Mobile communications have become in less than two decades omnipresent in all countries, reaching out to the most isolated and underserved populations in developed and developing countries alike. In 2011more than 5.4 billion mobile phones are in use, almost one per human being on the planet. In the midst of this telecommunication revolution, however, populations of senior citizens and persons living with disabilities have been left out due to accessibility factors:
complex human interfaces difficult to understand and activate for persons with cognitive impairments or learning disabilities, lack of alternative communications for persons living with low vision, blind, hard of hearing or deaf, or, quite often handset ergonomics too difficult for persons with physical disabilities such as dexterity or mobility limitations.
While a majority of persons living with disabilities are “invisible” to others either because their impairments do not show or they have less opportunities to interact in social life, censuses around the world applying the well accepted methods of functional identification rather than “medical” classification show that on average, 15% of the world population lives with a disability. The latest World Report on Disability published in June 2011 by the World Health Organization in cooperation with the World Bank shows that one billion persons live with a disability. National censuses also confirm that disability, which can be acquired at birth, as a result of catastrophic events or a disease, or related to aging, severely limits the ability of individuals to enjoy the same opportunities than others in education, work and social life.
Those inequities are addressed by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which sets a universal framework for disability rights with guidelines for policy makers and regulators. Its article 9 sets obligations for States Parties to ensure that the physical environment, transportation and information and communication technologies are made accessible to persons with disabilities, both by public and private entities. Those dispositions apply to mobile telephony and have now to be integrated in the policies and programs developed by telecom regulators around the world, a complex endeavor which can hardly be successful without the involvement of all stakeholders.
Meanwhile, a few leading mobile operators from around the world are successfully addressing the needs of seniors and persons with disabilities, making a good business case to promoting mobile accessibility beyond compliance with laws and regulations. Cases described in this report show that major operators were able to expand their customer base, gain market share and improve the quality of service for all their customers by adopting Universal Design principles and crafting specific business processes to reach out, market to and service customers with disabilities.
This report contains references to the new legislative and regulatory framework set by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, an important resource for policy makers. It also covers practical elements required for a successful implementation of those programs and policies: technical accessibility features for handsets, accessible and assistive applications and services as well as business cases of companies which have implemented significant accessibility programs.
It is our hope that this report will be a useful resource for telecom regulators, mobile operators, organizations of persons with disabilities and other mobile stakeholders to develop successful accessibility policies and programs in their respective countries to equally serve persons of all abilities.
A JOINT REPORT OF ITU (THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION) AND G3ICT (THE GLOBAL INITIATIVE FOR INCLUSIVE ICTS)
November 2011