues include technical and practical matters, for example figuring out what accessible works already exist or creating a network to transfer files from one place to another.</p>
<p>Background to the Issue</p>
<p>The organisations that translate books into accessible formats are often under-funded nonprofits serving in general the needs of the blind.according to? As a result, the budget that can be allocated to translating books is small, and of particular concern in developing countries or in cases where there is a group of print-disabled people that speak a language uncommon in their country.</p>
<p>This is a particular problem for developing countries, where about 80 percent of the print disabled live, Nirmita Narasimhan, programme manager of the Centre for Internet and Society in India, said at a press conference Wednesday.</p>
<p>Any formatting that takes place in India is done by nonprofits with no support of the government, she said. And these nonprofits “spend a lot of time recreating work done globally and nationally” and often have to push conversion activities to a lower priority because they also need to work on food or shelter for the visually impaired. There are approximately 100,000 books printed in India every year, she added, but barely 600-700 of these are in accessible formats.</p>
<p>High level texts are particularly hard to find, said Narasimhan, who is a lawyer. Studying in law school often meant having a family member read to her when books were unavailable in the right formats.</p>
<p>An example that illustrates the problem, said Chris Friend of the World Blind Union, is a book in the popular children’s series Harry Potter. It had to be re-engineered in five different English Braille editions and eight different English audio versions around the world, because sharing across borders was not permitted. These cost about US$ 5,000 a piece. The situation becomes even more difficult with communities in a linguistic minority in a country – for example Hindi communities residing in Canada.</p>
<p>This is also a matter of human rights, argued several of the civil society groups representing the print disabled, citing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Article 30, which requires states “to ensure that laws protecting intellectual property rights do not constitute an unreasonable or discriminatory barrier to access by persons with disabilities to cultural materials.”</p>
<p>Follow the original article on <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/05/28/wipo-proposals-would-open-cross-border-access-for-print-disabled/">IP Watch</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/WIPO-Proposals-for-Disabled'>https://cis-india.org/news/WIPO-Proposals-for-Disabled</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2011-04-02T11:56:47ZNews ItemWIPO General Assemblies Approve Road Map on Treaty for the Visually Impaired
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/wipo-approves-road-map-on-tv
<b>In a significant development the 50th session of Assemblies of WIPO member states reached a breakthrough decision on how to complete negotiations on a pact to improve access to copyrighted works for the many visually impaired or print disabled people around the world. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The meeting of the General Assembly which concluded on October 9, 2012 approved a <a href="http://wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=213442" title="http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=213442">road map</a> that could lead in 2013 to a historic diplomatic conference for an international treaty focused on improving access to published works for persons who are visually impaired or print disabled. The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) will hold <a href="http://wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=27382">inter-sessional meetings from October 17-19, 2012</a> to work on the text of the instrument. The <a href="http://wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=25024">SCCR will meet from November 19-23, 2012</a> and will continue discussions on the text with the objective of concluding or substantially advancing the text-based work on this topic. Member states agreed to convene an extraordinary meeting of the General Assembly in December 2012 to assess progress on the text and decide whether to convene a diplomatic conference in 2013. Some 300 million blind or visually impaired people around the world stand to benefit from a more flexible copyright regime adapted to current technological realities. Individuals with reading impairment often need to convert information into Braille, large print, audio, electronic and other formats using assistive technologies. Only a very small percentage of published books around the world are available in formats accessible to the visually impaired.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At the closing of the Assemblies, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry welcomed the "extremely constructive engagement of member states" in the work of the Organization as demonstrated in the decisions taken by the Assemblies. He underlined the progress made by member states in setting timetables for concluding negotiations on international instruments on access to copyrighted work by the visually impaired, design law and intellectual property and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore. The Chair of the WIPO General Assembly, Serbia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Uglješa Zvekić, also welcomed the positive outcome of the Assemblies which took stock of the work of the Organization and set timetables to conclude normative work in several areas. Representatives of regional groups, and individual member states, also welcomed the outcome of the Assemblies and the positive spirit among member states. Regional groups specifically underlined decisions to move forward in discussions on a treaty to facilitate access to copyrighted works by the visually impaired or print disabled.</p>
<p>For more details see <a href="http://wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2012/article_0022.html">http://wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2012/article_0022.html</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/wipo-approves-road-map-on-tv'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/wipo-approves-road-map-on-tv</a>
</p>
No publisherRahul CherianAccessibilityWIPO2012-10-11T10:34:37ZBlog EntryWIPO Director General Pledges Support for India’s Visually Impaired Community
https://cis-india.org/news/wipo-director-general-pledges-support
<b>An article in the WIPO website on the “Right to Read of persons with print disabilities and copyright challenges” organized by the VIP community in cooperation with the Government of India in New Delhi on November 11, 2009.</b>
<p>WIPO Director General Francis Gurry met representatives of India’s visually impaired (VIP) community at a conference on the “Right to Read of persons with print disabilities and copyright challenges” organized by the VIP community in cooperation with the Government of India in New Delhi on November 11, 2009, and reaffirmed WIPO’s commitment to supporting international attempts to improve access to copyright protected works by visually impaired persons (VIPs). “Let me assure you that this is a priority area for the World Intellectual Property Organization,” Mr. Gurry said.</p>
<p>More than 314 million blind or visually impaired people around the world stand to benefit from a more flexible copyright regime adapted to current technological realities. Individuals with reading impairment often need to convert information into Braille, large print, audio, electronic and other formats using assistive technologies. It is estimated that only 5% of published books in developed countries are converted into formats accessible to the reading impaired. In India, however, only 0.5% of works are published in accessible formats. This has an adverse impact on the educational and employment opportunities of the country’s nearly 70 million reading impaired citizens.</p>
<p>While, today, sighted individuals enjoy unprecedented access to copyright-protected content, in some contexts, social, economic, technological and legal factors, including the operation of copyright protection systems, can combine to seriously impede access to such works by the blind or other reading impaired persons. Widespread use of digital technologies, in particular, has prompted reconsideration of the question of how to maintain a balance between the protection available to copyright owners, and the needs of specific user groups, such as reading impaired persons. During the meeting, members of the Indian VIP community endorsed WIPO’s role in steering the VIP Initiative at the international level. Mr. Gurry reaffirmed his personal commitment to the specific needs of this community, particularly in developing and least-developed countries: He said innovation and affordability are key considerations when addressing the specific requirements of the VIP in developing countries.</p>
<p>To move forward on these questions, Mr. Gurry noted, we will need to take join ranks with UN partners, namely the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), among others, to make best use of the expertise and skills that are available. The ITU for example, is particularly well placed to provide important technological inputs in the field of telephony and communications and to foster public-private partnerships in this area.</p>
<p>Mr. Gurry welcomed India’s readiness to test the prototype guidelines for trusted intermediaries recently adopted by the WIPO Stakeholders’ Platform. The Director General said that WIPO was ready to explore options to support training/capacity building activities in India for VIPs within the framework of the VIP initiative.</p>
<p>The New Delhi meeting reviewed a series of operational arrangements that could enable fast track access to certain copyright-protected works, particularly educational materials, in local Indian languages. It also focused on the need to incorporate the necessary flexibilities in the Indian Copyright Act 1957 for the benefit of print impaired persons.<br />Representatives of key organizations such as the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped (NIVH), the Regional Resource Centre of the Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY), the Centre for Internet and Society and the Federation of Publishers’ & Booksellers’ Associations in India presented their views and concerns on the subject. The meeting was opened to a larger audience of authors, publishers, collective management organizations and librarians, among others. India’s former Ambassador of India to the United Nations in Geneva, Mr. Swashpawan Singh, honorary advisor on the VIP Initiative to the Director General of WIPO, also participated in the discussions.</p>
<h3>Background</h3>
<p>In its May 2008 session, the WIPO’s Standing Committee for Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) acknowledged the special needs of VIPs and stressed the importance of dealing, without delay and with appropriate deliberation, with the needs of the blind, visually impaired, and other reading-disabled persons, including discussions at the national and international level on possible ways and means of facilitating and enhancing access to protected works.</p>
<p>In this context, WIPO is currently hosting a global Stakeholders’ platform to explore the specific needs, and concerns, of both copyright owners and reading impaired persons. The aim of the platform is to explore and identify possible operational arrangements to make published works available in accessible formats to the VIP community and within a reasonable time frame. The Platform has recognized the importance of building trust among all parties and has agreed on a first set of principles to facilitate the cross border transfer of published works to print-disabled people, particularly among charities. A draft treaty on the visually impaired persons and for other people with reading disabilities was put forward by the delegations of Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay in May 2009. This, together with other possible proposals and contributions by the members of the SCCR, will be discussed at the 19th Session of the SCCR in December 2009, with a view to establishing a multilateral legal framework in the field of limitations and exceptions for the benefit of VIPs.</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2009/article_0048.html">Link to the original article</a></p>
<a class="external-link" href="http://news.domainlabs.eu/WIPO_Press_Releases/2009/11/11/WIPO_Director_General_Pledges_Support_for_India%E2%80%99s_Visually_Impaired_Community">Link to Related News</a>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/wipo-director-general-pledges-support'>https://cis-india.org/news/wipo-director-general-pledges-support</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaAccessibility2011-04-02T14:34:21ZNews ItemWhy GST Is A Step Backward For The Disabled
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/why-gst-is-a-step-backward-for-the-disabled
<b>Imposing taxes on assistive devices is unfair. The countdown has begun to the implementation of the GST in India. Over the past month, discussions about the GST have dominated the scene with several groups protesting in strong measure about the impact on their business.</b>
<p>The article by Nirmita Narasimhan was published by <b><a class="external-link" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/nirmita-narasimhan/why-gst-is-a-step-backward-for-the-disabled_a_23009350/">Huffington Post</a></b> on July 1, 2017.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This post is concerned with the impact of an underrepresented group—that of persons with disabilities, who are facing severe impediments to their rights to independent living, mobility and participation if the GST is implemented as proposed in the present notification.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; ">It is unconscionable that disability aids and assistive technology are considered a luxury and taxed at a higher rate than rough semi-precious stones or cashew nuts.</p>
<p>The new GST rules seek to impose tax on assistive technologies and goods and services which are essential for the advancement of persons with disabilities and will consequently, hamper their mobility as well as ability to participate in education and employment.</p>
<p>Some noteworthy points are:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">5% GST on Braille typewriters, Braille paper, Braille watches and Braillers (originally set to 18% for typewriters and 12% for Braille paper and watches and reduced after protests from organisations like the National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People (NCPEDP), the Disability Rights Organisations Forum (DROF), and various regional groups. Only Braille books are exempt from the tax.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "> 12% GST on orthopaedic appliances, including crutches, surgical belts and trusses; splints and other fracture appliances; artificial parts of the body; hearing aids and other appliances which are worn or carried, or implanted in the body, to compensate for a defect or disability. Hearing aids have also been listed under the list of goods with nil taxes, which is contradictory.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> 18% GST on motor vehicles for persons with disabilities.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "> IT software, consulting and support services, online text, audio and video, software downloads etc. have all been classified but no GST rate has been quoted, which implies that they are taxed at 18%. This means software like screen readers, assistive software for persons with cognitive disabilities, online text etc. which are essential aspects of communications and information access for persons with disabilities will also be taxed at 18%, which will severely hamper their ability to communicate and even carry out daily tasks.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is incomprehensible that the government should choose to impose a tax on the ability to walk, talk and deliberate using crutches, prosthetic limbs, hearing aids and communicating using assistive reading software for persons who have disabilities. It is unconscionable that disability aids and assistive technology are considered a luxury and taxed at a higher rate than rough semi-precious stones or cashew nuts. On the other hand, items such as kajal and glass bangles are not being taxed at all. Is ornamentation more important than the ability of persons with disabilities to lead their lives with dignity and independence? The current GST structure is discriminatory, making it even more difficult for persons with disabilities to participate in society, and contradicts the vision of an <a href="http://accessibleindia.gov.in/content/" rel="nofollow">Accessible India.</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Until we are able to assure the level of independence, accessibility and resources to the disabled to live a life of dignity like other countries do, we should not levy tax like them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India is measuring herself against other developed countries where a reduced percentage of tax is levied on goods and services for persons with disabilities. Unfortunately however, the comparison ends there and does not extend to providing world-class services and facilities for the disabled, such as accessible roads, transportation, information. It would be wiser to follow our own lead from the past decade when we had not levied any tax on such items. The progress of this group has been painfully slow thus far anyway, so what will happen if GST rates up to 18% are levied?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As a country, we are not yet ready for this. We are still in a state where thousands of children with disabilities drop out of school even at the pre-primary level because they do not have the resources—technology, books, training and help—to pursue education. We still have a long way to go in terms of achieving basic rights for persons with disabilities, which is no longer the case in the developed countries that we seek to follow. The argument is hence not a blanket opposition to tax for persons with disabilities, just because they are disabled, but on the basis that until and unless we are able to assure the level of independence, accessibility and resources to the disabled to live a life of dignity and inclusion like other countries do, we should not consider levying tax like them. A person using a wheelchair in Germany can travel using public transport, but the same is impossible in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Once we are able to achieve the level of inclusion and accessibility of developed countries, we may consider taxing for certain items, although perhaps still not for all on the list. However, that time is not now. To build an inclusive society, we need to support persons with disabilities in all possible ways and imposing taxes on assistive devices will take us many steps backward.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/why-gst-is-a-step-backward-for-the-disabled'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/why-gst-is-a-step-backward-for-the-disabled</a>
</p>
No publishernirmitaAccessibility2017-07-03T02:39:18ZBlog EntryWhere Are There So Few Books For The Print-Impaired?
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/huffington-post-november-3-2016-nirmita-narasimhan-where-are-there-so-few-books-for-print-impaired
<b>India publishes approximately 90,000 books each year in 24 different languages. We have over 16,000 publishers, and are one of the top nations for English book publishing in the world. Clearly we are a nation which values and fosters a culture of reading and passing on knowledge in different domains ranging from literature, to yoga, language, education, science, fiction and many others. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This article was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/nirmita-narasimhan/where-are-there-so-few-books-for-the-print-impaired/?utm_hp_ref=in-">published in the Huffington Post</a> on November 3, 2016.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We are also the world's second most populous nation with an extremely large population with disabilities, including persons with print impairments. However, the total number of books accessible to the print impaired in India is only 19,000, a fraction of what is available yearly to the general public. How is it that despite our prowess in publishing and technology, persons with print impairments in India remain deprived of access to books and other forms of information which are key to an inclusive and fulfilling life?</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">There are presently approximately 19,000 books converted till date, a pathetic contrast to the 90,000 books published just in India every year.</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Before going further into this question, let us understand the term "print disability". Very broadly, print-impaired persons are those who cannot access printed material due to some form of disability, such as blindness or low vision, dyslexia, autism etc. For these persons to be able to read, the material needs to be converted into some other format such as Braille or accessible electronic formats which can be read using some assistive device like a screen reader or e-book reader, fitted in a laptop, mobile or stand alone device. For assistive technology to be able to read the content, it needs to conform to universal standards such as Unicode for Indic font or EPUB 3.0.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">The challenges</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Until 2012, one of the biggest hurdles to access printed content for the print-disabled was the fact that they had to obtain permission from the copyright holder of the work, every time they wanted to convert a book into audio/ Braille/ other formats. This was often unsuccessful, time consuming and required resources beyond the means of most blindness organizations, who could convert only a bare minimum of books, mostly excerpts from school text books for their readers. After over a decade of sustained advocacy, the Government included section 52 (1)(zb) in the Indian Copyright Act, a fair use exception which permitted conversion of copyrighted works into any accessible format for the benefit of a person with a disability on a non-profit basis. For profit, conversion is permitted on certain terms. This considerably opened up the world of books for persons with print impairments in India. In September 2016, the <a href="http://www.worldblindunion.org/english/news/Pages/The-Treaty-of-Marrakesh.aspx">Marrakesh Treaty for the Visually Impaired</a> also came into force, which means that cross-border sharing of accessible books can happen between countries which have ratified the Treaty.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, despite these measures, the availability of books remains abysmal. While the legal issues have been sorted out to a large extent, the practical situation is harder to deal with and there are significant hurdles in creation and dissemination as well as equipping users to read accessible books.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Firstly, organizations serving the print-impaired do not have the bandwidth to undertake large scale conversions of each and every book that gets published. At present, organizations have to spend considerable time and resources converting content into an accessible electronic format before they can make it available to end users. Consider this, the cost of typing out one page of a regional language like Telugu is approximately ₹30 So it would cost ₹3000 to type out a 100-page Telugu book, in addition to the price already paid to purchase the book. Apart from the unaffordability, the lack of equipment and personnel necessitates conversion being carried out in a very limited manner and mostly for books which are critical for studies and in high demand, since state boards do not provide accessible versions of school text books.</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">The simplest way to address accessible book creation would be for publishers to adopt EPUB 3.0 and ensure that books are "born accessible"...</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the Daisy Forum of India, along with the Government of India recently opened an online accessible digital library called the <a href="https://library.daisyindia.org/NALP/welcomeLink.action">Sugamya Pustakalaya</a>, it needs to be populated with accessible content. There are presently approximately 19,000 books converted till date, a pathetic contrast to the 90,000 books published just in India every year. Even international organizations such as Bookshare which have been expending millions to convert books in different countries have only succeeded in making 500,000 accessible books available in all, and these too are not equally available to persons in every country due to copyright issues.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The other challenge is to equip each and every print-impaired person with a device such as a laptop or mobile phone on which he/ she can read and work with the book. Of course, merely providing devices is pointless—appropriate training in how to use them is essential.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There are also issues of inadequate distribution networks to reach out to print impaired persons in urban and remote parts of India, which still need to be addressed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Apart from the challenges specific to creating and disseminating accessible books, other digitization activities can also add to the problem. For instance, the <a href="http://www.dli.ernet.in/">Digital Library of India project</a>, a spectacular effort to digitize books of all genres, is said to have a library of 550,603 books including several really old manuscripts and historical books. However, all of these are scanned and saved as inaccessible image files, rendering them of no use to the print-impaired.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Another problem is in the case of Indian language content which is often created in a nonUnicode font, making it unreadable for persons using screen readers.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">How can we improve the situation?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The simplest way to address accessible book creation would be for publishers to adopt EPUB 3.0 and ensure that books are "born accessible" since they anyway produce a digital file of a book before bringing it out in print. This would obviate the entire cost, time and effort spent on conversion. Also, selling accessible e-versions to the print impaired could be a huge business opportunity for publishers, considering the large market for such books in India and globally. More information on this can be obtained from <a href="http://www.accessiblebooksconsortium.org/portal/en/index.html">Accessible Book Consortium</a> or by writing to <a href="mailto:info-india@bookshare.org">BookShare</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We also need to ensure all digitization activities consider accessibility requirements and create resources that conform to accessibility standards.</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">We have the law, the technology, the books and the people, but need a concerted effort from multiple stakeholders... to bring all of these together.</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On the technology front, an NGO-driven project over the past four years has now made text to speech available for several Indian languages using the open source text to speech engine e-Speak, which works with both laptops and Android phones. The government, with institutions like the IIT, is also driving initiatives to develop text to speech and optical character recognition (OCR) software for Indian languages. However, there is some way to go before these become available to end users.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To sum up, we have the law, we have the technology, the books and the people, but need a concerted effort from multiple stakeholders—the government, publishers, educational institutions and NGOs—to bring all of these together, so that every print-impaired person in India can enjoy the right to read.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/huffington-post-november-3-2016-nirmita-narasimhan-where-are-there-so-few-books-for-print-impaired'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/huffington-post-november-3-2016-nirmita-narasimhan-where-are-there-so-few-books-for-print-impaired</a>
</p>
No publishernirmitaAccessibility2016-11-04T01:20:57ZBlog EntryWhen technology is able but the mindset is not
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/governance-now-december-1-2014-geetanjali-minhas-when-technology-is-able-but-mindset-is-not
<b>There are enough digital products and services to help people with disabilities. Widespread ignorance stands between them and digital inclusion.</b>
<div id="stcpDiv" style="text-align: justify; ">The <a class="external-link" href="http://www.governancenow.com/news/regular-story/when-technology-able-the-mindset-not">story by Geetanjali Minhas</a> appeared in December 1-15, 2014, issue.
<hr />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify; "></div>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">Twenty-four-year-old Bhavesh Patel moves around giving a demonstration of the screen reader Dolphin Supernova in such a sure-footed manner that no one can imagine he is totally blind. The device has a voiceover function that can be used on iPhone. <br /> <br /> Not just that, Patel travels every day from his home in Vikhroli to his office in Goregaon, changing buses and trains with minimal assistance.<br /> <br /> Patel’s colleague, Debashish, who is autistic, and no less capable, is known for his immaculate spellings within the company. <br /> <br /> Team leader Priti Rohra, despite low vision, skillfully heads the testing team for websites and meticulously ensures that guidelines for the disabled are adhered to. Rohra works on policies and research and has prepared many reports for BarrierBreak, a company where 75 percent of the staff has disabilities like autism, inhibited vision and impaired hearing. Its unique competitive advantage has allowed the company to help develop niche products and services for converting textbooks into more disabled-friendly formats like digital talking books (Epub Conversion). Till now, it has produced 1.5 million pages of disabled-friendly textbooks.<br /> <br /> “When the government provides technology to its own employees it is enhancing their productivity,” says Shilpi Kapoor, founder-director of BarrierBreak and a member of the Nasscom Disability Advisory Group. “The fundamental difference here is that internationally, disability inclusion is a mandate, whereas in India it is considered charity and therefore a challenge. As a result many disabled are denied jobs as per their calibre and given salaries as doles.”<br /> <br /> The priority given to policies for development of disabled-friendly information technology tools and services has been relatively low in India. Usually, it stems from an inaccurate understanding that the development of such tools and services will cost more money, and there will be no opportunity to recover it from the market.<br /> <br /> A critical component of digital inclusion is to make websites and applications disabled-friendly. Most websites are not compliant with international guidelines on disabled-friendly requirements. Developers, officials and policy makers give disability accessibility a cold shoulder, retrofitting it into existing policies and processes as an after-thought.<br /> <br /> An attitudinal shift might come if the new national policy on universal electronic accessibility (NPUEA) notified by DeitY is implemented, resulting in nearly 7,000 government websites becoming accessible to the disabled, especially visually impaired. <br /> <br /> Various reports, including a 2012 survey by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), found that almost 25 percent of 7,800 government websites failed to open and the remaining had accessibility barriers. The web accessibility survey report of Indian government websites by the national centre for promotion of employment for disabled people (NCPEDP) in 2012 too revealed that of the 200 government websites tested, only two were found to be disabled-friendly. “Disability is a major social issue that India is grappling with. It needs to be addressed through not just policy, but also through assistive technology solutions,” says Prakash Kumar, CEO, Goods and Services Tax Network.<br /> <br /> CIS executive director Sunil Abraham, who was on the committee that formulated the NPUEA, says besides non-confirmation of websites to international norms, there are many technical hurdles. Text-to-speech and speech-to-text software, mature optical character recognition systems, speech and grammar check and machine translation are some of the features that are still not available for most Indian languages, he adds. “Many government websites use font encoding for Indian languages which results in the failure of text-to-speech technologies.”<br /> <br /> DeitY, under the ministry of communication and information technology, is supporting some technology interventions for the disabled, across different Indian languages. This also includes text-to-speech tools. “Mobile phone manufacturers should also provide in-built tools to cater to the needs of disabled people,” points out Ajay Kumar, joint secretary, DeitY. Emphasising a strong legal framework for implementation of the policy, Kumar adds that though the new policy promotes disability inclusion, the information technology ministry does not have the legal backing to enforce it. “The ministry of social justice and empowerment is creating a legal framework for the bill that is under consideration by the concerned committee to mandate some of these things, including technology assistance for the disabled,” he adds.<br /> <br /> Abraham says besides ensuring that websites and services are accessible to the disabled, the new policy must be updated to include a mandate that all parties providing essential services to the general public must comply with accessibility standards. “Manufacturers of ICT products should provide at least one accessible model of their products within each price range that they are operating within,” he says.<br /> <br /> Sam Taraporevala, associate professor and head of sociology department, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and the director of Xavier’s resource centre for the visually challenged, says with the government accepting a policy that IT tools should follow accessibility standards, it is now a question of monitoring, and, perhaps, even judicial activism. Nirmita Narasimhan, policy director, CIS, who works closely with various government departments to bring accessibility into their policies and programmes, concurs. “There must be accountability and a monitoring mechanism to check whether websites are disability compliant,” she says.<br /> <br /> Maharashtra is the only state to make it compulsory for every department to have a scheme for procuring disability access products. Yet, compliance remains a problem. “Despite the government holding awareness camps at various districts, barriers are created for accessing government schemes. Resistance on part of government agencies to give out equipment to disabled people and lack of awareness among people about the availability of such facilities are the other stumbling blocks. Yet, there are ways for getting these products,” says Kapoor.<br /> <br /> Experts say the needs and requirements of the disabled vary according to their disability and affordability of tools. Also, low income levels of many disabled people is a dissuading factor toprocuring equipment. “Most available tools and technologies are proprietary and, hence, costly and we are not able to scale them up in a big way,” says Kumar.<br /> <br /> Taraporevala, born with 100% visual impairment, was instrumental in getting the guidelines for opening and operating demat accounts for visually impaired persons implemented. He also says mainstream consumer product companies are moving into touchscreen modes in mobile phones forgetting a large chunk of disabled population. “While the standards are there, implementation suffers due to lack of awareness which, in turn, leads to less demand,” he says.<br /> <br /> <b>The way forward</b><br /> Governance Now also asked experts if corporate social responsibility (CSR) towards disability inclusion could address challenges in recruitment of disabled persons. “Instead of a hammer approach, a care approach has to be adopted,” says Rita Soni, CEO, Nasscom Foundation. According to Kumar, “Absence of commercial interest in promoting disability accessibility products has afflicted the sector with neglect.” However, Kapoor says, “This has to be an equal opportunity business. There will be differential costs, but at the same time the total number of disabled people in India is close to 70 million and a billion world over. How can you not treat them like a client?”<br /> <br /> Speaking of the revised CSR rules under the Companies Act, Soni adds, “You can support skilling of persons with disabilities that has nothing to do with your business and have it considered as CSR expenditure. But if you make your office building or internet accessible, it does not count. Creating incentives around disability will make us a more inclusive society and make disability more amenable to office environment.”<br /> <br /> Maharashtra IT secretary Rajesh Aggarwal adds, except for the metro, none of our public transport systems are disabled-friendly. As per national building code of India, while giving permissions for public buildings there must be a checklist to ensure that buildings and toilets are wheelchair and blind-friendly. Similarly, hotels must have few rooms which are disabled-friendly.” This awareness has not yet set in,” he says.<br /> <br /> The Asia-Pacific region study of UNESCO global report 2013 has said many countries in the developing world are struggling to attain their millennium development goals of providing universal primary education to all by 2015. Our education system, on the other hand, has serious flaws. “We do not teach professionals about assistive technologies and for that reason an eye doctor does not know about low vision aids or a speech therapist does not know how to use communication devices,” says Kapoor. <br /> <br /> Taraporevala is of the view that universal (architectural) design needs to be actively woven into every design curriculum across the spectrum, instead of being an optional subject. Physical infrastructure, building standards, for instance, need to reflect this and there needs to be active lobbying to ensure that certificates for public places are not given if they lack certain standards.</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/governance-now-december-1-2014-geetanjali-minhas-when-technology-is-able-but-mindset-is-not'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/governance-now-december-1-2014-geetanjali-minhas-when-technology-is-able-but-mindset-is-not</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2014-12-14T06:01:06ZPageWhen technology is able but the mindset is not
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/e-gov-reach-december-15-2014-geetanjali-minhas-when-technology-is-able-but-mindset-is-not
<b>There are enough digital products and services to help people with disabilities. But widespread ignorance stands between them and digital inclusion reports Geetanjali Minhas.</b>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://egovreach.in/social/content/when-technology-able-mindset-not?whois=&serarr="><i>The story appeared in 1-15 December 2014 issue of Governance Now</i></a></p>
<hr />
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Twenty-four-year-old Bhavesh Patel moves around giving a demonstration of the screen reader Dolphin Supernova in such a sure-footed manner that no one can imagine he is totally blind. The device has a voiceover function that can be used on iPhone.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Not just that, Patel travels every day from his home in Vikhroli to his office in Goregaon, changing buses and trains with minimal assistance.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Patel’s colleague, Debashish, who is autistic, and no less capable, is known for his immaculate spellings within the company.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Team leader Priti Rohra, despite low vision, skillfully heads the testing team for websites and meticulously ensures that guidelines for the disabled are adhered to. Rohra works on policies and research and has prepared many reports for BarrierBreak, a company where 75 percent of the staff has disabilities like autism, inhibited vision and impaired hearing.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Its unique competitive advantage has allowed the company to help develop niche products and services for converting textbooks into more disabled-friendly formats like digital talking books (Epub Conversion). Till now, it has produced 1.5 million pages of disabled-friendly textbooks.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">“When the government provides technology to its own employees it is enhancing their productivity,” says Shilpi Kapoor, founder-director of BarrierBreak and a member of the Nasscom Disability Advisory Group. “The fundamental difference here is that internationally, disability inclusion is a mandate, whereas in India it is considered charity and therefore a challenge. As a result many disabled are denied jobs as per their calibre and given salaries as doles.”</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">The priority given to policies for development of disabled-friendly information technology tools and services has been relatively low in India. Usually, it stems from an inaccurate understanding that the development of such tools and services will cost more money, and there will be no opportunity to recover it from the market.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">A critical component of digital inclusion is to make websites and applications disabled-friendly. Most websites are not compliant with international guidelines on disabled-friendly requirements. Developers, officials and policy makers give disability accessibility a cold shoulder, retrofitting it into existing policies and processes as an after-thought.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">An attitudinal shift might come if the new national policy on universal electronic accessibility (NPUEA) notified by DeitY is implemented, resulting in nearly 7,000 government websites becoming accessible to the disabled, especially visually impaired.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Various reports, including a 2012 survey by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), found that almost 25 percent of 7,800 government websites failed to open and the remaining had accessibility barriers. The web accessibility survey report of Indian government websites by the national centre for promotion of employment for disabled people (NCPEDP) in 2012 too revealed that of the 200 government websites tested, only two were found to be disabled-friendly.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">“Disability is a major social issue that India is grappling with. It needs to be addressed through not just policy, but also through assistive technology solutions,” says Prakash Kumar, CEO, Goods and Services Tax Network.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">CIS executive director Sunil Abraham, who was on the committee that formulated the NPUEA, says besides non-confirmation of websites to international norms, there are many technical hurdles. Text-to-speech and speech-to-text software, mature optical character recognition systems, speech and grammar check and machine translation are some of the features that are still not available for most Indian languages, he adds. “Many government websites use font encoding for Indian languages which results in the failure of text-to-speech technologies.”</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">DeitY, under the ministry of communication and information technology, is supporting some technology interventions for the disabled, across different Indian languages. This also includes text-to-speech tools. “Mobile phone manufacturers should also provide in-built tools to cater to the needs of disabled people,” points out Ajay Kumar, joint secretary, DeitY.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Emphasising a strong legal framework for implementation of the policy, Kumar adds that though the new policy promotes disability inclusion, the information technology ministry does not have the legal backing to enforce it. “The ministry of social justice and empowerment is creating a legal framework for the bill that is under consideration by the concerned committee to mandate some of these things, including technology assistance for the disabled,” he adds.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Abraham says besides ensuring that websites and services are accessible to the disabled, the new policy must be updated to include a mandate that all parties providing essential services to the general public must comply with accessibility standards. “Manufacturers of ICT products should provide at least one accessible model of their products within each price range that they are operating within,” he says.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Sam Taraporevala, associate professor and head of sociology department, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and the director of Xavier’s resource centre for the visually challenged, says with the government accepting a policy that IT tools should follow accessibility standards, it is now a question of monitoring, and, perhaps, even judicial activism.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Nirmita Narasimhan, policy director, CIS, who works closely with various government departments to bring accessibility into their policies and programmes, concurs. “There must be accountability and a monitoring mechanism to check whether websites are disability compliant,” she says.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Maharashtra is the only state to make it compulsory for every department to have a scheme for procuring disability access products. Yet, compliance remains a problem. “Despite the government holding awareness camps at various districts, barriers are created for accessing government schemes. Resistance on part of government agencies to give out equipment to disabled people and lack of awareness among people about the availability of such facilities are the other stumbling blocks. Yet, there are ways for getting these products,” says Kapoor.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Experts say the needs and requirements of the disabled vary according to their disability and affordability of tools. Also, low income levels of many disabled people is a dissuading factor toprocuring equipment. “Most available tools and technologies are proprietary and, hence, costly and we are not able to scale them up in a big way,” says Kumar.</p>
<p class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">Taraporevala, born with 100% visual impairment, was instrumental in getting the guidelines for opening and operating demat accounts for visually impaired persons implemented. He also says mainstream consumer product companies are moving into touchscreen modes in mobile phones forgetting a large chunk of disabled population. “While the standards are there, implementation suffers due to lack of awareness which, in turn, leads to less demand,” he says.</p>
<h3 class="rtejustify" style="text-align: justify; ">The way forward</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Governance Now also asked experts if corporate social responsibility (CSR) towards disability inclusion could address challenges in recruitment of disabled persons. “Instead of a hammer approach, a care approach has to be adopted,” says Rita Soni, CEO, Nasscom Foundation. According to Kumar, “Absence of commercial interest in promoting disability accessibility products has afflicted the sector with neglect.” However, Kapoor says, “This has to be an equal opportunity business. There will be differential costs, but at the same time the total number of disabled people in India is close to 70 million and a billion world over. How can you not treat them like a client?”<br /><br />Speaking of the revised CSR rules under the Companies Act, Soni adds, “You can support skilling of persons with disabilities that has nothing to do with your business and have it considered as CSR expenditure. But if you make your office building or internet accessible, it does not count. Creating incentives around disability will make us a more inclusive society and make disability more amenable to office environment.”<br /><br />Maharashtra IT secretary Rajesh Aggarwal adds, except for the metro, none of our public transport systems are disabled-friendly. As per national building code of India, while giving permissions for public buildings there must be a checklist to ensure that buildings and toilets are wheelchair and blind-friendly. Similarly, hotels must have few rooms which are disabled-friendly.” This awareness has not yet set in,” he says.<br /><br />The Asia-Pacific region study of UNESCO global report 2013 has said many countries in the developing world are struggling to attain their millennium development goals of providing universal primary education to all by 2015. Our education system, on the other hand, has serious flaws. “We do not teach professionals about assistive technologies and for that reason an eye doctor does not know about low vision aids or a speech therapist does not know how to use communication devices,” says Kapoor.<br /> <br />Taraporevala is of the view that universal (architectural) design needs to be actively woven into every design curriculum across the spectrum, instead of being an optional subject. Physical infrastructure, building standards, for instance, need to reflect this and there needs to be active lobbying to ensure that certificates for public places are not given if they lack certain standards.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/e-gov-reach-december-15-2014-geetanjali-minhas-when-technology-is-able-but-mindset-is-not'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/e-gov-reach-december-15-2014-geetanjali-minhas-when-technology-is-able-but-mindset-is-not</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2014-12-19T01:33:22ZNews ItemWhat Women Want: The ability debates
https://cis-india.org/news/what-women-want
<b>In this article published in the Hindu, Deepa Alexander argues that the proposed amendments to the Copyright Act (1957) are restrictive and discriminatory.</b>
<p>The triumphs and disasters of the differently-abled in India are two ends of the spectrum. Among the 70 million disabled in our country are those who have conquered peaks, won gold at the Paralympics, and raced in Himalayan and desert car rallies. But, millions more struggle to meet daily challenges in a society that tends to portray the disabled as either heroes or victims with little or no access to their rightful resources. The proposed amendments to the Copyright Act (1957) are seen as restrictive and discriminatory, as the copyright exception, which aims at allowing persons with disability easy access to copyrighted material, applies only to certain types of disability. We spoke to activists who address these issues, not as charity or welfare but as matters of development and dignity.</p>
<h3>Change in attitude <br /></h3>
<p>National Trust's programmes work on building capacity, changing patronising attitudes, building trust in the abilities of people with developmental disability and creating an equal playing field. Unfortunately, deeply entrenched attitudes continue to exclude people with disabilities. Even if an opportunity is given, it is given only once; if a person with disability fails, incapacity is assumed.<br /><br />But, in the recent case of a young woman with intellectual disability who had been raped in a women's home, the Supreme Court upheld her right to ‘choose' to keep her baby, and she has proved to be a competent mother. However, the disapproval of the intelligentsia in the media is an indicator of the social prejudices people with disabilities have to live with. </p>
<p>Poonam Natarajan, Chairperson, National Trust (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment), New Delhi</p>
<h3>Implement their rights </h3>
<p><br />Ability Foundation's thrust is on creating an equitable society. Through our magazine Success & Ability, we spread this message at a time when service to the disabled was seen only at the physical, and not at the emotional level. Persons with disabilities need access to inclusive education, employment and public places. Being ‘accounted' in the Census 2011 will open up a plethora of possibilities. Accurate data will enable Government intervention at various levels, leading to proactive action. We need ramps for wheelchair users, audio announcements in bus / train stations for the visually-impaired, and video announcements for the hearing-impaired. Floor numbers in Braille for lifts, sign language interpreters in every hospital, police station and court of law, slip-proof flooring in malls, and large-print books in public libraries for those with low vision are the other needs. The implementation of the rights of persons with disabilities as per the United Nations convention and the Persons with Disabilities Act (PWD), in letter and spirit, is also essential.</p>
<p>Jaysheree Ravindran, Founder and Honorary Executive Director, Ability Foundation, Chennai</p>
<h3>A development issue</h3>
<p>My daughter Tamana was born with cerebral palsy. It pushed me to found an organisation in 1984 to fulfil the dreams of children with special needs and those of their parents. Therapy and counselling for children and their families is essential for optimum adult rehabilitation. Since Independence, the disabled have been categorised along with sections such as women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. While these have had powerful political lobbies, there has been no spokesperson for the disabled. The dichotomies between the Ministries of Education and Social Justice further worsen the exclusion. Most policy-makers look at disability as a welfare, not a development issue. Disability should be jointly addressed by the Ministries of Health, Women and Child Development, HRD, Social Justice and Empowerment. The definition of disability in the PWD Act does not include autism, which leaves out nearly two million autistic persons in India. Admitting disabled children in normal schools is not enough — you need to have professionally trained staff, who are sensitised. I also hope for a different curriculum for special children, even as they are being integrated in the mainstream. Better pay scales will also bring in more jobs in the disability sector.</p>
<p>Dr. Shyama Chona, President, Tamana, New Delhi</p>
<h3>Public-private partnership</h3>
<p>NGO-run establishments provide free schooling for disabled children. The Government has provided legislative intent through the Inclusive Education Act, which makes it mandatory to include all kinds of impaired children. However, Government schools that cater to the poor are generally marked by grossly inadequate infrastructure and teaching aids, so imagine the predicament of the disabled. </p>
<p>I would like a public-private partnership for day-care and residential institutions which provide educational and recreational service on a long-term basis. This needs to be supported by research institutions which focus on technology, communication and teaching aids. We need to benefit from global expertise, and customise them to local needs.</p>
<p>As Childline's primary mandate is child protection, I feel that the Government must compulsorily provide for a child protection policy in any institution that deals with disabled children, as, such children are more vulnerable to abuse.</p>
<p>Kajol Menon, Executive Director, Childline India Foundation, Mumbai</p>
<h3>The copyright angle</h3>
<p>The Centre for Internet and Society is associated with the copyright amendment movement for persons with disabilities, and is one of the founding organisations for the Indian Right to Read campaign. At present, the proposed copyright amendment is detrimental to the disability sector's needs. The exception extends only to ‘specially designed' formats such as Braille and sign language, and does not benefit the millions who have cerebral palsy, dyslexia and low vision, and the visually-impaired persons who do not know Braille. Such persons require audio, reading material with large fonts and electronic texts, which are not ‘specially designed' formats. For conversion to non-specialised formats, the amendment proposes a licensing system, which will permit only organisations working for the benefit of the disabled to undertake conversion and distribution. This will prevent educational institutions, SHGs, other NGOs and print-disabled individuals from undertaking conversion. The licensing system will also require approaching the Copyright Board for each work, which will be extremely time-consuming. The waiting period for obtaining permissions and subsequent conversion will result in students losing academic years, a violation of their right to education. </p>
<p>The proposed amendment violates the Constitutional guarantee of equality under Article 14 since it discriminates between those visually-impaired persons who know Braille and those print-disabled persons who do not. It is important for the nation as a whole to take the concern of persons with disabilities as a mainstream concern.</p>
<p>Nirmita Narasimhan, Programme Manager, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore</p>
<p>Read the original article in the <a class="external-link" href="http://beta.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article420517.ece">Hindu</a></p>
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<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/what-women-want'>https://cis-india.org/news/what-women-want</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2011-04-02T12:08:44ZNews ItemWest Bengal Notifications (OCR)
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/west-bengal-notifications.zip
<b>Find below the unedited scanned versions of the notifications received from various departments of West Bengal. </b>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/wb-ocr-documents.zp" class="internal-link">Click</a> to download the files (Zip Folder, 3.05. Mb).</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/west-bengal-notifications.zip'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/west-bengal-notifications.zip</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2013-03-15T05:23:22ZPageWest Bengal (Govt) Notifications
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/west-bengal-govt-notifications
<b>The following folder contains a series of notifications received by CIS from the Government of West Bengal recently. </b>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/wb-notifications.zip" class="internal-link">Click</a> to download the files (PDFs) received from the various state departments from the Government of West Bengal.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/west-bengal-govt-notifications'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/west-bengal-govt-notifications</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2013-03-14T08:42:42ZPageWebsites Accessibility Evaluation Methodologies: Conference Report
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/websites-accessibility-evaluation-methodologies
<b>G3ict, W3C and CIS co-organised a panel on 30 March 2011 from 4.30p.m to 6.00 p.m., in the W3C track at the Twentieth International World Wide Web Conference in Hyderabad. The panel discussed web accessibility evaluation methodologies and their challenges and practical technical survey methodologies alternatives. The panel was moderated by Nirmita Narasimhan and featured four speakers — Shadi Abou Zahra (W3C/WAI), Neeta Verma (Senior Technical Director, NIC), Srinivasu Chakravartula (Accessibility Manager, Yahoo India) and Glenda Sims (Senior Accessibility Consultant, DeQue Systems).</b>
<p>The panel began with an introduction and background by Nirmita Narasimhan on the digital dispositions of the UNCRPD, obligations of states parties and the need to have clearly defined and credible evaluation methodologies for effective policy formulation and implementation. </p>
<p>Shadi Abou Zahra gave a brief overview of the WCAG 2.0 guidelines and discussed some of the important points which need to be borne in mind while doing large scale evaluation of websites. He talked about the selection of tools, limitations of automated tools, importance of selection of pages for manual testing, sampling techniques, qualitative versus quantitative analysis, different types of testing such as expert and user testing and evaluation goal and scalability issues. </p>
<p>Neeta Verma discussed the guidelines for Indian websites brought out by the NIC in February 2010 and said that as per the checkpoints in the guidelines, there were a small percentage of checkpoints which could be tested using automated tools, some percentage for which expert and user testing was required. She presented one approach to evaluation adopted by the NIC, which was to certify the CMS rather than individual pages since the latter would be extremely difficult in cases of websites having thousands of pages, as was the case with several government websites. She stressed the need for positive thinking, user involvement and on the need to have an organized community of trained accessibility experts in India to whom the government could outsource testing work. </p>
<p>Srinivasu made a distinction in Yahoo’s approach with regard to accessible websites between existing and upcoming websites. He said that for existing websites, the approach was to do an evaluation, prepare a report and prioritize the issues to be addressed. And as far as new websites are concerned, the attempt should be to keep accessibility in the loop right from the development stage itself. In terms of doing evaluation, he said that his methodology was to first quickly run an automated tool to check for errors. Then depending upon the number and kinds of errors, he would decide whether or not to follow up with a manual test. If the errors thrown up were few or nil, then he would do a manual test of some pages. However, if there were many errors and many of the errors were very basic ones like no alt text attributes, no headings, etc., then he may decide not to go ahead with the manual test at all. </p>
<p>Shadi also pointed out that sometimes it was possible that a website could be error free, except for one error, but if this one error was that the pay button on a shopping site was inaccessible, then the website would have to be evaluated as inaccessible since this was the most important button in the website rendering it usable or unusable. Shadi pointed that automated testing was critical to do large scale evaluations, but that this would only help in getting a quantitative analysis while aggregating results, whereas for a qualitative analysis, one would still have to do a manual test with users and experts and pay special attention to the kinds of pages which are selected for this type of test.</p>
<p>While highlighting the importance of manual testing, Srinivasu pointed out that although an automated tool could tell you whether or not an alt attribute was present, it could not determine whether that attribute was the appropriate one. When asked to share his impression on the common inaccessible features on government websites which he has been testing in large numbers over the past few weeks, he said that he found a lot of errors which were very basic, like no headings, no alt attributes, table based layouts, missing keyboard functionality for drop down menus, dynamic websites which used Java script and Ajax instead of Aria and so on.</p>
<p>Glenda walked the audience through the methodology which she used for evaluating a single client’s website, how she used manual testing to do a baseline accessibility survey of the Texas University website and then used different tools to test different things, for example, desktop tools like Fire Eyes and accessibility tools for testing page by page. Glenda also talked about the importance of testing authoring tools, producing enterprise accessibility report, code validation, and accessibility validators to test with assistive technology. Glenda concurred with the other speakers that accessibility evaluation and monitoring should be at all stages of the website’s development life cycle — accessibility at the design stage, testing and mediating during development to ensure that it continues to remain accessible, because a lot of websites start out by being accessible, but lose accessibility somewhere along the way and finally test for monitoring accessibility of the website. </p>
<p>Some other issues which were discussed were the importance of user level for determining accessibility and choice of users, evaluation methodology to include reporting of minor changes in order to allow for monitoring of progress even if it is on a small scale, need for testers to think from every person and every device perspective, doing component and template testing for new websites as a good way to check for accessibility and the importance of aggregation and report writing. Overall there was a consensus amongst speakers that any effective and credible evaluation methodology, especially for large scale evaluation, would involve a mix of automated and manual testing with users and experts and would have to be done at every stage of development and maintenance of a website. </p>
<p>See the event on W3C website <a class="external-link" href="http://www.w3.org/2011/03/w3c-track.html">here</a></p>
<h3>Presentations</h3>
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span">See Glenda Sims presentation in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI1dfddAnBs">Youtube</a></span></li><li>See Srinivasu's presentation <a class="external-link" href="http://learnaccessibility.org/2011/04/methodologies-for-accessibility-evelua">here</a></li><li>Download Glenda Sims presentation <a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/presentation-file-w3c/at_download/file" class="internal-link" title="Glenda's presentation at W3C">here</a> [ppt file, 5.85 MB]</li><li>Neeta Verma presentation <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/neeta-verma-presentation/at_download/file" class="internal-link" title="Neeta Verma Presentation File">here</a> [ppt file, 11.4 MB]<br /></li></ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/websites-accessibility-evaluation-methodologies'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/websites-accessibility-evaluation-methodologies</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2011-11-08T10:45:32ZBlog EntryWeb Sites Accessibility Evaluation Methodologies: A New Imperative for State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
https://cis-india.org/events/w3c-conference-hyderabad
<b>W3C-WAI, G3ict and CIS are joining hands to organise the 20th International World Wide Web Conference in Hyderabad, India on March 30, 2011 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Room H-01.
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<p>While web accessibility principles and guidelines have already become well known and been adopted by many countries, measuring the accessibility of web sites for users living with different types of disabilities remains a complex endeavor subject to a number of possible methodological challenges. Yet, with web accessibility policies and programs increasingly implemented around the world as a result of the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (98 countries representing over 75 per cent of the world population), policy makers, organizations of persons with disabilities, web site owners and courts when legal action is taken will inevitably need to rely on well-defined evaluation methodologies and benchmarks.</p>
<p>The panel, which will take place during the first day of the W3C Track with focus on web accessibility and discuss current accessibility evaluation methodologies and their challenges, policy makers requirements, current plans of the W3C-WAI, and practical technical survey methodologies alternatives.</p>
<p><strong>Panelists will include</strong>: Glenda Sims(Deque Systems), ShadiAbouZahra (W3C-WAI), Neeta Verma (National Informatics Centre, Government of India), NirmitaNarasimhan (Center for Internet and Society), and SrinivasuChakravarthula (Yahoo! India).</p>
<ul><li>Co-organizers: W3C-WAI, G3ict, CIS</li><li>Duration: 90 minutes</li><li>Moderator:NirmitaNarasimhan, Program Manager, CIS and Editor, G3ict – ITU Policy Toolkit Handbook<br /></li></ul>
<h3>Panel Agenda:</h3>
<p><strong>Introduction</strong>:NirmitaNarasimhan, Program Manager, CIS and Editor, G3ict – ITU Policy Toolkit Handbookwill welcome participants on behalf of co-organizers CIS, G3ict and W3C, introduces speakers and topics:</p>
<ol><li><strong>NirmitaNarasimhan</strong> will share G3ict’s perspective on the CRPD and its global impact as well as the legislative, regulatory and judicial requirements for a reliable evaluation methodology of web accessibility.</li><li><strong>ShadiAbou Zahra </strong>will describe the work of W3C-WAI in this domain, and discuss the multiple tools available, methodological challenges and future work currently planned.</li><li><strong>Glenda Sims</strong>, Senior Accessibility Consultant willpresents Deque’s experience and the technical details of evaluating and testing enterprise level websites, comparing methodologies and suggesting solutions to establish guidelines.</li><li><strong>SrinivasuChakravarthula</strong>, Accessibility Manager at Yahoo! India, member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) India’s National Advisory Board and of the NASSCOM’s Disability Working Committee, will present industry’s perspectives and the need to rely on clear accessibility benchmarks.</li><li><strong>Neeta Verma</strong>, Senior Technical Director, Data Centre& Web Services Division, National Informatics Centre will discuss web accessibility assessment methodologies from an e-governance standpoint.</li><li><strong>Q&As</strong> among panelists and the audience.</li></ol>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/events/w3c-conference-hyderabad'>https://cis-india.org/events/w3c-conference-hyderabad</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaEvent TypeWorkshopAccessibility2011-08-31T10:40:17ZEvent