Welcome to e-include, the e-journal of Inclusion Europe.

The United Nations have published a report on information technology and communications. The report focuses on helping United Nations members make information technology and communications accessible for the disabled.  The report recommends improving teaching, languages and  cooperating with disability organisations.

A report has been published on how to make information and communication technologies accessible to those with disabilities.

The report was published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to help UN member states promote social inclusion of people with disabilities through their communication and technology tools.

UNESCO held a meeting with experts in the field in cooperation with the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies.

The report is an account of this meeting and contains recommendations emanating from the meeting.

Representatives of the disabled community, industry, research and educational institutions attended the meeting along with non-governmental organisations working in the area and other UN organisations.

Several recommendations were presented to UNESCO for consideration. The first of which is to make UNESCO communication technologies accessible.

To achieve this goal, the member organisations were recommended to create accessible physical environments and to develop appropriate recruitment policies.

Another recommendation is including information and communications technology in inclusive education. UNESCO has been encouraged to foster effective use of information and communication technologies that are accessible, adaptive and affordable for people with disabilities.

They should also ensure that information and communications technologies are an integral part of teacher training.

The experts stressed the importance of cooperating with disability organisations in order to get the best possible input.

They also recommend focusing on “touch points”, the point where people actually interact with technology. These include broadcasting, publishing, languages, internet etc.

This recommendation also includes e-governance, which could be used to promote e-voting and e-democracy initiatives for citizen participation in an accessible way.