 you. Thank you very much for this announcement and ladies and gentlemen this is my great honor and privilege and to welcome you to the opening segment of this year accessible Europe. This opening segment is joined by several leaders of the Europe region and it's my great pleasure to start the opening ceremony with the invitation to the Her Excellency Alexandra Littal and the Minister of the Modernization of State and Public Administration of Portugal and to provide the keynote address of Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union. Her Excellency the floor is yours. Dear United Nations representatives, ITU and European Commission and all the participants that will join this event for the next days. It's an honor to host the accessible Europe ICT for all forum. Portugal is a proud founding member of the International Telecommunication Union as we actively take part in all its sectors and strongly support the work being undertaken regarding accessibility and social inclusion. Knowing that 1 billion people live with disabilities 80% of those in developing nations a global development agenda cannot ignore disabilities a key driver of exclusion and poverty. That is why this forum is deeply rooted with the 2030 agenda and its associated sustainable development goals that engages all the member states in fostering global development. We host this forum under the scope of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of European Union showing our commitment with this topic. Time to deliver a fair green and digital recovery is the motto of our presidency. Digital transition is not only a recovery catalyst but also a keystone of the European pillar of social rights assuming the digital transformation must be fair inclusive and be used at the service of the citizens. This role of technology in the public sector will also be part of the agenda of the informal meeting of ministers of public administration in the European Union scheduled for June 22. The Portuguese presidency wants to foster cooperation towards more transparent open participatory innovative and agile public administrations. I have always defended that states should lead by example and therefore when it comes to public services digital inclusion cannot be thought of as abstract concept. This principle must be something concrete for citizens as we work every day to achieve this goal. Taking into consideration the social pillar within the Portuguese presidency I would like to draw your attention to the social summit will be held in June in Porto. It will focus on how to strengthen Europe's social dimension to meet the challenges of climate change and digital transition. Mainstreaming accessibility in digital transition in a key policy tool for ensuring equal opportunities for all and that no one is left behind. Therefore I'm sure that some conclusions of the ICT for all forum will be the utmost of the utmost importance in feeding the social summit outcomes as well. As a country we will also surely benefit with the knowledge and best practices to be shared in these days. Our commitment with accessibility is well known among our European partners. In fact Portugal was the first European country having W3C accessibility requirements for websites in legislation since 1999 and this topic remains a priority in our political agenda being present in the main Portuguese public administration strategies namely in the innovation and modernization strategy for the state and the public administration 2020 to 2023 in the action plan for digital transition and in the incoming national strategy for the inclusion of people with disabilities 2021 to 2025 that goes beyond digital accessibility and highlights a set of specific initiatives and measures that seek to promote autonomy participation and self-determination of people with disabilities. We aim to make customer services spaces more inclusive whether physical or virtual creating personalized service conditions for senior citizens expanding the phone translation service and providing services that guarantee access to people with disabilities. Our goal is ambitious by 2023 we want that 90% of digital services will have the seal of usability and accessibility plus the accessibility portal launched last October provides information and tools to support public administration in making websites more inclusive for users with visual or hearing difficulties as well as websites and mobile applications that guarantee a better digital experience for all citizens including those with motor sensory or cognitive limitations. At the same time we have also launched a training program in accessibility and digital usability five months later this program already had more than 1,600 registered trainees. I truly believe that technology is an instrument to support the implementation of public policies and our recovery and resilience plan which provides an unparalleled investment in public administration and clearly reflects our commitment to digital transformation. Digital is taking over not only online but also physical day-to-day interactions digital inclusion is fundamental for the development of societies and economic recovery across Europe and it is leaving no one behind and Portugal as president of the council hopes to build political momentum around this cornerstone of European values from Portugal and Europe to the world and with all our international partners with all of you believing that this forum will be an important contribution to discuss and share perspectives towards a more inclusive digital Europe I wish you all an excellent journey and thank you very much for your participation. Her Excellency thank you very much for this strategic message and now it's my great pleasure to turn to the two speakers of our opening session Miss Doreen Bogdan-Martin director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the International Telecommunication Union and Miss Helena Dali the commissioner for the equality at the European Commission and we'll start with Miss Doreen Bogdan-Martin. The floor is yours. Thank you very much Yaroslav. Her Excellency Alexandra Letao Minister of Modernization of State and Public Administration of Portugal our host of this regional event her Excellency Anna Rina Beach Prime Minister of Serbia Madam Helena Dali European Commission Commissioner for Equality Madam Catherine Naughton director of the European Disability Forum Excellencies ladies and gentlemen good morning it is a great pleasure to welcome you all to this third edition of the ITU EC Regional Forum Accessible Europe ICTs for all. Accessible Europe is our joint flagship initiative with the European Commission aimed at accelerating digital accessibility across Europe targeting both the European Union and non-European Union countries of the continent. It's held within the framework of the regional initiative for Europe on digital inclusion that was adopted at the ITU Development Conference the WTBC and designed by European member states who recognize the importance of digital accessibility as a top priority to ensure that no one is left behind. We have already heard from the minister that it is an important milestone of the Portuguese presidency of the EU Council and I would really like to thank the government of Portugal for your commitments as well as your leadership in working towards a digital world built on equal opportunities. Given that around 15 percent of the world's population or an estimated one billion people as the minister has just noted live with disabilities accessibility of ICTs has become more relevant and more necessary than ever and estimated 80 million persons with disabilities live in Europe alone. Persons with disabilities are an integral integral part of today's digital society but they often encounter discrimination and exclusion and unfortunately the COVID pandemic has had this exacerbated impact on on persons with disabilities in terms of access to education healthcare employment opportunities and it really has put the spotlight on the issue and the urgency around ensuring accessibility throughout. Digital accessibility constitutes one of ITU's top priorities it is embedded in the union's strategic goals targeting enabling environments that ensure accessible telecommunications and ICTs for persons with disabilities and that they be established in all countries these policies and enabling frameworks by 2023. Of course 2023 is just around the corner and we at the ITU stand committed to support all countries to advance their efforts to make digital accessibility a reality. I would really like to thank the prime minister of Serbia who has taken concrete steps in this direction and it's really been a great pleasure for us at the ITU to accompany Serbia in this endeavor and I think you can certainly count on us for future support. As part of our efforts to spotlight the importance of digital accessibility it does also bring me great pleasure to launch today the ICT accessibility assessments for the European region. This is the results of many months several months of work with European administrations as well as regional organizations and I do want to thank you all for your great cooperation. Together we were able to to get a clear picture of the status of digital accessibility across the region as well as to identify the gaps the gaps that we still need to fill through concrete actions. For us in the ITU we are on our way to the World Telecommunications Development Conference the WTDC which is planned for later this year where we anticipate a concrete digital development roadmap as an outcome and of course digital inclusion and in particular digital accessibility will be a key pillar and I would like to encourage all of you to join the preparatory process. Our road to Addis are regional discussions because I believe that the WTDC will be a landmark development conference. We held last week our road to Addis event on digital inclusion and our expert participants were clear we need to come up with accessibility solutions not for but with and I stress with the diverse groups of people that are going to use them and while we advance technological innovation we must keep in mind the users the people and their diverse needs and this goes in line of course with Europe's human center digital agenda and the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's apt description of the European way to digital innovation one at which human beings are at the center. I'm glad to see that at the accessible Europe initiative continues to engage all countries and all stakeholders throughout the region not only through events but also through direct assistance through policy guidance and regional competitions to identify accessible solutions for all and I'm pleased to see the many finalists of this year's innovation contest I'm really looking forward to hearing their pitches in the coming hours and I would invite you all to support these incredible innovators they are truly leading by example and their great work done towards transforming the European accessibility ecosystem and before I close I also want to acknowledge and thank our partners the European Commission of course our host the government of Portugal specifically the AMA Anacom and INR of Portugal and many others for their great commitment to working collectively and collaboratively so that we can so that we can make the vision of a digitally accessible Europe a reality and I look forward to hearing your inputs the discussions and with that ladies and gentlemen I will conclude and I hand back to you Yaroslav thank you so much thank you very much for this inspiring opening speech and now it's my great pleasure and honor and to invite to take the floor is Helena Dali commissioner for equality at the european commission miss Dali the floor is yours just checking if we have some technical glitch let me one more time welcome miss Helena Dali to make her intervention joining us with attendees link so if our IS moderator can be kindly promote her to be our panelists thank you so much for that so let's have a bit of patience before the message of the commissioner will come yeah now we have her with us great welcome miss Dali with us and I'm handing over directly to you for the opening speech okay good morning so we're talking about accessibility and I wasn't accessible so thank you for inviting me to participate to this forum information and communication technology should be accessible to all you have my full support in working to achieve this goal this event shows the power of technology in breaking down barriers to inclusion and participation during the covid pandemic technology has played a critical role in allowing us to continue our work to share our experiences and to communicate our expectations when technology is accessible it is a powerful tool for persons with disabilities to participate as active members of society on an equal basis with others it is with pleasure that I present the most recent commitments of the european commission to improve the lives of persons with disabilities earlier this month the commission adopted the new strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities for 2021 to 2030 the strategy is of paramount importance as it will set the scene for EU disability policy for the coming decade the strategy aligns EU disability policy with the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities the convention is the compass which guide us in the elaboration of this text the new strategy embraces a human rights approach to disability the strategy reflects disability in all its diversity comprising long-term physical mental intellectual or sensory impairments which are often invisible it also sets out measures to tackle the barriers persons with disabilities face the strategy focuses on areas where EU action can bring the most added value but at the same time it strongly calls on member states to work together to implement the convention the strategy covers a wide range of policy areas and today I will focus on the first of its priority areas which is accessibility accessibility remains the key enabler of rights autonomy and equality and will continue to have a prominent role in 2019 I had the opportunity to participate to the second edition of accessible Europe hosted in Malta there I spoke about the recent adoption of a number of important EU legal instruments in the area of information and communication technology those legal instruments include significant provisions relating to accessibility in telecommunication audio visual media services public sector websites and key products and services this also includes their user interface their functioning and their websites the newly adopted EU strategy confirms the commission's attention to these issues we will continue to monitor the correct implementation of existing EU accessibility legislation and the years to come we will evaluate its application and assess whether it should be revised to address any gaps and we will consider the need for further legislative action we will also continue to mainstream accessibility the new legal and policy instruments for an inclusive digital transition member states are making efforts to recover from the pandemic and EU funds are there to support member states are encouraged to mainstream accessibility in their resilience and recovery plans the strategy fosters the development of human centric and user friendly digital public services across Europe these services should respond to the needs and preferences of European citizens including the needs of persons with disabilities and the strategy the commission announced the launch of a European resource center accessible EU this flagship initiative will bring together relevant national authorities to increase access to knowledge and training this will facilitate implementation and enforcement of EU accessibility rules accessible EU will be a place to share good practices and to inspire policy developments it will support the development of tools and standards to achieve a barrier free Europe the commission equally counts on the active engagement of all stakeholders including organizations for persons with disabilities industry public authorities and accessibility experts together we share a wealth of technical knowledge and expertise as you shall see in the coming days in the event we are co-organizing I thank the international communication union and the portuguese presidency for sharing with us the efforts to build a union of equality I offer our word to contribute to this endeavor 10 years have passed since the EU ratification of the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities we must scale up European action it is our duty to ensure the enjoyment of equal rights and the full participation of persons with disabilities in our societies I thank you thank you very much miss Dali for this speech and ladies and gentlemen now it's my great pleasure and honor to move to our next special address of this opening ceremony her Excellency Anna Rannovich the prime minister of the Republic of Serbia her Excellency the floor is yours thank you very much good day to all of you distinguished minister Litao esteemed commissioner Dali and director Bogdan representatives of the international community and European Commission fellow guests I'm honored to represent my country Serbia at this important gathering and to address all of you today let me first congratulate our hosts the portugese for their presidency of the European Union also the international telecommunications union and the European Commission for organizing this forum and especially for bringing us together to discuss how to bridge the digital divide over the past few years digital transformation has been one of the key pillars of my government we perceive digitization as a necessity a way to offer better public services higher quality education more competitive job market and an attractive business environment the coronavirus pandemic proved the decision to turn to innovation and digitization was right and perhaps even crucial years of technology driven reforms made us here in Serbia more resilient and more agile in 2020 we had one of the best results in Europe in terms of GDP our GDP declined only by about one percent today we have the second highest vaccination rate in Europe only after the United Kingdom the innovative advances of the past allowed us to reshape to shape a rapid response to the COVID-19 crisis and were instrumental for the successful launch of our entire immunization campaign today we are proud to have a country mobilized behind the digital agenda but we have a responsibility to ensure that all citizens can benefit from these efforts with the rapid advancement of technologies risks of social exclusion tend to multiply impacting obviously the most vulnerable population to ensure that no one is left behind we must guarantee two basic preconditions digital literacy and digital connectivity to all our citizens we started by reforming our education system through digitizing schools as of 2017 we have started connecting all schools to high-speed internet access introducing digital textbooks and digital classrooms our goal is to complete this effort and fully digitize our schools by the end of 2022 this landmark project has been replicated in several other European countries allowing students the opportunity to access information online and become themselves digital creators we were also among amongst the first countries in Europe to introduce coding and programming as mandatory subjects in primary schools many students continue specialized IT programs in high schools as well we are expanding the capacity of our technical faculties by about 20 and plan to further increase enrollment we are also trying to utilize as much as possible informal education in 2017 we have launched retraining programs in IT and we currently have over 2000 people either employed or changed their career as a result of this retraining our specific focus in terms of retraining is currently on persons with disabilities in order to empower them and increase their employability COVID-19 pandemic further increased our reliance on the internet but thanks in part to these programs we were equipped to ensure life could continue online many of our citizens even our seniors were immediately able to resume their lives even after the lockdown by communicating shopping and conducting business online our children prospered as well but by not wasting even a single day of school students were able to plug in online education platforms the day after the state of emergency in Serbia was declared in addition to literacy we want to make sure that everyone is connected and our overarching goal is to provide broadband to 99 percent of households by 2025 we plan to reach this goal by incentivizing private sector investments that can fund the rural broadband program it is designed to deliver high speed and affordable communications to over half a million households in sparsely populated areas we view access to basic broadband as a human right and see the parallel establishment of a universal service obligation as critical to reinforce the right of citizens to a decent and affordable broadband connection and as we work to strengthen our digital society we continue to pay close attention to the most vulnerable social groups and those most likely to be excluded with that in mind last year we adopted national strategy for improving the status of persons with disabilities which focuses on ensuring access to communication and information implementing accessibility standards and enhancing the use of assessive assistive technologies this year with the support of international telecommunications union we conducted the national icd accessibility study which will be published soon the study lays out an overview on the status of icd accessibility in Serbia accompanied by principles guidelines good practices and actions needed to support its implementation this cooperation between our government and itu lays the foundation for future steps to guarantee a fully inclusive society the current technology revolution brings unprecedented change to how we live and work at an unprecedented pace despite continuous efforts there is still a long way to go to reach genuine equality fairness inclusion and accessibility in the digital era and in our constantly evolving societies the best way to do this is through international cooperation cooperation between countries and across international institutions must continue as it will be pivotal in ensuring we all bridge the digital divide i want to thank the international telecommunications union and the european commission for supporting Serbia along the way and to reiterate our commitment to making the world a better place where no one is left behind thank you an excellency thank you very much for this message and thank you very much for joining us on this special occasion and celebration of the digital accessibility at the european level and now let me move to a next strategic message message of the organization representing the persons with disabilities and i have a great pleasure to introduce Katrin Nauta who is director at the european visibility foundation good morning thank you very much for the invitation for us to address this conference to the international telecommunications union to the european commission and of course to the european and council presidency portugal i want to first apologize on behalf of the president of the european disability for me and as far to get down as you kind of be here this morning the european disability form is a network of around 100 organizations of persons with disabilities and we advocate for the rights of 100 million persons with disabilities in the EU our work aims for the full implementation of the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities in the EU and its member states and of course we're members of the international disability alliance and we work on the promotion of the rights of people with disabilities globally we're an advocacy organization we try to influence the work of the european union and its institutions through the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and policymaking we value very much the efforts made by the european commission and itu when it comes to developing and promoting standards trainings and solutions in support of accessibility policies to information and communication technologies for persons with disabilities in the past year much progress has finally been achieved in the EU and it comes to equal access to ict we know this progress goes goes beyond the EU as well especially with the keynote address we've just had from the prime minister of Serbia in the EU we ratified the marrakesh treaty we adopted important legislation on web accessibility for the public sector on electronic communications on audio visual media services we finally succeeded in having a horizontal legislation on accessibility known as the european accessibility act which is a very strong ict component in our view the accessibility act represents a turning point for accessibility in europe not only concerning current technology but also for the technology yet to come and to underpin these legislation we also need technical standards suitable for industry for public administrations and users because these standards build the foundations from which inclusive innovation can emerge this already happened when the us introduced its first accessibility standard in legislation in the late 90s and we know what's happening in europe the positive adoption of these ambitious european laws and standards was also possible thanks to the active involvement of disability organizations like edf and our members even though we still struggle to work on standards on an equal footing with other stakeholders the commission under the leading role of commissioner daly has understood the importance of consulting with persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in all matters which concern them the most recent example is the newly published european disability rights strategy already mentioned by the commissioner this morning in which accessibility remains as one of its core priority areas organizations of persons with disabilities were consulted throughout the development of the strategy one of the flagship initiatives of the disability strategy as mentioned by our quality commissioner this morning is the creation of a knowledge center known as accessible e you in which national and international experts will exchange information and conduct trainings on accessibility standards and conferences such as this one represent a great opportunity to build this network of experts and speed up the uptake of accessibility by a broader range of sectors now this is needed more than ever in addition to the dreadful situation brought by covid-19 to millions of persons with disabilities the pandemic also catapulted our societies into a more digital life which in principle should have meant also more equal access to persons with disabilities unfortunately due to the poor design of certain technologies and wrong choices of certain public authorities and companies instead of benefiting from this digital opportunity many persons with disabilities still face barriers preventing them from studying and working remotely or communicating with family and friends or accessing culture and leisure through ict technology had many people to cope with the situation but in still many cases neglected persons with disabilities we did not use the full opportunities we talked early of technological evolution or revolution of course we have been catapulted forward on this by the covid-19 pandemic but good news is that technologies evolve rapidly they can be rapidly changed and replaced for more inclusive ones with far more possibilities and functions and one of the key factors as with the preparation of the legal framework is to involve persons with disabilities in the development of these technologies usable by all we now have the legislation we have key standards but to really achieve accessibility by default we need to keep on raising awareness and developing the necessary tools so that public authorities companies innovators and future professionals consider accessibility as one of the core aspects of new technologies so that accessibility comes by default i wish us all to achieve this goal soon and wish you all fruitful discussions during the conference thank you so much again for the invitation this morning i give you back the floor your staff they're catering thank you very much for your message which we are very well and taking on a note on uh dear ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for your attention but more importantly i would like to thank all leaders of europe for contributing to this opening ceremony of accessible europe with this we can declare the europe accessible europe opened thank you very much for being with us ladies and gentlemen and now after this very inspiring opening segment of the european accessible europe let's move to the next agenda point before we are starting with the first agenda point since the first session we would like to bring to your attention the highlights of the all foundations how the accessible europe agenda has been constructed and what was our motivation joint motivation of all partners joining the forces in order to not only discuss but also implement at the european level i would like to request my colleagues to share the slides which i will be using in order to set the regional context context for this event ladies and gentlemen the accessibility is very high on the agenda of the all member states there is no doubt on that and it was already for a long time next slide this is the reason that that's already almost over eight years ago the european countries member states at the level of the development conference of the itu brought the accessibility to the level of the regional priority for europe covering 46 and to the level of the regional priority for europe covering 46 countries and being the home for almost 700 million citizens next slide but this has been still reinforced later on making sure that accessibility is part of the digital inclusion target which has been set by the member states expecting and committing to establish enabling environments ensuring accessible telecommunication icd for persons with disabilities in countries all countries by 2023 this is the reason why on this year we have decided and to carry out the regional assessment the icd accessibility assessment for europe region next slide please which takes a stock on these what we have achieved as the region in terms of digital accessibility and where the gaps still remains i would like to invite all of you to visit the website of the event and download the copy and take a look at the great achievements our region has noted also taking a look at the areas where the further efforts are needed there is no doubt on these that europe is leading by example in many areas accessibility belongs to this and we are very proud of this but still at the regional level we have a lot of work to be done next slide please so of course let's start from the few treaties where the european region is proudly engaged in and has ratified almost all countries ratified and as we see at the level of the committee on the rights of persons with disabilities 44 countries out of the 46 have ratified this international treaty the crpd optional protocol which is adding additional issues not covered under the crpd have been ratified by 29 countries out of the 46 also at the level of marakas treaty we have identified that only 20 countries have signed this document next slide please also at the level of the anti-discrimination and equality law the majority of the countries have adopted anti-discrimination and equality laws and implemented the provisions of the crpd in national laws ensuring non-discrimination and equality for persons disabilities however definitions of disability vary across national legislations and still often stem from the context of social security legislation rather than anti-discrimination law there are also different methods identified across the countries for the implementation or transposition of international or eu law according to the itu data sign language is recognized by 23 countries of which four including portugal have recognized national sign language in their constitutions congratulations for this move other countries have passed laws and that make direct on the indirect reference to reference to the sign language next slide please the total of 41 countries have adopted or plan to adopt web accessibility laws or statutory requirements among these the 27 eu member states have transposed the eu web accessibility directive and three countries of the eia countries and switzerland are also expected to do so although they are seeking longer and transposed transition periods the five eu candidate countries are also expected to transpose eu accessibility directing and several other countries also closely follow the eu law israel is the only country that requires private sector organizations to provide accessible web pages as well which is very good example and to take a look also at the level of the electronic communication there is no and we cannot deny that's in europe in the international comparison and the european countries provides very good connectivity but also at the very low prices next slide please access to emergency services via the sms for persons with disabilities is provided in 22 eu member states in uk and three eias countries and switzerland in most countries such access is provided through the single european emergency number uh 112 where in some countries it is provided through alternative numbers according to the itu survey in 12 countries emergency services are accessible through an application in some countries uh access through applications is offered regionally in 10 countries emergency services are available through telecommunication relay services texts or video relay services in 10 countries there are texts or video relay services available for the deaf and hard of hearing video relay services is usually not available 24 7 which is a serious limitation in several countries there are also video remote interpreting service available next slide please but let's take a look at the media services media service providers may be required by law to make their programs accessible so as you will see in the coming two slides there are several several um developments in the countries in terms of the subtitles live subtitles audio subtitles description signing uh life signing website accessibility and obligation i will not recall all of them but we see that there is still some way to go to make sure that these services are everywhere available in all countries next slide please and next slide please in terms of the public procurement it estimates that over 30 countries have enshrined uh in low functional accessibility requirements for public procurement of icp products and services following the adoption of the european public procurement directives in 2014 some of non-eu uh ea countries have also reported the application of these requirements at the national procurement laws it estimates also that around one third of the countries regulate specific aspects of accessibility requirements for products and services as foreseen in accessibility access european accessibility act there is a lot of room for improvement in this area it estimates also that's more than half of the countries have laws and regulations in place defining accessibility requirements for icp services and content produced developed maintained made available and used in public or private education institutions by administrations teachers students and stuff so ladies and gentlemen let's take a look what where we stand there is no it's difficult to deny that europe has made significant progress in terms of building the enabling environment for digital accessibility these concerns that option of laws and regulation where in majority countries we have already web accessibility and electronic communications covered we have considered a number of the countries which addressed already the audio visual media services public procurement of icp products and services accessibility requirements for icp accessibility in education and only a few countries were on the accessibility requirements for products and services also there is a need for strong commitment and also a lot of work to be done in order to advance the remaining gaps this is the reason next night and the next night and the next this is the reason why we are so grateful to so many partners who joined accessible europe in order to advance digital accessibility not only talking about the policies but also building the ecosystem reviewing the policies and strategies and the implementation at the country and the regional level but also then incorporating from the design point of view the standards and for products and services while working on the innovation for the accessible europe and providing and supporting the development of the human capacity in this field which is still a challenge across our region with this i would like to thank you very much for your attention and i hope that you will have some moments of reflection on this where we stand as the european region and this brings me to the first panel of this event which is focusing on which is welcoming three distinguished guests and who is focusing on the international european and EU vision on policies and strategies targets and the key resources to advance the icp accessibility i have a great pleasure to welcome to join me rossana vidmer iliescu senior coordinator of digital inclusion of telecommunication development bureau of the itu immaculata placencia torrero senior expert of disability and inclusion unit at the digi for employment social affairs and inclusion at the european commission as well as mr laszlo lovashi senior research fellow of the university of public service kangaroo but formerly the member of the crpd and strong advocate for the icts this is this brings me to the first discussion and i would like to invite all the speakers to turn on your cameras and to be visible for all our audience and i request our technical support and to do so and to spotlight our speakers excellent thank you very much for doing so and now dear ladies and gentlemen let's start with our first speakers we absurd that strong commitment at the global global and the un level are in place to guarantee inclusion of all people including those with disabilities in all aspects of life what is the role of the icts in accelerating implementation of these global commitments rossana you are muted thank you very much yaroslav well leaving no one behind is a goal for everyone who works to continue and contribute to leave behind a more inclusive and a better word for future generation but to achieve this commitment we should keep in mind that our world is digital and therefore icts play a key role for each of us and each of us is different with this difference in mind we can say that icts are embedded in almost all aspects of our life so to receive information to communicate and interact with our families a lot once to receive education to work by products and access of vital services provided by governments much more since we're living in a digital world the right to be able to access to and use of information to be able to communicate became a human right but technology for information and communication developed and delivered to be access understood and so used by everyone this is a fundamental question and also which is a sine qua non condition to ensure that everyone can equally and equitably be empowered by the technology and so be included in the digital ecosystem that is around us and if this is even possible and if so how the good and short answer is yes it's possible and the how is by developing technology with a universal design in mind and by delivering the information and communication in accessible formats so what we call by fulfilling with icts accessibility standards and requirements we all know that digital accessibility is recognized as a key priority to ensure digital inclusion of all people and those guarantee that no one is left behind not only in the convention on the rights of persons with disability but also in transforming the world 2030 agenda in the sustainable development goals and more recently reiterated in the un disability inclusion strategy and all these commitments are fully considered within our work in itu as previously stated by our director and as previously said as for all the speakers but why it's so important icts accessibility in the context of digital inclusion let's try to explain it simple if i will continue to deliver this presentation in Romanian which is my mother tongue how many people will understand what i'm talking about now the rocks some spoon that's thought cha-chats and cells and if from your side you will further respond to me in polish could we pretend that this dialogue is inclusive well it's the same for technology the common language of the digital is accessibility since technology is evolving in an exponential manner if we don't take into account accessibility experts as a catalytic driver to enable anyone to understand information and to communicate so to use the ict instead of bridging the digital divide we will expand it the world digital leaders understood this many years ago and adjusted their target priorities and businesses accordingly to avoid indicated company names i will only say that these were those who pioneered the development of smart technologies or the services that adds more features to the traditional office softwares i think you all identify the companies that i'm talking about and the one that are very much attached to accessibility the smart technology is accessible technology because can be equally used by person with or without disabilities by illiterates by migrants by young and old people because anyone can communicate by using the accessibility features embedded in these devices sometimes without even realizing that we are using it do we all know that by using voice or text messages or the text to speech or software to read our mails while doing something else or the speech to text to write quickly our mails are actually accessibility features or the system software that most of us are daily using like Siri or Cortana to perform for us a task we want so set alarms ask for help around me tell me these and tell me that they are accessible features and we all use it and also how many digital communicators when deliver and post information and reports and features and videos in the websites or social networks they do it in accessible formats how many of communicators who use different digital platform use this new common language common digital language which is accessibility to guarantee that they informative messages are delivered to be understood by everyone accessibility of rcts therefore plays an important role not only across industries and private sector but also for governments many country and region as is the case of europe region putting their political agenda as a priority the need to adapt their policies and regulatory measure to the digital trends to make it inclusive digital accessibility has become crucial to save our equally and equitably the life of all citizens we also in so this in particular in time of crisis and emergencies such as covid now when governments were called to ensure that everyone can access understand and use the vital information and public services to save the life of everyone without any discrimination and by doing so governments can issue a digital inclusion of all citizens and increase also their countries grow within the digital economic environment so to conclude accessible icts can open pathway to an important and improvement quality of life greater social and economic inclusion and self empowerment of all people no doubt that icts are a major catalyst to ensure full participation of everyone without any discrimination in the digital economy and therefore i will say that digital accessibility is instrumental in accelerating implementation of all related global commitments ensuring that inclusiveness of all people regardless of their age gender or ability in the digital society in the digital world thank you very much for this intervention and let me pass now to our colleagues from the european commission today we are joined by the immaculata and placencia for rero who is leading the ict accessibility at the european commission level we have heard a lot from the commission already the excellent announcement about this new strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 21 20 30 which has been just published by the european commission could you share with us imad what is for the ict accessibility in that hello good morning can you hear me we can hear you very well okay good so well let me start by apologizing because due to technical problems i'm only able to join you by um by phone and it is really um it's really a pity that i have really not been able um to block the situation and um zoom has blocked me now for half an hour my account so because i tried too often so i would start by complimenting and the wise words that rosanna made they're saying that technology can also put us in a very difficult situation when we're trying to connect when the things do really um yeah for whatever reason settings um uh complexity do not work well together and i think that this brings um uh as to the wise um let's say remarks that technology needs to be accessible but it also needs really to be simple and easy to use and uh sometimes things um are really um well complicated anyway let me turn to our strategy i will try to give you some uh general remarks about um our strategy our new strategy it was adopted on the 3rd of march and with a focus on um elements related to um accessibility but first i will try to i will really like to share with you some of the key um backgrounds elements of this uh of this strategy that is really anchored on the values of the european treaty including on uh non-discrimination and equality into the european pillar of social rights principles including the full participation of persons with disabilities in economy and society and of course on the un convention on the rights of persons with disability the strategy aims to cover and it covers um uh in different ways uh all the rights um addressed addressed in the treaty so in the in this international treaty in the convention and it really um um has a strong focus also on accessibility firstly technologies the difficulties that persons with disabilities have been um facing because of um limited accessibility in the times of the covid pandemic as we see today and i have experienced today uh that we are dependent on technology and um when technology is not fully accessible persons with disabilities have experience problems with um teleconferencing online shopping distance learning teleworking and many other uh more so um accessibility is put in the strategy as an enabler of rights as an enabler for participation and we really highlight the the fact that a lot has been done in setting up a policy and legal framework for a particularly for ict accessibility who also have in other areas like for example transport where a lot has been done but in the area of ict accessibility we have invested a lot um in setting up um EU rules that cover products and services public sector websites telecommunications audiovisual media and some enabling all the type of legislation like copyright legislations to ensure that uh and exceptions can be made so that copyrights um it would not be a barrier for persons with disabilities to access content and we have also put um as acknowledged in the uh in the strategy a lot of work in setting up standards and now um we see that major EU policies are there to address um the digital transformation and digital including in digital public services that need to be inclusive and accessible for persons with disabilities um as the strategy say and we also um have to um address those um situations where technology is used um access to emergency services for example for persons with disabilities and um it is essential to to to realize that technology more and more is being used in a context for example um yesterday we were having an event on standard um that we have been uh supporting the development and the build environment where a complete chapter is dedicated to technology used in buildings for example so this is really very important that this technology is also is also made accessible now when it comes to the um to the um strategy and beyond identifying also some gaps the strategy proposes some concrete um concrete actions and the idea is to implement to create um to support the implementation of all these policies and legislation by the creation of a new resource center that is going to be called accessible EU and that center will is aiming to increase coherence in accessibility policies and facilitate access to the knowledge it will be a kind of cooperation framework where we will bring together national authorities responsible for implementing and enforcing accessibility rules with experts professionals from all um areas of accessibility including uh of course ICT uh ARIA and they with also persons with disabilities and their organizations and the idea is to share good practices to inspire policy developments at national and EU level and to develop this the set of tools and standards and facilitate training in addition we will be uh soon publishing a guide um to um describe describing among all the things how to buy accessible in public procurement and it will have clear references to the ARIA in off of ICT and I would like also to refer to the actions that related to EU digital governance um a strategy that needs to be human centric user friendly and um to ensure that public services across the EU responds to the needs and preference of persons with disabilities I am referring to the role that and the work being done under the so-called um uh Berlin uh Berlin declaration in the ARIA of the web we will um we are working on um assessing whether the web accessibility directive needs to be revised to address any gaps so now the directive is already being implemented and working now we are going to assess whether it needs to be there are gaps that require um additional additional action so um let me say that um we will link um uh and the strategy refers to to to do it um the digital this digital transformation to different rights and different areas for example the area of justice where digital transition the digital transition is happening accessibility is also going to be really um uh presence there this is just one example and I think um um just to finish I would like to say that the strategy uses uh or addresses other areas um where digital accessible technologies are essential and for example also the area of education the area of the employment the democratic participation um where information uh needs to be um provided to the citizen in accessible form then um independent the area of independent living and my last and many others my last point is going to be uh to the uh commitment undertaken in the strategy for the commission to lead by example where clear actions are spelled out to make the a european commission and as an institution and that uh not only for for its um employees but also for the public to make it to make it more um more um accessible and accept making more accessible the um the websites the tools for example for um used within the commission itself and um actions so we have got uh clear um actions also to develop and plan on web accessibility to uh that will be shared also by the way with other institutions um in order to align uh with um european european standards with this um i think you got a general overview of the content of the strategy and i pass the floor uh to the chair thank you thank you very much for this overview there is a lot of expectation because you design so many things which um our community where was always thinking about and we are so happy that certain things will be just happening and i assume that i am speaking on behalf of many who are today with us who are just waiting for the implementation of those um great commitments uh and the strategic moves of the european commission but now let me turn to our next speaker who is who's serving on the committee of the CRPD for a few years already and we have a privilege of having with him with us to bring a little bit more of the highlights of this why the CRPD is so important for us and why we should really pay attention and to to this work of the united nation and work at the level of the united nations and while we're working at the regional level so let me invite laszlo uh lobashi uh to take the floor thank you uh thank you first of all i'd like to thank you for your kind invitation it's a great honor for me to take part in this very important event so why is this UNCRPD so unique let me begin by referring to the fact that this December the world will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the UNCRPD so as a former UNCRPD expert let me also express my sincere gratitude for everyone who worked with the convention since since more than 180 countries have ratified this offer therefore in a way the UNCRPD is not only a very if not the most popular but also the first human rights city in the 21st century and i believe that this convention has an even more important aspect technology and it means that the convention is the first human rights treaty dealing with technology in terms of human rights as you may already know the UNCRPD convention itself supports that more attention should be paid to innovations inventions and research if you happen to look at the article for general obligation point f in particular i'm fully convinced that you can you cannot overestimate the impact since we are beginning to realize that entire new solutions are coming out that no one could ever have dreamed of even five years ago it is evident that technology and science have been developing at the previously unprecedented speed and seemingly without any obstacles practically it looks as if there are no limits on the high ground at all in the next decades to come but our utmost responsibility in this field is also extremely outstanding when when talking about whether there is a kind of evolving concept of disability in terms of application of the convention well absolutely first everyone can realize and recognize the evolution as well as importance of variable devices for example eating gains and even exoskeletons included i think in this topic accessible health data and services will be extremely crucial and also fundamental in terms of the quality of health services as well as the improvement of the quality of public health care second the evolution of artificial intelligence to the services application and products are going to be incredibly used for not only for persons with limited mobility and or multiple disabilities but also for for some blind reading impaired as well as persons with mental disabilities and out in the long run i can even imagine virtual assistants and avatars in the capacity of helping people in limited decision making situation which we create an entire new momentum in modern society not to mention the possibility of a recognition and feeling intervention services for disabled children at home three the evolution of robotics will also change everything that we believe in when it comes to social changes independently mean and including education we also have an entire different approach when it comes to hominering robots and smart toys as well as robot caregivers at home i think covid-19 has also accelerated the application of this technology in the long run and hopefully the better and more accessible solution will come much sooner as anticipated earlier thank you thank you very much for your contribution this gives us quite good understanding of this how we should position our work in the in the future in particular for the institutions like the specialized agencies of the united nations like the itu the link with the standards but also with the policies and strategies it's essential to make sure that there is the clear link between these outcomes of the convention and this what we are doing on the daily basis implementing digital accessibility but having said that let me turn back to roksana and i would like to ask you you know how is itu contributing to the implementation in fact of the crpd and in the new created united nations disability inclusion strategy the floor is yours thank you yaroslav a stress this morning by our ability director and by yourself actually it is fully engaged to support all countries in their efforts toward achieving i city accessibility implementation globally and this commitment is also reflected by the members dating the itu strategic goal number two which is inclusiveness and is related target two point nine that was already mentioned which call on unions member to ensure that by 2023 enabling environments ensuring accessible telecommunication ish it should be established in all countries and that means in less than three years so with this in mind and as mentioned by our previous speaker mrs lasso lovazi the united nation convention on the rights of person with disability which is a legally binding international human rights treaty addresses the rights of people with disabilities through a total of 50 articles that encompasses all aspects of life while only two articles the article nine and the article three particularly refers to ict there is a total consensus that ict are key in improving the opportunities for person with disabilities to lead an independent life and be valuable facilitators in the implementation of all articles of the convention to ensure this full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of person with disabilities so this convention is signed by almost all countries in the world we know that now we have i think in february was the last update with 182 countries and i let you do the math what does it mean over 193 countries so it's actually this makes us hear loud and clear the common global voice that call for an inclusive work so in this context and willing to lead by example it you and in line with the global requirements established by the convention on the rights of person with disabilities and the united nation disability inclusive strategy that you just mentioned it works closely with all our members member states and sector members to raise awareness on the need to implement accessibility to mainstream accessibility in the development of international telecommunication ict policies strategies and standards and more particularly our work focuses on developing and providing relevant and we hope valuable resources including toolkits reports and training to support our member states but also all stakeholders involved in their efforts to implement ict accessibility globally actually i take this opportunity to invite you all to participate in our knowledge development session that will be offered by this regional event on first day from 10 o'clock and while for this time we will not be able to deliver this training session face to face as we used to do i promise you all that will be a very informative session regardless your respective area of work and expertise and i invite you all to attend now with regard the second part of your question on the work within the un among these activities uh among other i would like to mention um in particular our work with who in the west rim uh on which it you lead the development of terms of reference for accessibility guidelines for telehealth and e-health application which are now in word for development of a joint global standard for accessibility of telehealth services what does it prove actually it proves that while uh some sister agencies and all of us we really try to to do good and to develop telehealth services and application to everyone if we don't consider the accessibility features we realize later on that these are not accessible for everyone and then we have to turn back and readjust these requirements um also another key partner which is for our international level organization i law we are now developing a project with them uh that's uh target to provide guidelines and develop the capacity of governments and also u n agencies and other interest in partners while contributing to identify best practices to be considered in the design and development of accessible online job application or recruitment systems we really want to ensure that all these um online application are accessible to everyone which is not the case and in particular in this time of covid we all observe which is a trend on the on the labor part and the teleworking how important became uh in this uh uh i would say last years and perhaps will be for the next years so this project is an important collaboration aligned with the commitments made in the framework of the united nation disability inclusion strategy to achieve sustainable and transformative progress on disability inclusion by ensuring the inclusion of person with disabilities in all areas of u n work and to to try to to consider all actions that can um actually impact uh also uh behavior with regards to governments and um and private sector i i hope i i i respond to to the requirements but i can continue on this because it's uh it's it's a subject that i think it's very important for all of us to understand how to mainstream this in different areas of our activities as as mentioned while by providing uh accessibility uh application or job opportunities or education this is also a topic that uh we look forward to work with with our partners and to ensure that accessible education it's also um insured globally thank you very much raksana and thank you very much for mentioning the partnerships because uh accessibility cannot be done by one institution absolutely uh it requires the solid partnership with the good understanding of the needs of the end users so that's why congratulations to these but let me now turn to the um our colleagues from the european commission and let's take a look at the european accessibility act and what is happening with this act and so ima if would you be able to elaborate on that i think if ima is connected with us hello yes we can hear you very well okay good good good technologies is not leaving us completely alone okay so um yes the accessibility uh the accessibility act um yes i would really like to share with you where we are now in the um developments related to to the act um the just to refresh uh your your memories um the the accessibility act will have to be uh transposed into uh national legislation next year so the um efforts that we are doing now is to support um the focus is to support the member states so that um when in june 22 they have the laws the regulations the administrative provisions uh to comply with the directive being um adopting and and publish because it's very important this they have to be published and they can um they do they do so in a correct coherent and ambitious or ambitious way we are really trying to facilitate that to that end what we are doing we are having an informal group of member states uh representatives that are responsible at national level to um to for the implementation for the transposition sorry for the transposition of the of the directive we meet frequently and what we also um do is to clarify try to have a common understanding in a very informal way on the provisions of the of the directive let me clarify that the european commission does not interpret the law the interpretation of the law is left to the court nevertheless we facilitate uh and work together to um uh understand better understand the the content of of the directive this is one thing that we are doing in the legal on the legal side and on the practical side also um we are now um working on the um adoption of of the preparation i would say first the preparation of a standardization mandate a mandate that it is um it is uh required by um article uh 15 of the directive that says that um in accordance with the regulation the european regulation standardization we have to request one or more standardization mandates um to draft harmonize standards harmonize standards provide presumption of of conformity with the requirements of the directive and we have to do so by prepare a draft um a draft for uh uh products and the accessibility of products by uh June this year so we are working on that and soon we're going to start um the work um of consultation we are reaching out to stakeholders to the european standardization organizations but also to economic operators that have to um um comply with the directive as well as uh users that are affected by the provisions in the directive because we would really like to set up a um um good uh working environment in order to adopt uh these uh uh mandates that contain uh provisions that would lead to a good a good result so um in parallel um what we are also doing as you have seen as i have said in my previous question is to start working for setting up this resource center that would help with issues as i said like uh training better understanding shedding of good practices we need really to make sure that the um all the potential of this act so not only its formal obligations but all the potential that it has is really realized um for the benefit for the benefit of of europe so this is where where um we are uh in the act we are also reflecting uh on what to do and how to address services and in the area of ICT it's difficult to separate the products from services so um this the directive leaves the freedom to um do an standardization mandate in relation to services and we are reflecting on that and if you are interested to participate please reach out to the to your national um standardization organizations and to your um to the european ones uh because it's really important that there is a good and a wealth of representation of all the stakeholders uh through the different through the different um governance bodies set up by um standardization by the way tomorrow we will have a specific session on on standardization for the rest um we continue to discuss with the member states and uh I hope that uh next year we will be able to have um successful transpositions in all the member states thank you for your attention thank you very much for drawing attention to this indeed the technical standardization is uh extremely important for accessibility and to ensure that we can have the solutions which are working everywhere um so um talking about everywhere let me come back to our distinguished uh colleague um who whom I would like to invite to talk about uh CRPD uh and special references to the ICTs in this convention uh and maybe if you might also tell us what are the main challenges to the person of disabilities in terms of the modern technologies which are captured in this process thank you again so we have a number of concrete differences and the committee itself also developed this jurisprudence and the understanding of the importance on the ICT we are so for general comments according to article nine of the CRPD technology design should take into account accessibility and uh usability features in all point system programs therefore this specific article article nine must be considered as the backbone of the convention apart from article nine article two describes reasonable accommodation it's a very important notion of the convention in the case of information and communication technology since many accessibility access assistive solutions are available and already implemented it follows that the CRPD dispositions on reasonable accommodation shall be applied as many cases as possible in addition to that as I already mentioned the committee has also developed two important general comments in this field general comment number two on article nine accessibility adopted in 2014 and general comment number four on article 24 like to inclusive education adopted five years ago in particular I personally recommend these general comments for further consideration furthermore we can identify additional requirements in terms of accessibility when it comes to article 21 dealing with the deliverance of essential services in the field of access to information not to mention voting procedures via elected kiosk as you can look at article 29 to sum up if you look for more relevant areas you can also consider the following topics in terms of covering existing articles non-discrimination in general in government media and internet television private sector services issues of liberty and security emergency services in particular culture and leisure so it practically means almost everything that is why the convention is so unique there are no areas of life without some or even improving levels of ICP connection and services and regarding what the main changes to persons with disabilities in terms of modern technologies well while these are before mentioned tools are going to be every day issue on experience we also have to scrutinize certain aspects like privacy interoperability affordability otherwise persons with disabilities could be left out in the long run at this point in terms of interoperability and conformity let's say conformity we have to highlight that the party indeed have obligation to make sure all customers can have access in one way or another to those products and strategies without even for example interference problems was the most important message of the convention when it comes to the modern technologies let me be very clear the convention is about dignity diversity and human rights as the convention claims states we have to make more efforts in terms of research and innovation however as i always express again at the same time we also have to change the value freedom competition and diversity in technology and development in order to find out trial experience and finally establish services on the grounds of reasonableness and right because evolution of technology also serves the purpose of reasonably providing the very different means of all very diverse humanity there is no sad there is no one side to solve we are talking about hundreds of millions it's not one billion persons with disabilities all around the world it follows that we must not shoot the door on new things even unusual ict solutions and innovations it means that we must incur innovation freedom and more importantly motivation in science forever science and technologies should serve the people themselves we cannot forget those special even extreme needs either that problem could be yours at one fair swoop right after an accident for example but small and i'm fully convinced that in the future everybody might be somehow disabled in one way or another in comparison to ai and hands-on fair and services in this way we are talking about the kind of evolution of disability itself too just to remember you shouldn't worry about the future since in contrast to actual fear mongers humanity has always been progressing and was able to improve the standard of living and circumstances finally the UN convention is not about maintaining a right to be made disabled but about ensuring such choices and chances our job today is to seize the opportunity to learn more about what the future has to offer i wish you are very free for discussing and mutual learning and better understanding of the reach of promises and possibilities of evolving ict solutions to come thank you thank you very much for this answer and we are ladies and gentlemen in fact we are arriving to the end of our session but i have still one question from the audience from jane thank you very much for a question which i would not like to close this session without answering and maybe let's treat this as the concluding question to all our panelists so which is in your view the key element or consideration within the icts to ensure the inclusiveness of all people regardless their age gender and ability in the europe region and globally so i will start with roksana and please be short of one to one and a half minutes thank you yara slav so thank you for this this question definitely i think is not accessibility however if i have to jointly build with all of you here together an accessible digital world i would say that this accessibility should should be built on other two very important pillars first is infrastructure access so to to be able access further services of internet then it's affordability so if we have the plug but we don't have the pay the possibility to pay the internet service access is not actually useful and if we have internet access and we can pay the service but we cannot pay the device that will help us to access the information again this is not helpful and based on these two first pillars in my pyramid towards achieving this digital world accessibility is fundamental so accessibility going through accessible device so in order to be able to access the information that the digital information that the device is providing so to have embedded accessibility features also at the government level to ensure that policy and regulatory measures are in place in order for us all to be able to benefit from in all circumstances and from all platforms tv websites and so on and this is the case in europe now and also very important uh under accessibility appropriation and digital skills so even if we do have the internet access we have the money to money to pay the device and the device is accessible if we don't know how to use it we still are not included so with this in mind i hope we can all put our efforts and build an inclusive digital world thank you very much for this and i'm moving now to european commission in macrada with the resource yes um well i cannot agree more with roksana i think she made very she raised the very important points to which we fully i fully agree and i would like to add a couple of more points to that um that list of elements that are necessary uh to ensure this um inclusion um uh inclusive technologies and inclusive i see digital solutions for all we need to work also on awareness i mean people need to know first of all that the technology uh is accessible but also those making the technologies need to know that they have to make it and for that i i think that having a clear legal and policy framework that it is specific enough to say what needs to be done um in order to achieve accessible results leaving of course a freedom for implementation but being very specific as to the aims of what to achieve is essential i would also like to highlight the skills and competencies both at both sides from the users to be able to um use the technology the accessibility features of the technology but also from the um professionals the ict professionals the digital professions to make sure that they know how to implement uh how to implement accessibility and finally i think we need to have strong um uh enforcement for enforcement mechanisms so that when there are problems and there will be problems because accessibility is not just the one of it's not something static you need really to pay attention to it constantly when services uh digital services change they need to be um uh continue to be taken into account so we need a strong enforcement framework that would aim to remedy those bridges those problems that that remain because without corrective measures um we would not be able to cope with this dynamic um aspect of of um uh accessibility in the and the technologies so um these are issues that add on to uh what Rosana has said thank you great thank you very much for this so point about enforcement very well noted and now let me turn for the final words to Laszlo uh Lovashi um thank you uh from the second half of the 20th century awards thanks to the technological advances not only passive diagnostic and medical devices but also increasing the advance ITC monitoring equipment improves the quality of health service and invasive devices implanted in the human body peacemakers cochlear implants for example one on the body has begun to spend the most important aspect of ITC in the future is about the digitization of health data the creation of Argo based on increased artificial intelligence contributing to the tool books of health diagnostic diagnostics as as well as to avoid the use and application of everyday practical tools in an access to accessible way at the same time it means that the so-called innocence of medical rehabilitation based on ICT based technology mind control artificial body parts have been developed that make the artificial parts feelable by diagnosis it follows that this kind of rehabilitation must mean must mean an obligation of force adoption for personal disability but other than more people will be provided with options and access to a much more efficient support and opportunities based on smart and ICT technology people with disabilities included as a as I mentioned before diversity is the key element of this approach more innovation can be achieved in a more diverse circumstances as you can see finding solutions go to the bottom of deep ocean or to the moon the future is right thank you right thank you very much and to take this as the concluding statement of this session ladies and gentlemen thank you very much to the panelists and thank you very much and to the audience thank you very much or also to those who are brave to ask the question first question of this accessible forum please use this function of the of the platform interact and ask the questions also to the experts being with us we learned a lot during this session we invite you still to refer also to the report which we have presented at the beginning where you will have also the background information of many things which we address during this session but not prolonging one more time thank you very much to the all speakers for being with us and it's my great pleasure and honor before breaking for the break to introduce the video contribution from miss Maria Solidar Cisternas Reyes special envoy of the United Nations Secretary General on digital disability and accessibility and I would like to request for playing the video and after the playing the video we will break for a break and we'll come back together back at 12 o'clock so please the video and from my side I'm saying ready thank you accessibility pillar and bridge for the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms convention on the rights of persons with disabilities united nations persons with disabilities represent around 15 percent of the world's population which is equivalent to more than one billion persons who face several barriers to their full and effective inclusion in society persons with disabilities have the right to be autonomous to live independently and to be included in the community therefore we must promote universal accessibility as a human right so that our cities are inclusive safe resilient progressing towards sustainable development leaving no one behind 2030 agenda united nation sustainable development goal number 11 to improve accessibility in both urban and rural areas we must apply principles guidelines and standards on universal design in all facilities and services open to the public or for public use including the removal of obstacles and barriers implement or improve accessibility physical spaces such as buildings public roads transportation schools housing hospitals or medical facilities workplaces stadiums cultural centers recreation and sports among others promote access to information and communication services including those needed in situations of emergency promote access and use for persons with disabilities to new information and communication technologies and systems including the internet and other facilities must include accessible signage different forms of personalized assistance such as guides readers and professional sign language interpreters should be offered to facilitate accessibility to buildings and other facilities open to the public provide training including training in universal design and accessibility to all public and private institutions that provide services to the public as well as to the community we all must be aware that we live in diverse dynamic and interactive societies and that the commitment of governments including local governments and municipalities is essential to ensure that accessibility is a fundamental pillar in all cities creating a bridge so that all persons can enjoy all their human rights and fundamental freedoms let's promote accessibility as a commitment for society as a whole produced by the special envoy of the united nation secretary general on disability and accessibility maria soledad cisternas reyes year 2020 for playing the video and now your colleagues will have a break of two three minutes before we are starting the next session so please be patient and use the time as needed thank you very much like to request that for putting the dear ladies and gentlemen and this will be around the time and to start the second session of the accessible europe and is my great pleasure to invite to take the floor mr dushan kath the itu consultant of the international telecommunications union who will be moderating uh this session but also who was instrumental uh in elaboration of the regional assessment uh dr kath i'm handing over to you the floor thank you your slow just a second yeah your excellencies ladies and gentlemen uh i'm delighted to have the opportunity to participate in this conference and to moderate the session on the regional review of enabling environments ensuring accessible telecommunications and icts for persons with disabilities in the europe region my name is dushan zaf uh i lead digital accessibility policy and research programs and the digital transformation platform that connects and helps stakeholders in creating a more inclusive digital society i'm also an itu digital consult accessibility consultant as jaroslaw already mentioned let me now introduce our panelists first mr bankt murrayt a senior analyst at the swedish post and telecom agency here representing berek the body of european regulators for electronic communications he's also a designated chair for the working party on communications infrastructure and service policy at the oacd mr marg witley who is the executive director of the european union of the deaf marg is also active at the world federation of the deaf and in various accessibility projects and initiatives uh miss polona blasnik is an expert in the information society and the digital public service design uh she is also a head of the information society office at the ministry of public administration of sylvia and finally mr fat brevin director of strategic alliances at t mobile he comes from industry but has also extensive experience in digital accessibility in the education sector and in non-governmental organizations uh what are we going to speak about in this session last year itu held out a regional review to assess how accessible information and communications are in the europe region the other slough has already mentioned some of the findings in 46 countries we investigated their commitments to ict accessibility and their capacity to meet those commitments over 100 indicators were used to assess ict accessibility in the whole region we covered the implementation of the united nation's convention on the rise of persons with disabilities and the four eu directives forming the eu accessibility framework that covers websites of public bodies audio visual media services electronic communications and products and services uh we also identified the plethora of good practices in ict accessibility from all over the region the itu assessment provides a comprehensive overview of accessibility requirements implementation good practice implementation uh good practices and recommendations for itu member states and stakeholders there is no doubt we found out that europe is and confirmed that europe is among global leaders in ict accessibility however with its multi dimensional diversity europe has developed a distinctive approach based on regulatory intervention and multi stakeholder cooperation uh these processes may not always be efficient but after all they are effective several countries adopted advanced ict accessibility requirements part of that of the adoption of the eu accessibility framework overall europe is doing fine but there are still challenges ahead of us let me just briefly mention some of key findings um 41 of 46 countries have adopted or planned to adopt web accessibility laws or statutory requirements around half of the countries require the public service media organizations to provide subtitles and signing including live subtitles and signing around one-third of the countries regulate specific aspects of accessibility requirements for products and services as included in the european accessibility act well and in electronic communications uh we focus on broadband internet access access to emergency services and on relay and total conversation services uh here we identified two critical areas uh these two areas are equivalent access to emergency services and availability of total conversation services so now let's hear the perspectives of our panelists first mr banked murdered it uh the covet 19 pandemic has revealed that electronic communications products and services are crucial for persons with disabilities to assess to access information and communications on an equal basis and without discrimination what are barrack and nra's doing to overcome discrimination and improve the quality of service and quality of experience for persons with disabilities banked the fort is yours uh thank you very much thank you mr kaf and ladies and gentlemen thank you also for for for invoking barrack and me to to this event today uh so i will share with you uh some examples from from barrack the so the barrack is the organization that unites all the regulators for electronic communication in europe and together with the european commission so what i will do i will share try to share the screen uh with the presentation i will share that in in the in the presentation mode and and this specifically is uh from from the end user which is a working group within the oz g within the barrack and i'm also involved in oz g so but this in this case this is barrack here uh and what what we have done during the last year in the joint effort together with the oz g we organized an international's workshop we became webinars on quality of service and quality of experience used to to investigate the status of of quality of service and quality of experience how the users perceive this and also to identify the gaps you can say and issues related to to accessibility and there are other work that is ongoing is a study that the barrack has commissioned for company ppm i from lithuania and they have done quite an extensive consumer study on the behavior of digital platform for communication and in that study the specific analysis of to what extent accessibility if these platform that is so widely used today and the level of accessibility to what to what degree they they comply with with the current regulation and what could be said in short it is a lot of work remains to be done basically to to to provide accessibility for everyone but in the same time it is complex to compare and i will show you some thoughts on that and as i said the issue of quality of service and quality of experience is is is an agenda and the quality of service is it is a technical aspect in network but it is also a way to measure how networks are perceiving how services are transmitted so a barrack is doing some work on this area and also due to to the to the pandemic pandemic the initially work workshop was then turned into webinars and we have the end user working group which i represent in this case here but the co-chairs were unable to participate in this conference today so any question can could be forward to them and what the end user group is doing working on guidelines defining quality of service parameters and measurements in order to comply with existing regulation and also guide the national the national authority the regulatory authorities within europe to to provide the services so they comply with the quality quality aspects and then we also have our colleagues within working with the open internet which is also various quality parameter and measurement regarding quality of service and this is also linked to the issue of national neutrality enabling consumers and users to have perceiving services regardless of of their source and not they are not sorted or prioritized if you look at quality of service and quality experience what we have what we underscored during the webinars was really two countries that are are showing very good examples our step in france and korea is this question of improving services and measuring doing measurement on how these network what they perform and the quality aspects of them and korea although maybe you think that korea is head of of europe and they have very advanced technologies with 5g etc they are also working consistently to improve accessibility but also to measure the different parameters of the networks and they are very advanced but still they want to to improve and be better and what was experienced and shared at the network accessibility and how to harness communication technologies for people with disabilities will prove with quality of service levels and it is certainly a question here that the operators that provide services and networks and also the platform and other involved players has a lot to do up until 2025 in order to comply with the existing regulation we were also examples of the e-health and significance of quality of service which is for example an organization v d t m and a sector organization in netherlands working for healthcare and home care services and how this is clearly underscoring the importance of e-health solutions growing and they're really for asking and this has been also underscored now during the the pandemic and the covid crisis and this is also certainly a question of reliability and network how these network coop and the services and how they could address weakness and and and when the network breakdowns and this organization is was an example of working together with the colleagues in france how they they need to push operators to provide services and also to to address weaknesses in in networks and from the united states the issue of improving quality of efficiency of video relay services where the where this is an right for everyone to have accessibility so what fcc is doing the the regulatory authority in the united states they implement and regulate various types of telecommunications service relay service programs which is ensure that video relay services calls are functional equivalent to telephone calls and that anybody that have disabilities could get support in order to be able to communicate and this is could be done through through through special support persons if they're not able to to dial themselves but this is a function which provides services making it possible for anybody to communicate despite whatever disabilities they have uh barric has published a report on on the on on the findings from from the workshops and they are also available from youtube in the video format and then we have the consumer behaviors said on the study on on the digital platforms and the digital platforms today is where people are using the consumers to a very large extent are using these for communication services so we have done a great large study on roughly 12 000 consumers have been interviewed over the by web panels and this study will be published later on this spring after going through all the different the different final steps here in finalization and we have a number of guidelines that's been reviewed within the barric that addressing different different aspects of operability both on the real text and voice communication and video communication which is work underway and this was in short highlighting some aspects from from the barric working part of end users which is striving to to work in order to to overcome shortages in networks to to improve the quality and also accessibility of the electronic communication services and as I said the the platform issue the study will be published later where we as I said this research and in the investigation told where we have the studies examining the the level of how these platforms are really living up to the standards in the existing regulation and said that there is a lot of work to be done there thank you very much and over to the chair please okay thank you bang let us now move to our next panelist mark weekly while bank mentions the the key areas the barric is working on but from the perspective of users I think mark is the right person to to speak about this perspective in the regional ICT accessibility assessment with trust the importance of equivalent access to emergency communications emergency services should be available to persons with disabilities not only in their respective countries but also while roaming abroad when these end users are not able to place a call a call to 112 they have to rely on nationally fragmented solutions mark cannot tell us how to implement a harmonized single European emergency number 112 and how to ensure equivalent access to emergency services model 40 is yours thank you can I just check that the audio the interpreter's audio can be heard do we have sound lovely thank you so thank you very much for the invitation to join at this very important event on the subject of accessibility now accessibility is at the heart of what we do but first of all I would like to just take a moment and just explain who the eud are and what we do we're an NGO organization and we work with nationalist national associations of the deaf around Europe so we have 31 national association deaf members but we are the only organization representing deaf people deaf sign language users around Europe at the European level so we take part at EU level dialogues with various institutions and official personnel we are a full member of the edf the european disability forum who are with us today and also wfd the world federation for the deaf and the council of Europe coe so with that in mind eud advocates on the issue of accessibility and how access can be transposed into law what we do is we monitor and support national associations of the deaf so that they can lobby their governments on harmonization and their adoption of legislation so for example what's stipulated in the ee a and the electronic communication code making sure that the end user is considered so for example with the telephone communication emergency services how that can be made accessible i'll talk about different parts of our work streams the first is the european accessibility act which recently ima from the european commission has already outlined and explained what we bring to this discourse is our work with the edf the experience that deaf people have and their specific issues in terms of what access means to them and also our role is to raise awareness within the deaf community about the work that is happening at EU level on the various acts and directives that are being developed we also support national associations of the deaf about how different parts of the directives can be transposed into legislation so we've been working on the ee a so ea a and the electronic communication code the eud has been advocating on a number of priorities for example the ee cc the electronic the european electronic communication code we have been following this legislative procedure since 2016 in 2017 we submitted a number of amendments to article 102 specifically on access to emergency services edf put forward some amendments and we fed back into that process to make sure that emergency services were accessible through total conversation framework so using total conversation or third party relay services this is to ensure that the end user is able to access emergency services at any point at any time of need and making sure that deaf people have the same access as any other end user so total conversation what is this what does that refer to it's a universal design feature which means that a deaf person can choose to speak sign or read whilst engaged in the telephone interaction and and this means by including those three functions this opens the opportunities for anyone who is deaf to use their language preference to access emergency services we have been working with european deaf associations on how to advocate and lobby on these features providing them with the toolkit to make sure that the message is put through to their national governments so for example video relay services vrs which errick has just mentioned that is one example of one of our main major focuses vrs provides an important opportunity for people to access different services some countries already provide vrs um but on a limited basis so with such a patchwork of provisions how will deaf people know where and when a vrs service is accessible so it's important that we see vrs harmonized across european states and this includes the way that access to emergency services is made available so let's say for example how will a deaf person know when they move from one european country to another what the rules or the terms of services are for a particular vrs or a national vrs platform it's important that deaf people have the same level of access to emergency services as anyone else despite where they are in europe this could happen to you you could find yourself in a situation where you need support what would you do if you find that that support or that service is not available to you so i look forward to the conversations that we have around how we make european emergency services accessible thank you okay thank you mark for your interesting presentation um now let's hear the perspective of the operator said uh we have heard the regulators and users perspectives uh from your perspective as a telecommunications service provider what are the challenges to provide the current access to the services for people who are deaf heart of hearing deaf by or have a speech disability set uh the full resource hello this is sef bravin i'm speaking to you through a sign language interpreter named sarah good afternoon everyone as mark mentioned there are some countries in the world that have relay services however there are many that still do not have relay services at all the countries that do currently have relay services experience issues with quality such as the speed of answer interpreter qualifications as well as confidentiality and security also another consideration is is the platform accessible for people who are blind or people who are speech disabled in order to utilize it and of course emergency services is a very important aspect of this it really needs to be viewed as a need and not as a luxury some key considerations and some key challenges that we see is the mechanism in which this type of service will be funded will it be funded within a universal service fund or in another one there are several moving parts with that aspect as well as the interoperability of different platforms the quality of service with relay providers the ability to call emergency services what we've seen with the covid pandemic is an urgency to have these types of services in place deaf people people who are hard of hearing deaf line or speech disabled are even more isolated within their homes and unable to make phone calls out if there are no relay services available europe has passed an important milestone with passing some recent acts which is great to see i think some future challenges we'll see is making international relay calls if you cross over a border into another country within europe within asia or the americas how are you able to make phone calls to home or to other areas it's important that we coordinate with the government and geos and the private sectors we're seeing an international drive especially with the un crpd and with the itu's commitment to accessibility so there is some momentum that we're seeing and that is an exciting aspect of the provision of these types of services on an international level thank you okay thank you instead so we covered now electronic communication which are very important for persons with disabilities but there is another important area this is accessibility of information of public bodies we have with us miss polon polona blaznik polona website accessibility has gained momentum in europe since the implementation of the web accessibility directive in member states how has accessibility of websites of public bodies in sluvinia improved in recent years can you tell us um what are the lessons learned the floor is yours thank you hello from lipliana from sluvinia and thank you the organizers for inviting me to this conference uh so sluvinian ministry of public administration is a horizontal ministry and uh we are responsible also for the development of and coordination of digital government services we've started working on better accessibility already several years ago first um following the guidelines of web content accessibility wcag um to be honest not in a very systematic way especially because there was no systematic monitoring of implementation uh then based on our own good practices and the practices of other countries uh we prepared the guidelines for the development of digital services in public administration and we pointed out the importance of inclusion and accessibility what we understand us that digital services can be used by all indiscriminately and that adequate assistance is available uh we also started promoting the principles of user-centric approach in designing digital services um that means we should put the user at the center and take into account his or her needs not only when we are just planning a project but through the entire development process designing testing and already before the adoption of web uh accessibility directive we designed our e-government state portal um in a way that is appropriate for the use by the blind visually impaired the deaf and hard of hearing people people with dyslexia and users with impaired understanding for example um the descriptions of the administrative procedures are now um a component in the large extent uh by short videos uh with the interpretation of the text in Slovenian sign language also when writing text we take care of understandable and simple facts and also you ask what are the key lessons learned maybe to share is that uh it's very important to start I mean designing web accessible pages demands certain skills uh but it's important that we start with what we do know and then gradually learn from others who know more than us then well we are we are talking about the users that meet inclusive services uh so we think that it's about it's all this about getting it's right it's about getting it's right and not just making quick adjustments to the web pages and also our experience showed that while um accessibility consultancy is important and can make may help highlighting certain issues uh but uh they are not real users uh it's that's why it's so important to test the services with real users and as a consequence what I mean not us what we we find out is that such web pages are more at the end more accessible and more friendly to all users not just people with disabilities thank you Polona um yeah banked uh before you already mentioned the online platforms now when we discuss the the accessibility of of the web um what are the lessons learned through the study commissioned by the barrack on on the online platforms interested us some some thoughts already or some findings uh thank you and in order just to say a few words on on the study it will be published later on during the spring and uh as I said it was it is a questionnaire that for 12 000 respondents and also in 12 countries for europe and what we asked the consultants was to see how the different platforms uh comply with the with the different regulation and and the accessibility and what is obvious from their study or their findings is that because the users generate also content so this makes it complex to have the accessibility issue or it raises different perspective or makes it more complex you can say for example users uh uploading content on youtube and sending that to go to friends how to to safeguard that it is possible for people with some different disabilities to take it to to digest that so in order to understand what they said so they have walked through the different guidelines and regulation and and and map them to to their various platforms and this is specifically for communication services like messenger what's up uh so that was the perspective and then to see to what extent these communication services provided with platform how they comply with it and and what they said it it is uh not so it's quite a negative uh negative impression to see that these companies has a lot to do in order to make it accessible accessible for everyone but in the same time they are underscoring the complexity to evaluate to what extent this is because there are different factors involved here uh because i said on the end user generated content for example so it is uh i assume i mean challenging for for a lot of people with disabilities to to to use some of these services if they don't comply and we have also because some of them are also depending on software in terminals and how they present the material when the when these services are used so it is uh it is a desktop work regarding the accessibility evaluations so they have worked they have elaborated this kind of evaluation scheme uh when they have compared these uh these services so but so it is uh a little bit depressing uh in one way to say but they said it is sometimes it is also quite complex to make this comparison okay thank you banked uh so i think now it is um good to ask polona um polona you come from a small language group country uh what is what are the challenges of small language groups when it comes to accessibility uh online um yeah just what my predecessor was was talking about big platforms yes concerning emerging technologies like for example also artificial intelligence can help address the challenges of accessibility and bring forward the solutions we need over the advances of the use of artificial artificial intelligence in language technologies oh we are definitely getting better solutions to prove to improve accessibility in digital space however uh solutions that exist and are developed by big tech companies and offered by online platforms are not adopted to use us from small countries due to small markets linguistic barriers so small countries such as the case also in Slovenia have to take care of themselves get our own resources and knowledge and um Slovenia has many years of experience in the development of digital language resources and technologies and these activities have been supported by different measures by the government and right now there is a big project going on and as a result we will get more tools for text and speech recognition available as open source so we believe uh also this experience will be improved and on the other hand we are still aware that the support of the government will be necessary also in the future for example that's in our national program for artificial intelligence we there is a special attention dedicated to promoting the use of artificial intelligence technologies in the development of language technologies so yes there is a difference between being from a big country or English speaking country then from a small country that uh is really left to itself to to improve the capabilities of all the citizens okay thank you mark before you mentioned the implementation of emergency services and video relay services um you already mentioned some of the challenges but how should member states implement total conversation services should they implement them through the implementation of the electronic communications code or wait for the european accessibility act what are your recommendations okay so we're very excited about the european european accessibility act um and what it states is that each member state has five years to change their laws so that it's in line with the european accessibility act and so that services like 112 are um accessible and so 112 must be made accessible within five years so this means we've got a lot of work ahead of us um how we make 112 accessible across europe and there are challenges so if a national country it's their responsibility to make sure that their own competencies are in place they must then campaign for a harmonized service across europe so for example vrs services should be made available across borders the issue is is with some countries it's easier to bring those changes so let's say for example one country they've got one point of service for emergency services and that covers the whole of the country that can then be made accessible for anyone regardless of where they are across europe but in other countries vrs is provided on a regional basis so let's take germany as an example how are we going to make a unified service when it's managed by different providers and that can become problematic finding ways to harmonize that system so in terms of 112 we have a lot of work ahead of us in supporting different member states in bringing about those changes within the time frame that's set by the legislation we don't have any time to waste and so this is an opportunity for us to make sure that there is 112 is made fully accessible we are now in 2021 what i find unbelievable is why are we still campaigning on these issues these problems should have been resolved long ago even though we are still some way off we now have legislation supporting our work and getting the message out there so that positive change can happen okay thank you thank you mark um yeah that's a question why are we still campaigning so perhaps set has the answer set how is t-mobile committed to provide products and services that are accessible for all especially for persons with disabilities the south you know t-mobile has a long history in the relay service industry we've been in the business for more than 30 years and the implementation of relay services has provided a lot of lessons learned and some best practices we have a different versions of relay services that we provide we provide text service video relay service captioned telephones and speech-to-speech service just to highlight a few we've learned over the years that every individual has their own unique preference of a service they want for myself for example i use both text relay service and video relay service where another deaf or hard of hearing person might have a different preference some examples of some best practices we have a large number of people with disabilities that work in our business unit so it really helps us to understand the end user's needs their challenges and how we can best improve those services for people with disabilities based on their participation in our workplace also relay services provide a life transforming experience for people with disabilities to help them find gainful employment and grow in the workplace we have employee retention and people who can climb the corporate ladder based on the ability to access these types of services we believe it's important to build an ecosystem on an international national and regional level to build relationships and partnerships with NGOs as well as government entities we also proactively reach out to end users and disability organizations to have a better understanding of what their needs are and what challenges they face we participate in webinars and conferences as well for example before the pandemic in July of 2018 i attended the world federation of the deaf conference that was in paris there's a wonderful opportunity to meet deaf and hard of hearing people and deaf blind people from all over the world to see what challenges they face and how these services could be provided one quick study is in new zealand we were providing relay services in new zealand for 15 years working closely with a non-profit organization locally and the government to help build an ecosystem that allowed people to thrive looking ahead into the future t-mobile is very committed to and recognizes that our work in this area is not complete we are always looking at developing new technology and new services that can be provided and help build those pieces of the ecosystem for example including partnerships with universities in addition to NGOs and government organizations okay thank you set so we covered now some of the the topics that we covered with our assessment well unfortunately the session is limited so we can't we cannot go on with in more details um but before we wrap up the session we have two questions uh they are both directives uh barrack uh the first one is on quality of services measures um in networks so bank could you um could you uh have a look here uh how do you approach um the key network performance metrics um and are networks aware and willing to deliver a sufficient end user experience how do you think this is this can be reinforced uh is this a question from Mari Rua in Georgia or this is from Sergio Bellum okay uh barrack has published a number of guidelines when it comes to quality of service measurement which is which is incorporating various standards and these guidelines is then so say for in order to give instructions or guidance you can say for for the national regulatory the NRA the national regulatory authorities uh through Europe and and what they can do then is to use these guidelines in order to evaluate to what extent uh the networks in the respective countries are fulfilling uh the these uh these guidelines and but what could be said is that today the communication networks are are quite advanced uh so so in that respect quality of service measures are already implicit or in integrated into the networks but as I gave two examples of France and Korea where they do extensive work on measurement evaluating and publishing what these networks are how they are performing and what really the consumers are getting when they're buying the services uh so these are two lead examples and in my own country pts is not doing this with which they should in order to help consumers make more informed choices and also to really to to improve competition and also to stimulate more investment I think these networks they have to be evaluated evaluated externally so you can say that guidelines is one part and then implementing of the guidelines in second and the third is then when the NRA is taking a very active part in together with various partners it could be or by themselves to to to really measure and publish and make it public in order to really to make it aware of how the networks are performing and this could also be done in conjunction with various quality assurance quality of service parameters and also to comply with various rules and regulations as been discussed here so some work is done but I would say it could be more more work could be done and also has been referred to the code previously which is also giving the mandate to to national regulatory authorities to pursue a lot of work around this quality of service to improve networks and make it more available okay thank you thank you so the second question is very broad we cannot answer all such questions but perhaps we could have a question here for said first said how is a telecom operator providing affordability of universal services in your case do you have any measures any you receive money from from the universal service fund or any other measures or that is a very good question and there are several different models that are in place on an international level what approach is to use a universal service fund where each citizen contributes a small amount to that fund having a centralized fund is something that can be regulated by the federal government in its provision to ensure quality of service and also to ensure the sustainability of that service as well it's a very complex system I can talk more to individual questions that people have asked one-on-one feel free to contact me and I can explain a bit more in depth yeah okay thank you um so the second part of this of the question here is for banks um what is the minimum set of services provided um the scope of the universal service persons with disabilities can you answer this uh bank uh I don't know if I can answer I can say like this I mean firstly we have access to internet that this is I mean it's always today a human right to have access and then this like functional access and you can say according to the law I mean for example in my country that anybody should have the possibility should have the right to have access to to basic communication services in which implies then to over bridge bridge any any kind of uh inability in the system to help the user basically and uh and as I said there's different guidelines that also the bank has published is is really to to pinpoint uh compliance with with the current regulation but I cannot be more specific uh on that and and what I can refer to to the co-shares on the working party within the end user in within back yeah okay thank you so I also suggest that um they look to the into the electronic communications code and they can find the services um listed there um so it is time to wrap up the session um um uh so we still have three three four minutes so banked mark polona and said what are your key messages uh from the session so starting with polona we all want to live in a world where every single person feels included and can benefit fully from digital opportunities uh since it's likely that pandemic will have a lasting impact on access to different services and opportunities like not working schooling social socializing uh there is a collective responsibility for organizations which work to challenge a digital inclusion gap in a way that it creates a long-term change not just a quick fix and the responsibility to address these challenges cannot fall just one group private and public organizations need to work with governments to create a global framework of cooperation to close the digital gap okay thank you um banked thank you very much and also thank you for the invitation to be part of this uh this conference and I said that accessibility for everyone I mean regardless who you are and what you're where you are and who you are and what your your abilities are is a key is a key factor for for any country today with the digitalization meaning that I mean our life is a combination of the physical and cyber world that that is the the society that we have to live and then the technology has to be accessible for all but it will not come without putting pressure on all involved players and actors and as I said the quality of service quality of experience has to be measured and put in in context and also these platform services as I said it is complex to evaluate because there's so many plays involving our users we also generate in content so this is on the agenda and I said the report that we very quickly publish is it's a confident continued policy discussion on these important uh items that we have discussed here today thank you very much yeah thank you banked well I also have to mention that uh during our assessment we also started the medic documents um so let's move on to Seth what is your key message Seth first of all I want to say thank you and the my hats are off to the ITU you play a very important role with publishing the communication guidelines for relay services so that is an important tool for countries who do not yet have services and those who do key performance indicators are going to be focused on and that is an important way for us to make sure that regulations and quality of service is in compliance for everyone okay thank you Seth and Mark what is your key message I would also like to offer my thanks and as you know our population is becoming older and older so we need to make sure that we work for everyone in society and accessibility for all it's a very effective concept making sure that no one is left behind it's not an easy task ahead of us but it is important that we put these measures in place now and that will help us plan for the future in achieving accessibility for all thank you okay thank you all of these key messages we have come to the end of our panel I would like to thank you to to banked Mark Polona instead for your available discussions and for sharing your thoughts with us and I would also like to thank the interpreters and technicians who made this session possible with supporting us and taking care of everything let us now move to the special video message session good morning all we would like to begin by thanking the kind invitation to be here with you today and address a few words sharing the vision of Portugal on this so interesting and actual topic the pandemic crisis that the world is facing today has proved that digital inclusion is no more a long-term vision but it's a matter of urgency governments have to act to make sure we don't let no one behind us of Portugal we are working in increasing the percentage of population that has access that has access to icon activity and also that economical vulnerabilities are not a barrier to certain segments of our families the lounge of 5g with its associated coverage obligations will play a relevant role in increasing the reach of internet especially in our low density areas the social internet tariff that is planned to be in the market before summer will enable the most economical fragile segments of our society to access in most case for the first time a proper internet service we all know that for these families this internet access will be a major promoter of inclusion access to education information culture and entertainment facilitated communication and at the end enhanced citizenship our vision is that Portugal will continue to consolidate its position in Europe as a digital innovation hub with highly skilled talent thank you very much Dushan and all distinguished speakers for the session 2 is through a fruitful discussion we have so now we are entering to the afternoon break before we enter the afternoon session now we will have one hour break we will start at 14 please do reconnect with us at 14 we will have a session 3 about response and recovery to the pandemic how to build a digital accessible and also we will have the award ceremony of our 15 finalists so now you can take the coffee have a nice lunch break and we will see you at 14 thank you very much yeah thank you all right was it okay this is really interesting and you can see there's a lot of Q and A sessions and it's very interactive thank you so much Dushan okay thank you have a good day see you soon yeah see you bye hi i'm Andre from sign lab and we are making sign language accessible for everyone and learning sign language is hard in countries such as the Nordics less than 75 percent of parents to deaf children are able to learn sign language well enough such that it does not adversely affect their own child's development when you see a statistic like this you know that an important problem is not being solved and that is why we are so excited to show you to leo which is our modern learning platform for sign language here you can pick a topic that is of interest to you and you can learn it in a fun and engaging manner and later you can review what you've learned in our optimal review if you want to look up a sound and sign on the go you can do so in our dictionary and this satisfies triple a rating for educational products where it increases availability it lowers costs and at the same time it improves learning outcomes world in sign what is our vision stop let's talk about some facts first in germany there are about 80 000 deaf people and 30 million people who are hard of hearing okay what does the situation look like in europe there are two million deaf people and over 50 million hard of hearing people do they have access to communication in their native language and equal participation in society we can provide equal participation through sign language interpreters what's the issue cost absorption must be clarified organization in advance of the assignment stress is preprogrammed out of 31 european countries over 50 percent have an online interpreting service but only 18 percent have an interpreting app we have the solution effective use and access to interpreters through our interpreter app whiz app this app is connected to an organized interpreter station where sign language interpreters can work flexible or planned all day deaf and hearing people can request an interpreter online at any time and what about the accessible emergency call out of 31 european countries only 12 percent offer emergency facts out of 31 european states only 22 percent offer an app solution out of 31 european states zero percent offer an emergency call app with sign language capability does emergency facts or sms mean accessibility no we have the solution an accessible emergency call is included in the whiz app send an emergency call with the push of a button a sign language interpreter is added and starts calling at the same time continue to implement improve and develop our app we are working on disaster response telemedicine and accessible cause that should be free and easy for all people for barrier free communication for inclusion the world is blind to deaf people we are many yes but we are also invisible perhaps because deafness is not visible because we do not require a wheelchair or a guide dog as it seems that nothing happens to us people assume that there is nothing wrong with us no one suspects that our problems go far beyond simple things like not being able to enjoy pop rock or being doomed to watch television without subtitles our problems are actually many more no one suggests that if your child cries you will not listen no one suggests that the washing machine finishes you will not realize that you can be at home not knowing that the fire alarms been sounding for five minutes and the fire is dangerously approaching that if at the airport there is any notice of time or gate changing you might miss the flight may also lose your turn at the doctor's waiting room as you don't reply when you're being called realizes that we always live abroad as the world speaks a language we do not understand and we speak one that the world does not understand either deaf people we are not only deaf we are alone we were until now visual fire is the only international software development platform and accessible technology for people with hearing difficulties they see us listen to us and support us that's why they have created a revolutionary device called deaf smart space a pioneering system that listens to the sounds at home and sends all the information completely adapted to your smartphone smartwatch or smart save a for instance two green vibrations someone is ringing the doorbell hello vibrations the baby is crying full red vibrations danger the fire alarm is sounding in a single device that will soon be present in hospitals municipalities subways cruises airports museums turn in the near future into an equal place for everyone visual fire good things are coming great we enable social accessibility and digital inclusion for elderly people with severe sight problems more than 280 million people around the world are visually impaired most of them are over 50 these people don't have access to a smartphone and they aren't able to enjoy the benefits of it what we do at ray is provide a solution that can turn any smartphone into an easily accessible device using our unique software innovation and ray click two adhesive stickers consisting of four buttons that easily connect to your phone via bluetooth and with which you can control it completely it you and european commission are committed to making europe more accessible through ic teams for people with disabilities and specific needs information and communication technologies are fundamental enablers to living independent lives and having an active role in society from the 23rd to the 25th of march 2021 policy makers experts civil society associations tech companies academia we'll come together at accessible europe in portugal join us at accessible europe and take active part in making europe more accessible world is full of amazing art we are all familiar with unique van go paintings the world's most daring paintings by Picasso and who would not recognize famous Mona Lisa we enjoy wonderful visual art on digital screens on a daily basis but what about people who cannot see do you ever think about them well we do at feel if we strive to bring art closer to everybody can you imagine to feel colors can you imagine to feel painting with feel if you can this is miha he is blind all his adult life but he still enjoys colors of nature he likes to take photos with feel if and discover a beauty around him although he is blind he still likes to visit natural attractions enjoys the view from the castle goes to the museum and even to the gallery feel if tablets are using a special grid and a combination of haptic audio and visual feedback that enable the blind user to literally feel digital pictures feel if brings huge value to museums galleries and individual artists it transforms museums and galleries into inclusive institutions feel if gives individual modern artists the opportunity to make their art accessible also to the blind and partially sighted it doesn't matter if you are a photographer or a painter with special app field bookmaker you can bring your art to another level by adding sound and vibration to the image any visual art can become multi-sensory so the final product is art that comes to life when touched by the user imagine that for more information about feel if go to www.feelif.com this school was tough the learning materials were too complicated and the teachers were far too fast when i was 14 people thought i would never learn anything useful today i know i can learn anything i just need my own time and text that i can understand my name is my burger and i know a lot of people with learning difficulties to share melanese experiences they could live self-determined lives but complicated information holds them back for them complicated information is like a barrier like stats are a barrier for people in the wheelchair until now i could only get easy to understand information when business hired a professional to translate the text for me but this takes way too long i'm excited that capito is now developing a tool that enables everyone to write barrier free text capito digital is an online tool that assists you with writing easy to understand text it is based on artificial intelligence with capito digital you can chat if your texts are easy to read and it supports you to provide barrier free information we cannot solve all problems only by informing people in an easy to understand way but without easy to understand information we will not be able to solve a single problem at all with capito digital there are no more excuses anyone can write easy to understand texts and these texts enable me and other people with disturbing difficulties to live self-determined lives we all need an accessible emergency call to protect our most precious asset our health and our lives the existing problem is that some billion people in the world cannot make an emergency call by phone in today's digital age for example deaf or speech impaired people should send an emergency text in case of an emergency but is this inclusion and participation in the emergency call system we have the solution that can be implemented immediately and worldwide our barrier free emergency call system has been developed for all people in this world in case of an emergency all relevant information is transmitted to the control center and first responders in a matter of seconds at the touch of a button without a call without language without local knowledge and without language skills the conventional 5w questions who were one what happened and how many people are affected including a photo and audio documentation and emergency password are transmitted in an emergency we have recognized which emergency call system people with health impairments in particular are need and patented our invention for this purpose everyone and also deafblind people can make an emergency call self-determined by feeling and clicking with our mobile emergency call button for endless years the the introduction of barrier free emergency calls has been promised by many actors so why should we wait when the solution is available let's go into implementation together immediately and start the ability in the emergency call system to help all people here are some quotes from users of caravid and they explain how it has benefited their lives so Richard Holmes is a student and he says caro read plus gave me independence and freed up time from worrying about how something was written to concentrating on the content that i have written he worked mine dependently and was far more productive Stafford dyslexia support introduced caro pdf to some students and he said the students achieved things today that they didn't think possible at the start of the session they worked so hard and i was so proud i could have burst it really reduces stress and removes barriers to learning andi he's a workplace assessor and he found that one social worker who had not submitted an expense claim for over a year but once she had caro read she caught up and very quickly realized just how much money she'd been losing caro read makes people more independent said andi and it can also save them money you can feel less fatigued as well and far more focused on your work hailey peters she's a teacher and she says that before using caro read i would spend hours rereading the same passage in order for me to understand it so it saves lots of time and increases your confidence to pete augustin it has changed his life he says it's no exaggeration for me to say that the caro read software saved my career and changed my life you hear my voice on every continent of the globe and it's honestly and truly been made possible by this software thanks caro read so many people have really benefited from caro read software due to aging of the population pressure on care is increasing there are much more care needing seniors than caregivers providing the right care hence we need to look for new models to organize care my name is philip van out i am co of magic u the issue at hand is the so-called care pyramid care intensifies proportional to the age as we all are getting older and older society cannot sustain quality care because the costs are just skyrocketing sponsored by the ale project janus magic u has developed a home care platform that combines cost control with the desire for quality of life by using smart technology the trick is that you regard the senior as a full-fledged consumer who likes to integrate such smart technology into his daily life we equip the younger seniors with a very advanced home automation system allowing him to control any appliance in his residence as if he were a walking remote control himself when he grows older the same equipment will serve as movement coach as we can observe his movements and activities and eventually we will also be able to improve safety of the resident suppose that i am not sitting on that sofa but lying 30 centimeters lower on the ground i will also be able to observe that and i can already call the emergency services when such an incident occurs this way we will be able to work on what we call the health literacy which means that the senior will also invest in his own quality of life you have to start from day one having full cognitive skills to learn if you start at later age he may no longer be able to make such investment in this health literacy causing him to do early appeal on the more expensive tiers of professional care that is why we target our janus home care platform to seniors who are moving over from their family home now a size too big to a home equipped for their future people with mobility impairments hearing impairments visual impairments and senior travelers in need of assistance there are over 600 million disabled people in the developed world 70 percent of whom travel unfortunately most travel agencies struggle to cater to this unique market segment resulting in inadequate service and the loss of customers introducing travexy it instantly turns travel agencies and platforms into disability travel experts travexy built the first api for seniors and disabled travelers enabling travel platforms to make bookings for them a breeze travexy api certifies and rates hotels by accessibility amenities according to 90 different accessibility parameters so this is how your booking platform can look like travel agents simply choose one or more disability type sub filters and your system automatically finds properties for the specific disability requirements airlines require 48 hours notification before servicing travelers with disabilities travexy takes this hassle away from platform users and travelers with a simple api call travexy also integrates seamlessly with your existing booking process there is no need to change service providers and there are no integration fees either but most importantly we help travelers with accessibility needs enjoy travel just like everyone else improve your services for travelers with accessibility needs and grow your market share travexy accessible travel solutions amazing art we are all familiar with unique van go paintings the world's most daring paintings by Picasso and who would not recognize famous Mona Lisa we enjoy wonderful visual art on digital screens on a daily basis but what about people who cannot see do you ever think about them well we do at feel if we strive to bring art closer to everybody can you imagine to feel colors can you imagine to feel painting with feel if you can this is me ha he is blind all his adult life but he still enjoys colors of nature he likes to take photos with feel if and discover a beauty around him although he is blind he still likes to visit natural attractions enjoys the view from the castle goes to the museum and even to the gallery feel if tablets are using a special grid and a combination of haptic audio and visual feedback that enable the blind user to literally feel digital pictures feel if brings huge value to museums galleries and individual artists it transforms museums and galleries into inclusive institutions feel if gives individual modern artists the opportunity to make their art accessible also to the blind and partially sighted it doesn't matter if you are a photographer or a painter with special app feel bookmaker you can bring your art to another level by adding sound and vibration to the image any visual art can become multi-sensory so the final product is art that comes to life when touched by the user imagine that for more information about feel if go to www.feelif.com hello um hello marina hi nice to meet you nice to meet you too um yes umberto is also uh with us um this is hello good afternoon hello good to see you roksana good to see you too good to see you too amela