 quite a number of areas in which we already have got some guidelines and recommendations from W3C way, including WCAG, Fernando mentioned WCAG. So the question is what is next, which, what is W3C way doing now and what are the plans? I mean, technology is going quick and on one hand, we have certain versions of the standards of the guidelines and so what's going to happen with them and what else are you planning to standardize in the near future? Shadi, the floor is yours. Thank you, Ema, also for your very kind words. Yeah, so yeah, it's great to be here and thank you for this great question. There are many ways to answer that question or many parts of it. Let's see, one thing I'd like to point out is, you know, we focus a lot on the accessibility guidelines explaining how to apply accessibility requirements in products and services, but we need to think about the technologies having the capability to do that in the first place. And that's actually one of the things that takes most of our time at the Web Accessibility Initiative is we spend a lot of effort trying to make sure that Web technologies have built in accessibility features and that's a very important step. So there's a lot of accessibility built right into HTML5. A very simple example is headings and table structures, text alternatives, all this to be built right into the core technologies accessibility features so that later the guidelines can say, let's use these. And you mentioned the keyword, Ema, that these technologies are evolving so rapidly and so quickly and the Web is moving or has long moved away from just being in the browser to being everywhere, being in mobile apps, being on your fridges, in your car, health care, et cetera, et cetera. And so, you know, one of the big aspects is ensuring in these advanced and emerging technologies. So we have a lot of work, for example, making sure that there's accessibility support in Web RTC, which stands for real-time communication. So this is for platforms like we're using teleconferencing platforms, some of them that are already using this native Web language so you can program or have online teleconferencing applications, remote applications for education, for health care, for employment, for whatever, all fully online using Web technologies. Now, this is something that intersects, for example, very strongly with a lot of the ITU standards or other organizations, other standardizations. So what I'm trying to point out is I think in the standardization field, not one organization can address the whole space together. We need to work to make sure, I think Simao pointed it out very nicely, you know, the boundaries going from one to another, moving from your car into, I don't know, a building or something and you still want whatever assistive technology to continue working. So that's from the technological side. I think you're also very interested in the guideline side, what's happening there, which is kind of the tip of the iceberg. So there are two projects in parallel. One is WCAG 2.2, which we hope to publish later this year. One of the things here is with WCAG 2.1, there was a lot of pressure to put that in time for the adoption in Europe to ensure continued harmonization. It was actually a situation where there was a little bit of a danger here of Europe moving somehow differently. So we needed to make sure that we have this, we can ensure this harmonization that Fernando was talking about so strongly to actually make that really a reality. And so we're continuing in things that have not made it fully in. We've continued to do a lot of work on cognitive and learning disabilities, accessibility for people with cognitive learning disabilities. We're about to publish supplemental guidance around these as well. So not just things that couldn't be full requirements, but additional guidance on how to apply the requirements and optimize it for different audiences. And we think this is going to be it for the WCAG 2.1. We've been for a while already looking at WCAG 3.1 and experimenting with this. And just a few weeks ago, I think, yeah, earlier in February, we published the first draft, first public draft, which is a very, very early draft of WCAG 3.1. We welcome input. This is all done in the public. Anybody can provide comments, contribute. It's all on open platforms such as GitHub. So it's fully in the open, fully transparent, also our meeting discussions and everything, because we strongly believe in the multi-stakehold approach in particular involving people with disabilities in the process. We're experimenting with many things, including revisiting the conformance model. We know that requirements need to be testable, but do they have to be binary? Yes or no? Or could it be on a scale? Can there be things like conformance numbers, maybe better estimation of which things are critical, which things are less critical? So there's a number of things being looked at, but at the same time, and this is the last point, I'm aware of the time, I think one of the important things in WCAG 3 as well is it's trying to bring together what we had as separate guidelines on user agents and authoring tools to try to bring them together in one set of guidelines, because the separation, which was there at the beginning of the web, is quickly diminishing when you're using, let's say, a social media platform. You're an author. It's an authoring tool, actually. It's a content measurement system, but at the same time, it's web content. And at the same time, if it's a mobile app, sometimes it's actually a mini browser in itself, because it renders the content for you. So these things are coming together. So the accessibility guidelines 3 really has a very, very broad spectrum. It's a tall order. It's a big piece of work, and I extend here the invitation for people to come help us figure out how this new generation guidelines will look like. Thank you very much, Shadi. Rich answer and a lot of work ahead of us. I pass now the floor to Mr. Robin Christopherson. He's the head of digital inclusion at AbilityNet in the UK. I am sure that all of you that are working in this area of ICT accessibility know AbilityNet and probably also Robin, who was really leading and one of the founders of AbilityNet already back in 98. And he has an extensive experience on the use of technology. He's a user himself being blind. He uses all kinds of assistive technologies and accessibility features in technologies. And for his work, he has been awarded quite a number of recognitions, including the world's most influential people in digital government in the area of ICT. Conscience of time, I will list them all. But just to tell you that we have the pleasure to have a very experienced user and knowledgeable person on this area. So the question I would like to ask you, Robin, is what are the key elements to successful legislation to achieve a digitally inclusive Europe? And do you see a role for a standardisation there in as the session is about standards? So tell us what are those key elements that you see from your experience? Great. Thank you so much for having me on. Really brilliant background from the previous speakers about the importance of what should go into the legislation. So some of the key elements that we've talked about so far are to do with clarity around what is and what isn't covered, what compliance or conformance looks like. And I think it's really good that we're moving away from a kind of a binary approach to compliance to one where there is a recognition of the reality, which is that it's a kind of a moving target. Every organisation is on a journey. I mean, you could argue that with a physical product, you know, they don't change very much until the next iteration. But certainly when it comes to digital, which is the area that we're most concerned with, things move on a daily basis, if not on an hourly basis. So clarity in that area is really, really important and 301, 549 and the work that the WAI are doing are all pushing towards providing that clarity. And we're very excited about WCAG 3 in particular with that kind of recognition of the fact that it's not a yes, no answer in many cases and also the focus on end users. So a recognition of that in the legislation to value the input of your disabled individuals, your stakeholders is really important. But the main thing that I want to focus on is the fact that legislation in your local countries, when it is enshrined into your legislature needs to have teeth. And by that, I mean that enforcement should be a key element of your implementation of the EAA. Here in the UK, for example, it's been a legal requirement to not discriminate against disabled people for 27 years nearly. 1995, the Disability Discrimination Act came into effect. And admittedly, it wasn't until 2003 that a code of practice, like an appendix to that law, was published that specifically mentioned that a blind person should be able to book airline tickets online in an accessible way. So arguably, perhaps not since 2003, as it been a definite legal requirement here in the UK, but certainly it has been since then. And here we are in 2021. And single digit percentages of websites that I as a blind person visit on a daily basis and that are out there are not compliant even to single A. And as we know, the kind of de facto requirement in legislation across the world is WCAG AA, 2.1 AA at the moment, which is at the point at which you don't discriminate anymore. So triple A is like giving them an extra Rolls-Royce experience. Double A means that they have the ability to be able to use the site in full. Single A is almost like you can get in through the front door. We've provided a ramp as well as steps and you can pretty much get around, but there's going to be some significant problems. So that's reflected in my experience as a blind person and all of the stakeholders that AbilityNet interfaces with on a regular basis. The internet is a challenging place. It really is. Just imagine that you went away from here today. And I don't know, one out of seven things that you clicked on on the internet or tapped on on a mobile phone now from now on, only work half of the time or don't work at all. Half the images on any website that you go to don't load, for example. So that's the kind of experience that we would have certainly myself as a blind person. So these are very real challenges. Now, why is it that 20 years later there is still only single digit percentages of compliance? And we definitely acknowledge that compliance to single A or double A won't guarantee accessibility, which is why I mentioned about the focus on end user, the end user experience. And that's absolutely key. You can have a website that's brilliant that, you know, has some areas which aren't single A or double A, you know, as long as the main user experience is the focus, start there and then work on the full compliance further down the line. But still, it's a really, really challenging place. And the reason is because we haven't yet sold everyone on the compelling moral and business cases, which I'll get to a little bit later on on my second question. But when it comes to the legal requirement, because there has been no enforcement here in the UK, there has been no incentive, there's been no teeth to the legislation. And that's been a massive challenge. So the Web Accessibility Directive, thank goodness that came into UK law, it was turned into the public sector bodies accessibility regulations. And because that, crucially, for the first time in UK law, had the element of enforcement, so it named bodies that would look at people's websites, they would monitor them, and they would find those organizations. We've seen a massive uptake in interest amongst public sector bodies. We have been inundated at AbilityNet by local authorities, by universities, many organizations that finally have really started to take action. And there's been a really big improvement in that sector. And that's been absolutely brilliant. So we would like to see that happening across other areas as well. The European Accessibility Act unfortunately missed the Brexit guillotine here in the UK, so it's looking unlikely that that will be enshrined in UK law anytime soon. But that has a similar element where you really do need to name bodies that will be actively and proactively enforcing the legislation, otherwise it doesn't mean anything. So to me, the key element to legislation is enforcement. Here in the UK, I'm sure it's the same in your countries. If you leave your car two milliseconds over the time on the parking meter, then a traffic warden will descend and put a ticket on your car. An army of traffic wardens have been employed here in the UK, and I'm sure elsewhere, to enforce that particular area of legislation or regulation. We have a saying in English, there's only three things that are inevitable in life, that's birth, death, and taxes. And Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the tax collectors here in the UK, are feared for their ability to find out people's affairs and to get the right tax from them. Why can't we do the same thing for websites where you don't have to do lengthy audits of people's accounts, you can just sit at your desk, wiggle your fingers and review people's websites and go to them in a very measured way and say, look, there are issues here, you need to sort them, we'll give you a certain timeframe. I'll just finish off with the Norwegian example. They're doing a brilliant job over there, Diffie, their department that is involved in digital enforcement, have been proactively monitoring and finding for some time now. The SAS, their national airline, was non-compliant and they dragged their feet or wheels for a year and weren't doing anything about it. And so Diffie said, look, that's it, you've had your time. If you don't fix it now, we are going to start finding you 15,000 euros a day. So that's like quarter of a million euros a month equivalent. And they fixed everything within 10 days. So that's the kind of level of enthusiastic embracing of digital inclusion that we would like to see. And I think a key element of that is giving the legislation some teeth. So my point is, when you bring EAA into your local legislation, domestic legislation, please don't forget that component, champion enforcement, and then that will go alongside the other two compelling areas of the ethical and business cases as well. Thank you very much, Robin. Interesting perspective. And I have to say that the Accessibility Act contains some of those teeth that you have identified because the enforcement is multifaceted. You start soft by indicating that economic operators have to declare compliance. Then you have authorities that have to check like your parking meters example. And then you can go to court as a consumer with a legitimate interest and it's possible to put penalties which are effective and decisive in order to make sure that remedial action is really happening. So thanks for raising these points. We have a few minutes left and I would like to have a second round of questions. I would like the speakers to really answer very shortly so that we could address some questions from the audience. So I would like really to ask you to respond in one or two minutes now and I'm going to change slightly the order of the interventions given that Robin highlighted certain issues of the why and the different levels and the implications and surprised us with the 10 days of the Norwegian company to repair the accessibility facts. Often we hear from people okay yes now we have to do to apply WACAG and but it's difficult we don't know where to start. What would you tell them Shari? So that they do the speedy repair of the websites they know where to start and they know how well to finish. Okay and all that in two minutes. I will do my best. So yeah I think first of all what Robin was talking about reminded me I think the commission has done several surveys in the past on accessibility in Europe digital accessibility in Europe the MIAC studies and I think one of them I don't remember which one I think it was the second or third showed actually a correlation between the enforcement so to say and the actual implementation and I think that's really important that's one input one field here to maybe also refer to another country that might be interesting to look at is the Netherlands where there's a little bit of a separation between conformance and compliance. Conformance to a standard which as at quote Greg van der Heiden a big expert in digital accessibility you know is very strong in his opinion on a standard really needs to be like a ruler very objective and there are then contextual situations in which as Robin was saying you know it's a journey and there might be legitimate reasons for why certain things cannot be met at a certain time or something so maybe separating between conformance to a standard compliance with the law I think is a very interesting approach as well to be looked at more carefully because we need this pragmatic approach towards accessibility and being able to support people on a viable journey. Everybody's starting from a different place but at the same time have a common measurable ruler so to come back to your actual question Ema where should the people start I think with awareness as as silly as it sounds but I do really strongly believe accessibility is foremost even though I'm technologist foremost a cultural change a societal change and when that happens the the technical implementations follow but we need the societal change first and so by upskilling your staff by training by awareness by making it a priority and everything else will follow from that. Thank you very much Shari I pass now to Fernando because in the previous intervention so we've talked about the future challenges and what is what is next and we have a question also from the audience that says that it is work in motion and what are the approach to internet of things for example this question ask but I would like to answer to ask you in a wider question in the sense what is next what is the next challenge is for the joint working group on the ICT accessibility and in terms of technology but also in terms of areas of work or a project yeah well first of all sorry yes yes well we have I think that you have four main challenges right now the first one is of that team the close that we have on the accessibility of the environment because we have just published a new european standard of accessibility of the environment also under the impulse of the european commission and of IMA and on Monday we had a workshop on that so first allow that to the state of the art. Second one we have some technical report supporting the EN that we want to review and see what's what's its future and also an online toolkit that gives support to that because the only toolkit would be would be if we work properly a good tool for procurers users developers to check if they are fulfilling so that that's one of the challenges the third one is community accessibility we are more and more being aware that we are leaving these users behind and something needs to be done so there are some members already working on this and I one of my personal expectations that will be working on that seriously and giving a serious answer to those needs and the fourth one is giving support to the european accessibility act so we are aware that we are we are a technical body in europe we need to give an answer to the strat the european commission strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2023 as most specifically to the european accessibility act as it covers many ict products and services computers operating system atms smartphone digital television telephony baggy services services related to passenger transports ebooks so all those the 112 emergency communications so this is why those are many fields where there are user needs already identified by the european commission and we would like to give an answer i don't know if reviewing the standard producing new documents that that's one of the things that we are going to discuss next month what what sort we do with this but this is our main challenge and another thing is that another challenge will be if we got that all the technical committees to working on accessibility will be aware that they have to consider accessibility from scratch when they are developing i mean because there was one question on the internet of things there's no at least i don't know of any european work on internet of things there are works and at iso is level i'm sure that there will be works on it to it level is i'm an architect so my experience is what when you build a building and you haven't considered accessibility and you need to consider it afterwards it's really expensive the services are more bad it's much costly it isn't good it also applies to to the icd products and services if you consider them for scratch and if people who are developing the standards and there's a european mandate on that and there's a european standard on that to help you to consider that if you consider your development standard on i internet of things and you are already considering that you need to to to be make sure that it is accessible that service it will be much better for all of us but that's one of the main that does the freedom main and most important challenge okay thank you very much fernando and i'm happy that you brought up the standard on the built environment because what we see in that standard and the and in the icd standard is that both of them cater for the the relate to each other the standard on the build environment has some provisions on what characteristics technology used in buildings need to have and the one on the technology has some provisions addressing on where to play play is this technology so addressing the build environment component of the use of of of technology and this is something that we are going to see more and more because technology really is permeating all all areas of of of life and i would like now to pass to simao again because yes we have been hearing from w3c from the european level what is on the pipeline with standards they have i would like to to ask you um what are the most silent accessibility standards and the itu has been working on recently thank you imam very briefly since the time is running out just a mention on that question of the iot standards in relation to the smart seats and communities we do have a standard that has been produced that is y dot four two zero four this is a direct response to mr bellow that question but we are overall working joining forces i think the shadi mentioned very well that this is not the work that we can be done alone and we have been working very closely with iso ic jtc one sc 35 that deals with the user interfaces uh on joint processes projects for accessibility of audiovisual media so including uh auto tech suspects uh uh caption subtitle all the descriptions sign language presentation in the context of audiovisual media uh we developed the indoor navigation standard for the for people with visual difficulties particularly blind and we are working on a revision for that standard to make it more relevant also taking to view what you mentioned imam that the physical buildings and and the ict relationship so this is one of those standards that touch how no construction standards must also take care of certain acity aspects to facilitate accessibility we also have a standard on multimedia relay services and accessibility profiles for ip tv terminals that we would hope could be extended to other types of television terminals broadcasting is still very widely used and we are consuming more and more over the top of services like netflix and so on but still the basic devices is the big screen that people are using to consume content so i think there is a lot that can be done there in terms of accessibility and normalizing how or harmonizing how the user can have a consistent interface and experience covita has been a very important aspect we realized that first with the abilities in such kind of emergencies so covita i think was no is what we have in the moment but it is not unique where people have moments where you have local disasters and so on and persons with disability are at a disadvantage so covita has highlighted that how it is so we have different initiatives that are taking look at how technology can be used to help persons with disability to make better use and there is also the awareness side of it that the importance of providing those services one is more example that touches cross sectors that we are working with WHO on accessibility of telehealth services so a lot of people during covita have resorted to consultation and this type of distance services and the persons with disabilities face another hurdle in having access to these services and so we are working with them for certain guidelines for accessible telehealth services we have been updating some technical papers we have on real-time captioning on organizing accessible meetings and on accessible virtual meetings i think these are these are not the precise standards but some some guidelines on how to implement those we are also adopting those in terms of in-house use for ITU so kind of you know doing walking the walk so not just doing the talk and just to wrap up we have an interest in procurement standards of a global level we have not done started work on this and would have been looking forward to working productively and i think EN 301549 is an excellent initiative that has been created at section 508 there has been some coordination with this development of the two but we're looking at the largest populations in the world that you look in asia we don't have initiatives in that direction i think public procurement for accessible access services could do a huge benefit to those populations so i think it is an effort that is worth looking to and pursuing i know that there is also interest in SC 35 in GTC one that we have been working with but no work has started yet specifically there so we'd love to to have a cooperation start in there just before i close let me make two points one address a little bit what robin how robin started just to make a difference that the standards are not the regulations standards are pieces of technical specifications how to do something regulation might come and say use this standard to apply for it so EN 301549 is one of those example as an example of that because you have a legislative act from the directive from the commission that says use it so i think that we have to keep those things distinct and also addresses the question on the on the on the from mr bellow that how to address the different speeds of how products and services evolve very fast and the legislation that evolves very slowly so legislation has to be the framework and not to be too specific so that it can stay stable over time and then allow the standards which has a speed in the middle of evolution of products and services and how legislation evolves to adapt and cover these new areas of work so this is how i see that and just for as a final point make a distinction between compliance and conviction i think the most effective way of having accessibility provided to users is not to buy on the on the you do need the compliance and and and the reinforcement but when businesses are convinced that it is best for their business and for their users that you know providing accessibility to give them an edge it works much better because if you have a compliance it will be on the minimum side they're going to do minimum that they have to in order to minimize costs to provide the service but that's not the point the point is we need to have people that are really buying and then the ones that really excel and provide excellent service to the users are those that are really committed to accessibility they're convinced that this is the way to go so i just want to leave with that message thank you okay thank you very much we have two minutes left and i've been checking the chat we have no more questions and i think your your your the issues that you raise are very important i mean the issue of videoconferencing that by the way as part of electronic communication services it will be affected by the accessibility act it will have to be accessible and it's also important to to say that indeed in the standardization there should be no regulatory language and this is very important because they have to complement the the legislation and i would like to finish by asking each of you one sentence because otherwise the organizers are going to to cut the the session one sentence we have quite a number of telecommunication issues in the accessibility act we have a video conference total conversation real-time text how can each of you work organizations work together and users work together in order to advance on a standardization in this area what would you recommend to to make standards in this in this area please let's start by the users shadi fernando and simao robin first shadi fernando and simao just keep on doing organization events such as this networking i think should not be under emphasized i think it's really important that as long as people talk across europe across boundaries then we can make sure that the people that need to know what what they need to know will know good shadi i agree with robin and like to add to that open standardization and multi stakeholder involvement fernando well i think that we all are focused on on involving over the stakeholders or having constant dialogue with all the other organizations such as w2c such as i did you such as all i think that in this field which is so transversal and so horizontal if we don't dial between the different organizations we are we are losing time thank you simao yes i just reinforced my last point to know we have to work together bring more standards at the global level regional local is important but we should aim at the global as well to increase our awareness to make sure that we have more people convinced that it's important accessibility is essential and important than people convicted for it for not meeting those thank you thank you um we have a question and in fact it partly has been answered uh about procurement let me tell you that in addition to what simao has said and the european legislation the directives on public procurements make mandatory buying accessible also accessible ict and and let me thank the person that put the question search for bringing up the question of the issue of education and training on accessibility um by design and i think we have answered the question and just to finish to thank all the panelists i think we had the privilege to have excellent speakers addressing key points that are very actual and um for the current situation of ict accessibility accessibility in europe and i'm sure that this panel um the discussions in these panels have contributed and to um take one step further in this in this area so thank you very much to all of you and i pass the floor now to uh the organizers thank you bye bye thank you very much thank you so much ima and esteem panelists for these great discussions so we are now we'll move to the hour 15 minutes break uh so before that let me allow uh to introduce we have a two special message from mr manuel men uh donka he is the manager of the hemologation and certification of post and htm terminal units of portugal and also from miss pati marisende she's the member of the regulatory board uh and of the media regulatory body of portugal and so we will play this special video message and we will have a short break and we will be shown at 1115 for uh the next sessions it will discuss about uh response recovery making the future of educations inclusive of persons with disabilities thank you for more than 30 years that in cibs existence the concerns with accessibility is for people with disabilities and also visual impaired it's in cibs adn so and this is reflected on the atm's physical requirements and also on pos physical requirements for instance the heights of the devices have to be measured into a particular distance in order for people in a wheelchair to be able to access all the devices in a comfortable way for people with visual impaired uh disabilities for instance there exist labels with braille inscriptions that makes it easier to identify the devices on the on the atm the customer keyboard for instance has a razor dot that identifies key number five which makes it easier to locate the remaining keys cancel keys continue keys and also the correction keys has also raised the information that makes it easier to recognize these type of keys when a card is inserted for instance the atm uses sensors to detect the correct position of the card make it easier for people with visual impaired disabilities to recognize the correct position of the card when it is inserted the razor dot makes particularly important because it is possible pressing this key to switch the atm into a high contrast mode make it easier for people with visual disabilities to recognize the inscriptions also the audio makes a particular important role because it guides people to perform the operations cbs has major concerns with accessibility so therefore we are always looking for improvements to make the access to these services more easier to everybody thank you so much for the modulator and i believe we also have a second special video message it's from miss Fatima rescindy if you could play it for us technology was fundamentally changed the way we interact with media it creates many new changes and opportunities i'll do freedom of expression independence of regulators information culture diversity and protection of sensitive audience remaining changed it's important to maintain fundamental values and principles of media regulation in the single market ladies later and regulator must integrate mechanisms of participation of citizens with special needs in internal politics a sensible navigation system and other tools must be developed in the digital society as a basic principle of inclusion to assess information culture education and entertainment erc was taken the appropriate measures to guarantee accessibility of programs through portuguese sign language subtitle and audio description the multi-year plan for people with disabilities in force until december of this year contains a set of obligations related to accessibility of television program service by people with special needs it's a progressive plan that impulse our soft programs to the public service and prevent broadcasters the ss2 audiovisual media service must include accessibility of audiovisual content and mechanisms so users with disabilities can use technologies the offer is stable and consolidate and it is opportune for broadcasters to assume increasing responsibility in this matter with more ambitious accessibility goals not only in terms of programming hours but also of a greater diversity of programmatic events in order to promote equality through inclusion thank you my name is sharia was on i'm the accessibility strategy and technology specialist at w3c the world while they're consortium and today i'd like to tell you about web accessibility the web is for many people an essential part of daily life at work at home and on the road web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web equally for example somebody who cannot use their arms and uses a mouse stick to type or someone who cannot hear well and uses captions to watch videos or someone who cannot see well and uses a screen reader to read aloud what's on the screen accessibility has many benefits for example captions benefit anyone in a loud or in a quiet environment and good color contrast works better when there's glare also people with age related impairments such as reduced dexterity benefit in fact everyone has a better user experience with an improved layout and design a lot of accessibility can be built into the underlying code of websites and applications web technologies from w3c such as html provide support for many accessibility features for example features to provide text alternatives for images which are read aloud by screen readers and also used by search engines also headings labels and other code supports accessibility and improves the quality overall good authoring tools such as wikis content management systems and code editors help create accessible code either automatically or with input from the author also web browsers media players and apps need to support accessibility features w3c provides standards to help make the web accessible which are internationally recognized by governments and businesses most well known is the web content accessibility guidelines wcag wcag is also iso standard 4500 and adopted in the european standard called en 301549 it is built around four core principles first perceivable for example so people can see the content or hear it operable for example so people can use the computer by typing or by voice understandable for example so people get clear and simple language and robust so people can use different assistive technologies besides wcag w3c also provides the authoring tool accessibility guidelines atag which defines requirements for content management systems code editors and other software and the user agent accessibility guidelines uaag defines requirements for web browsers and media players there are over one billion people disabilities or around 15 to 20 percent of the population the un convention on the rights of persons with disabilities defines access to information including the web as a human right most countries around the world have ratified this un convention and several have adopted binding policies too yet regardless of any laws and regulations implementing the accessibility standards is essential for people with disabilities and useful for all for more information on web accessibility visit w3.org slash wai ladies and gentlemen now it's 11 15 we will resume our next session it's session five in this session five we will discuss about coffee response and recovery making the future of education inclusive opera sense for disabilities i would like to give the floor to our moderator mr rikardo garcia bahamunde he is the itaew consultant rikardo the floor is yours hi thank you so much roti good morning everyone it's it's really a pleasure to to be here today and i would like to thank itaew for the for giving the opportunity to moderate this really extraordinary panel um so let me introduce myself uh my name is rikardo garcia bahamunde i'm a digital accessibility and disability inclusion consultant i've been in working in this field since 2004 uh working in different assignments and uh like consulting project management training in different countries in different regions in the united states several years in in europe in the middle east latin america and um i'm a certified uh international associations of accessory professionals uh professional in core competencies um and i have a master's degree in um in economics by the university uh comprehensive university here in in madrid spain and uh it's a pleasure to be moderating this session that is titled uh covid response and recovery making the future of education inclusive of persons with disabilities and uh in this in this session i would like to discuss um uh what has the uh this covid-19 pandemic has highlighted in terms of uh inclusion of students with disabilities uh what are the tools that we've seen or or have become so necessary so critical for many students um what's going to happen after after covid when hopefully covid is over if it's over ever um what's going to happen how is it going to change education in in which ways are uh is is is education education going to be different from what we know today and um what are the challenges what are the challenges to to build a more inclusive education for all students not only in europe but in every in every country in every region in the world for all those students that we know face uh challenges uh not only during this pandemic that uh were before right so um this sense uh we have a really amazing uh the panel today um let me introduce and let me welcome them so we have mr manos antoninis the director of global education and monitoring the global education monitoring report uh at unasco welcome manos good morning uh so and representing the european agency for special needs and inclusive education we have uh we have two persons with us today we have miss amanda wattkins morning assistant director good morning amanda and we have uh miss marta presmanes yes project manager also with the with the european agency for special needs and inclusive education good morning marta good morning welcome uh we also have mr john scott he's a product manager with blackboard uh ally um it's a blackboard is a platform that many of us are familiar with so good morning john good morning to you i guess you're in the u.s right now yes i am i am thank you and early good morning from from uh new york exactly and uh i guess so we had uh we also had miss uh stacey scott uh she's a reader services product manager with the royal national institute for the blind and the bookshare but fortunately she's had some technical issues just earlier this morning and unfortunately uh unless she's been able to join us last minute she won't be able to be with us is that correct roti yes that's correct until she's not able to right so that's unfortunate but in any way any way i hope that we're going to be having a great discussion today so let me just jump in into some of the uh some of the questions that uh now the panelists have prepared to bring to the table great questions that are going to highlight uh some of the situation some of the issues that we've seen have become very very evident during this this pandemic um that were probably evident for many of us before but the this covid 19 pandemic has brought to the service to the surface and uh and have made and has made them even more you know glaringly you know current right so i'm going to start by asking mr uh manos antoninis manos please uh so this question for you so the uh 2020 global education monitoring report that you're leading right uh focuses on inclusion in education so how did you approach this this issue right now how did you and how did you um how can assistive technology um uh how how does assistive technology feature in this report how um how do you highlight the role that assistive technologies play you know in in in this in this approach that you had in when preparing the report so if you could go ahead please and brief us on that and i'm gonna i'm gonna ask uh panelists uh we had uh initially we have 25 minutes for this first round of questions so that means that we may have just like seven minutes each of us right so just a bit more time for for each answer so you can please go ahead manos thank you ricardo and good morning to everyone it's a pleasure to be with you and thank you very much for the invitation i think it's important to clarify from the outset as you see also from my title and the the work that we are doing that i'm by no means an expert in issues related to technology but we did touch on the issue in our last report and i would like also to draw the attention of this really great and specialized audience in the report that we're just about to begin for 2023 which will focus on technology in education broadly and that's an area where we'll have to go in more depth than we even did for the inclusion report and how technology helps broaden the opportunities for accessibility and participation in education for people with disabilities so it's my my call is an opening call for those of you who are interested to take notes of our work and contribute to it to help ensure that we go in the necessary depths that we require of course the report global but we take a close interest in europe and i will say that in more detail they speak so just to say a few words that the report is exists in 2002 we are an editorially independent report hosted and published by UNESCO and we have a theme that change every year but the theme of inclusion was clearly selected because obviously inclusion is at the heart of sdg4 it's mentioned explicitly in the formulation of the goal so it was very important to give our contribution of how countries should focus their education policies to achieve that particular objective and we took the perspective of inclusion as a process a process that recognizes every learner's potential and therefore we also recognize that while the rights to inclusive education was first and foremost recognized through the work of people who actively campaign on behalf of people with disabilities at the same time it's a rights that really refers to every learner who is at risk of exclusion from our education systems but when it comes to technology really it's very important to recognize and in our work which actually cover technology under the chapter on schools just as a as a locus of that activity although of course that by no means is right because technology is of course accessible for lifelong learning through all sorts of locations in a test school but that's how we placed it and where you can find that work in our 2020 report and we recognize that technology has considerable but largely in many cases unfulfilled potential to support inclusive education it supports of course the representation of information and the focus on on expressing knowledge and on engaging in learning these are all very important parameters that have really opened opportunities for people with disabilities. Assistive devices help overcome barriers that prevent vulnerable students from fully benefiting from the curriculum and to realize this potential technology needs to be used with appropriate pedagogy so we're looking very much to that dimension it needs to be personalized to accommodate students differing and sometimes also conflicting needs information and communication technology can support creative and cooperative learning environments and promote inclusion of learners with disabilities computers with specialized software can be used to record edit and share ideas help completing assignments on time and improve motivation yet ICTs implication for the needs of students and staff with disabilities are often not considered in advance there is of course general purpose technology such as alternative and augmentative communication apps which can meet to learn the needs and have the advantage of being more readily available cheaper more familiar and less stigmatized as specialized technology can sometimes be people with minimal technical knowledge can fairly easily develop personalized content for language intervention for instance for learners with autism spectrum disorders where this is not possible assistive technology is increasingly available and can make a difference between marginalization and participation not only in school but also as I mentioned before in community life and lifelong learning and precisely the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities stated that a universal design and that as a principle so not exclude assistive devices for particular groups of persons with disabilities where this is needed assistive technology in schools has been found to increase rates of graduation post-secondary education paid employment and earning above the minimum wage it has also been shown in a study in ireland to improve academic orientation enjoyment self-esteem optimism and subjective well-being student and staff attitudes are really important a study of university students with disabilities in the united kingdom found that some use such technology only at home due to concerns over stigma stigma can be reduced by designs that are small attractive and similar to general purpose devices that can help challenge stereotypes now enabling learners to use their own devices with assistive technology already installed is another way to encourage update yet while many students are frequent highly proficient technology users familiar with a wide range of learning strategies others may be unable to commit the time and effort required to use technology successfully so as there are trade-offs between assistive technology and other forms of support both options need to be offered and to be seen as complemented now the availability of assistive technology varies greatly by country and the way that is finance is also important in Estonia schools provide text-to-speech converters screen readers e-learning platforms and online dictionaries and handbooks free of charge in Italy schools are required to provide computers but also a range of other technology devices with assistive technology to students with disabilities but there is no standard setup it is important to define how its school is going to be supported as I mentioned there are various approaches to financing individual and school access to assistive technology some countries provide direct payments to schools and universities to support students with disabilities others make direct payments to students for instance in Slovakia university students can obtain funding for ICT and assistive technology in Estonia in Poland or in the United Kingdom but it's very important to remember that successful introduction and use of ICT and assistive technology requires that these are integrated with appropriate pedagogical approaches used by well-trained teachers unfortunately many teachers lack relevant training and this is a challenge that waits for for us even after COVID to which I will refer perhaps later developing expertise requires assistive technology professional development plans time for teachers to share assistive technology strategies and meetings and time to attend assistive technology training and professional development and teacher attitudes and beliefs can really have a significant impact on successful ICT use so that is another introductory set of issues and questions that we need to consider we have made fantastic progress in technology in the videos earlier in between during the break we're just a reminder of the huge potential that has become available but education systems need to be also prepared to finance and support these technologies to make them available to students and need to prepare teachers to end students training them helping them adjust and use these technologies and also to the extent possible influence their attitudes to make them more widely available I should perhaps also mention that it is often the case of how education systems are organized in terms of making such resources available Portugal of course which hosts this this conference one particular example has established a network of reference schools to educate blind and partially sighted students in regular classes in mainstream schools so the schools provide screen readers uh refreshable bright displays brain embossers scanners electronic calculators pocket magnifiers etc so all this has and many more resources including content management systems are being used but the important thing is that specialist and regular teachers work together without a technology advisor and that's because specialist teachers have had knowledge in using these tools and bring the mainstream classroom teachers together to make that happen excellent thank you thank you manos I mean you I think you've provided a great overview of the importance of of assistive technologies the provision of assistive technologies in in education systems and and obviously there's there's different models of how they're provided and how they are funded that are totally different depending on the country and it's very important the policymakers are aware of these different models to be able to adapt the world that is more effective for their own country we're going to move to Marta now and Marta I would like to I would like to discuss I would like you to to give us an overview of what are the challenges but also not only the the challenges that that's COVID-19 the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about in education or in inclusion of education but also the opportunities I mean we also need to have this this you know positive proactive and optimistic perspective about what what can we do with what we are learning with with COVID so what are the challenges and the opportunities in your in your from your perspective you know that this pandemic has highlighted has has brought to the surface that could help us you know move towards a more inclusive digital society at least in what pertains to education well thank you very much for inviting the European Agency for special needs and inclusive education to the I would like to draw the attention of the participants to answer this question that the crisis is actively follow and analyze the education community and the message that is common to all analysis is that there is now momentum to recover and to design better education systems more of all learners the COVID pandemic has forced the use of digital technologies to provide education and training it has shown the fracture lines of a digital divide very clearly the digital divide is the gap we also can benefit from digital technology and those who cannot in relation to the digital divide I would like to mention a few other difficulties and challenge faced by persons with disabilities and vulnerable learners during the pandemic globally persons with disabilities reported that accessibility to technology was more difficult as a result of lockdown schools and institutions closure Manos has given some examples of these difficulties in countries of Europe in addition to difficult access to technology when a disability is combined with another vulnerability such as difficult socioeconomic situation or geographical isolation the risk of learning loss and dropping out is higher another difficulty was at distance learning programs were available but few were adapted to learners with disabilities when it comes to teaching the challenge is the challenge is that teachers have weak competencies to teach remotely to learners with disabilities concerning the role of parents during lockdown parents were challenged as they played the role of educators who support assistance when the system was unable to provide solutions finally the learners well-being was decreased as a result of isolation and the difficult access to social care services as mentioned earlier the positive aspect is that the education community is aware of these difficulties and addressing them is now at the forefront in the agenda of policy makers in fact inclusion has become a priority for the next years as shown in the recent communications from the council and the European Commission at the European agency for special needs and inclusive education we welcome the last month council resolution on a strategic framework on European cooperation in education and training towards the European education area this communication that was presented during the Portuguese presidency acknowledges that learners from disadvantaged backgrounds are overrepresented among underachievers during the covid-19 pandemic it also highlights the potential of education and training to build resilience and foster sustainable and inclusive growth the council has set out five strategic priorities for the member states for the next 10 years and the first one is improving quality equity inclusion and success for all in education the European Commission digital education action plan from october 2020 outlines the vision for high quality inclusive and accessible digital education in europe the plan recognizes that the pandemic has increased the risk of widened inequality in education and training and to remedy this the digital education action plan proposes fostering the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem where governments education and training institutions the private sector and the public all need to be engaged in this endeavor in order to develop a high-performing digital education ecosystem so in a nutshell the covid-19 crisis has brought awareness in society and a political level that now more than ever efforts to overcome the challenges so digital education becomes accessible to everyone also in time of pandemic crisis thank you thank you so much Marta I think you've raised really interesting questions points here regarding not only how you know the the covid has impacted of course many students from disadvantaged communities and how there's the risk that they become underachievers but what needs to be done i mean things that should have been done before and it seems like the pandemic has you know become the nut that stakeholders in different countries the whole ecosystem as you mentioned but stakeholders in different countries not only policy makers governors but also industry and stakeholders from the education system you know can do things to move forward and to raise you know raise the needle in terms of inclusive education access you mentioned this this new plan on accessible and inclusive digital education this is probably something that should have been started before but if anything if this pandemic can can actually help that happen that would be definitely great so thank you for that we're going to move to john so so um yeah john i'd like to i'd like to ask you um so what would be your in your view the the main challenges that higher education may be facing in in in europe in europe and in other countries actually in other regions right and uh how can we how can we um how are those challenges you know being impacted or being enhanced or even worsened if you want by by the covid 19 and and i'm coming from a background of higher education myself in in the u.s and i'm aware of that and i've seen the same exactly the same issues going on here but from different you know if you want political or legal perspectives so in your view what's what's what are these these main challenges how they are affecting uh higher ed yeah ricardo and as as you mentioned these these really are kind of consistent global challenges the universities and colleges around the world are facing very similar issues and i'm going to really focus on digital content uh digital course content so you know your lecturers who are uploading the pdfs of your readings and other types of lecture materials power points word documents uh this is a particularly challenging area for universities we've been conducting a large-scale data study over the past five years looking at the accessibility of digital content we've analyzed over a billion digital course items from around the world and over the last five years kind of pre covid we've seen a steady increase in year to year the amount of digital content that lecturers are uploading into courses we're you know slowly and steadily becoming a more digital education institutions we're leveraging more digital resources so you expect to see this steady increase in digital content and as the amount of digital content has increased over these five years the accessibility of that content has remained fairly steady it hasn't necessarily gotten worse but it hasn't dramatically improved and when we talk about accessibility barriers with digital files um we're talking about uh image description so as a lecturer i've uploaded an image into my virtual learning environment it doesn't have all texts or a description i mean roughly 80 of the images that we analyze are missing a description so it's going to impact those people with uh who use a screen reader but also who want to be able to leverage text-to-speech tools as manos was talking about the various kinds of technologies people can use to engage with their digital texts as martha mentioned even impacting the digital divide so i heard a really interesting story students during the pandemic who were parked outside of a gas station a petrol station trying to get free wi-fi to connect to their digital course and the wi-fi was was obviously not very strong and the course had these large image files that weren't loading very quickly but the alt text the description was loading for these images and so the students were actually able to engage with their content because it had these image descriptions so when we talk about some of these accessibility barriers we're also talking about impacting much more than just students with with those disabilities uh so again we have a steady increase in the amount of digital content we have a lot of content that has kind of impactful accessibility issues now how have we supported those students in the past well typically our accessibility teams our disability support teams are then charged with remediating this content they're going to uh make it into an accessible format an alternative format and deliver it to that student and hopefully deliver that content in a timely manner so that student doesn't fall behind now that is the key point right is that can it happen in an equitable fashion and we can think about it's not a perfect analogy but our how we have done this is essentially like building a wheelchair ramp every time somebody with a wheelchair tries to enter a building with stairs it's not a very sustainable approach and it's certainly a vulnerable approach and covid exposed that vulnerability because what we saw now in the past year as essentially all learning experiences migrated to digital context is now you have a massive increase in the amount of digital files uploaded into these courses and again this massive increase didn't result in poorer accessibility but it didn't improve accessibility either so now that same team that is charged with building that effectively that wheelchair ramp for every single student is now doing that at two or three x the scale and so this is where we hit really an inflection point with how do we start to move from this position of reactive accessibility to more proactive inclusion to thinking about starting to rearrange this system where we're continuously reacting to the needs of our students and starting to build courses and create digital content with accessibility in mind from the start and so I think that again this digital transformation that has been accelerated by the pandemic has left students with disabilities vulnerable certainly in the US we have seen an increase in lawsuits where lawsuits are king in the US that's what often drives change and so we're seeing that kind of pressure and we're seeing institutions now really hasten the speed at which they are thinking about and trying to address this problem of what we might call reactive accessibility which I'll emphasize will will always be part of the process students with disabilities are entitled to certain kinds of accommodations and there will always be that kind of one-to-one approach that's necessary but can we start to peel off some of this low hanging fruit can we start to build in more accessible environments so the team supporting those students can focus on some of the more challenging issues because digital content is just one part of that learning experience there are other parts that are going to need support as well that's great thanks thanks John and nothing we are totally on the same page on this we're seeing if anything this digital transformation process that we've been talking about for years now and that's COVID has just accelerated and made exponential I would think so you would have a curve of adoption of technology that is kind of like this you know really vertical become a very vertical but the curve of adoption of accessibility remains pretty flat right it's hardly you know it's hardly climbing so the gap is becoming more and more you know it's severe in this case right and you know the nuances and the small details that you've mentioned in terms of providing accommodations but also accessibility from a systemic standpoint or from a systemic approach from a higher education institution or a higher education system needs to be addressed differently can be like piecemeal that is the case in many cases it needs a totally different approach and COVID has unfortunately unfortunately we don't we'll never know probably know in the future has made more more evidence thanks for that John we're going to jump into the second round of of questions so I'm going back to you Manos so I'd like to to to talk about this this report cycle and I know that you published also a regional edition that covered Europe that you already kind of introduced Central and Eastern Europe are there any examples you already pointed out some some examples some case studies in in Baltic countries and also in Portugal but any others that you may point out from from this region from southern central and eastern Europe in this challenging context of COVID yes let me first of all acknowledge that this report was covered not only central and eastern Europe but also the corpus in central Asia is the result of a partnership with amanda steam at the european agency for special needs and inclusive education and also with an association of think tanks that are active in this region the network of education policy centers and we have gone in more depth in in the range of issues one of those which is part of the cycle and it was actually very nice to hear john describing it it was also that we have tried to make our reports more accessible the alt text that I described was the perfect example for me who you know honestly I had never been exposed to that previously we actually started in fact the previous report cycle in 2019 on the issue of migration and displacement the discovery of alt text the idea that we need to describe the content of a graph a graph has been like the the bread and butter of our activities and yet the exposure to the need to communicate that image in words in ways that are transparent direct and cuts to the to the points really has been I have to admit after several years working this field really transformational and it's the best example of how inclusion is good for everyone is not just for people with disabilities and an inclusive mindset is really so important for all our activities and I just want to acknowledge because I think it's it's important to draw on lessons learned for each one of us in our daily lives and not to see things just as specialist activities but let me say a few things about Central and Eastern Europe some more examples of course generally speaking the main issue remains that a lot of these activities that are happening to increase accessibility in education tend to be quite piecemeal and not really equitably shared between all learners one a good example of of an initiative that has been now going through the entire system has been the example of Montenegro where they have been attempts to introduce digital accessible information system format textbooks these textbooks as many of you probably know allow easy recording of written material containing audio and visual information their text can be easily enlarged in their words highlighted while spoken by the narrator of the audio so these texts are accessible through any technological devices with display screen both in the class at home so these days the textbooks are intended for all learners but are especially beneficial for those who have difficulty reading printed texts and producing them has involved adapting printed textbooks in the national language of Montenegro reading books for grades 4 to 9 in history for grades 6 to 9 to the relevant audio and visual format to support learners with visual impairments those with no residual vision and all students with a learning disability such as dyslexia the ministry of education in collaboration with a range of partners initiated the the daisy textbook production in 2014 originally piloted in 25 schools but then expanding it to 70 schools by 2019 about 35 000 students can benefit from the use of these textbooks schools including an estimated 500 with disabilities and the current national inclusive education strategy envisages the rollout nationally so next steps including increasing awareness of this type of textbook and its use and its impact on learning and the bureau for education services in the country has organized accredited teacher training on the use of daisy textbooks another example is slova idea which introduced a policy in 2011 to ensure that all special school orders for textbooks would be met free of charge transcriptions in bright and electronic versions on cd for partially sighted learners were published for literature the textbook phrases in grades five to seven but at the same time we that's also a reminder that special schools tend to be better equipped than mainstream schools and the report draws examples draws attention to examples of limited availability for instance of brain displays and magnifiers in georgia in rome Romania for students with visual impairments there are again brain materials only available in special schools not in mainstream schools in Serbia where there has been an attempt to make such a technology more public more available still there are inequities between you say rural and urban schools so these are important challenges that we should not forget and we should also then say a few things about covid in in theory in principle countries are reports to a large majority that they have been taking steps to improve the the availability of technology and responses that generally to students with disabilities 76 percent of countries in this region said that they had supported learners with disabilities for instance examples include sign language on online learning resources but that often does not give the full picture of how many of these students are reached in Bulgaria one in five students with disabilities reported that they did not receive additional support so that's really very difficult we know that all countries have struggled to have sufficient information on what is going on for all students let alone students with disabilities and there are relatively few examples of responsive assistance in Estonia schools with education technologists were entitled to systematic assistance for teachers students and parents that targeted individual needs however many schools for instance have been unable to fill that position so they were they could not quite live up to their commitments in North Macedonia a dedicated platform was developed to provide online assistance to teachers and parents of students with special education needs but I don't know maybe Amanda will say a few more things about that but generally we found relatively limited examples of support which means COVID needs to really make us much more sensitive to the needs to reach all students especially under the current circumstances that we know very well have put learners with disabilities at particular disadvantage as we know spending time in front of a screen sometimes can also be particularly complicated for certain groups of these students and responsiveness to those characteristics needs to grow thanks thanks so much have you I mean you've raised some very very interesting questions that I'm that I'm quite familiar with for example with the production of a digital accessible digital versions of textbooks now there's different challenges in that right and how do you address copyright for example you know all has to do with with with intellectual copyrights right the Marrakesh treaty operating under the Marrakesh treaty as well so you can share those books you can make copies under a controlled environment who funds this how do you scale this right how do you scale the production in an organized in an orderly way so you can reach all the students that need it right once you've converted one book the n number of students can can actually start using it right but those are questions that need to be addressed from a systemic standpoint so thanks for that and Manos we're moving to to Amanda now and yeah Amanda please I'd like to I'd like you to to to elaborate on the on the role of teachers you right I mean we've talked about several stakeholders but but mainly teachers I mean well how can we prepare all these stakeholders with a focus on on on the education on the educators on the instructors on teachers specifically to build a really inclusive digital society right what would be their role in this whole in this whole approach thank you Ricardo and thank you to the organizers for the opportunity to contribute to the panel and share some thoughts that I'd like to share on behalf of the European agency around this issue that we really think is probably one of the critical messages and the critical levers for moving towards a truly inclusive digital society and that's how we can prepare teachers but link their preparation to training and education of other stakeholders for digital education and inclusive digital skills so the points I'd like to make and share with you are issues that have been highlighted in agency work with our 30 plus member countries these are European Union and wider European countries and Portugal has been really central to our work they were one of our founding member countries back in 1996 and they've been a key energizer and contributor to the agency work since then and the issue of using ICT to support inclusive education has been highlighted as a policy issue a really critical policy issue for our agency member countries since 1999 and this is actually the date of the first activity and projects that the agency engaged in to look at how can I see at that time those were the terms we were using the use to support inclusive education and since then we can see that there have been huge developments in the areas and we've heard some of the speakers outline some clear examples of how ICT and digital tools are now being used more effectively in mainstream education to support learners with disabilities and special educational needs but what we can see is that COVID has highlighted very clearly some of the remaining challenges that need to be addressed and so quite a few of the issues that I'd like to share now have been touched upon by previous speakers but I think they're really deserving of more emphasis our work with our member countries in relation to ICT is very much based on the premise that inclusive and accessible education has outlined in the European Commission's strategy for the rights of people with disabilities which is a work plan for 2021 to 2030 inclusive and accessible education involves using digital ICT tools to help remove barriers to education and enable all learners to access meaningful educational opportunities alongside their peers so really this is a key starting point for thinking about what might be needed but what might have been some of the challenges that COVID has shown where this has not been happening as well as some of the opportunities COVID shown where this has happened quite successfully one of our key arguments is that inclusive and accessible learning opportunities respect learner diversity they encourage acceptance and social inclusion but inclusive learning and accessible learning ultimately benefits all learners it's not just about something to do with learners who could be considered vulnerable to exclusion so I'd really like to reinforce the point that some of the previous speakers have made that when we're talking about inclusive and accessible digital learning opportunities we're not just talking about something which is focused on a few learners we're talking about something which can potentially benefit all learners so our work with member countries shows that really effective use of accessible digital educational tools supports learning in inclusive education and really exemplifies it's a really clear example of good teaching approaches for all learners I don't often use the word good and Manos and I've had various discussions about good examples but really what we can see in our member countries is where teachers are able to use and flexibly use digital education tools to support personalized learning in inclusive settings this benefits all learners and it's a very beneficial approach for all learners as previous speakers have highlighted the move to education either fully online or partially online in blended approaches as a result of the COVID pandemic has really highlighted even more sharply the importance of an effective and inclusive digital infrastructure in education that aims to meet all learners needs but particularly takes those with additional needs into account in different ways and the pandemics clearly shown that currently not all schools learners or their families are able to access the technology or the support for using that technology they need for inclusive digital education the commission back in 2013 the European Commission outlined an aspiration for using digital technology that all learners all individual learners are able to learn anywhere any time through any device with the support of anyone this was the statement and aspiration back in 2013 we could see that before COVID this wasn't a reality for all learners but COVID has really flagged up even more clearly that this is still not the reality and some learners have huge barriers to the idea of learning anywhere any time through any device a critical issue in addressing this barrier is really how teachers can be more effectively supported to be more inclusive and picking up on a point Manos raised how teachers can be supported generally to be inclusive and how all teachers working in all situations can be supported to be inclusive is an issue that all of our countries recognizes of critical importance teachers working more inclusively is one of if not the critical factor for improving quality in education generally and alongside this recognition there's a growing identification of the priority that inclusive education is everybody's responsibility working inclusively is not just an issue for some teachers or some specialists with additional training but it's an issue for all teachers and particularly teachers and teams within mainstream schools but has as already has been mentioned we can see from lots of international surveys such as TALIS that teachers identify inclusive education and ICT digital education skills as the two priority areas where they feel they need more support and professional development so we really feel that teachers have not always been effectively supported so that they're able to use a range of digital education opportunities with all learners but especially with those learners who are vulnerable to exclusion such as learners with disabilities or recognised special educational needs but learners who have other forms of risk of exclusion such as those living in remote areas those who have a migrant background or an ethnic minority background which means that they need additional support to access the curriculum in different ways so the pandemics clearly shown the need for teachers to be supported to use digital tools with all learners and this means that there's a real need for high quality professional learning opportunities to prepare all teachers for the reality of digital education that helps and meet the diversity of lean learners needs either in classrooms or outside of the physical classroom setting as a result the need to interlink skills for digital education with inclusive education pedagogy in initial teacher education and continuing professional development is really crucial and we can see that the professional development of teachers regarding both digital skills and inclusive education remains a challenge for many countries so teachers classrooms school teachers need preparation in these two areas in an interlinked way but some of the trainers the teacher educators who will be supporting them also need support and help to work in these two interconnected areas so to conclude my short input and I'd like to stress on behalf of the agency member countries that ensuring the availability and take up of comprehensive and integrated pathways of inclusive digital teacher education is a clear message from the pandemic if the digital transformations as outlined in the European Commission's digital education plan are going to be implemented and implemented effectively but we've got to stress that inclusive digital education really has to be seen as a cross-sectoral issue teachers don't work and cannot work effectively in isolation from other professionals in the wider digital society ecosystem and so the final point I'd like to stress is that a way forward and an opportunity that COVID has flagged up that could be explored in future are possibilities for shared training opportunities for all stakeholders in digital education this would include parents teachers school leaders but also ICT support personnel and wider web IT and media professionals this really seems to us to be an essential step forward in the near future to support the cross-sectoral and teamwork which is so necessary for inclusive digital education and a really truly inclusive digital ecosystem thanks so much thank you and hand back to you now Riccardo this is a thing you've touched on on key in a key aspect that is the need for that for support providing support to two teachers in this in this challenging situation where they have to migrate to distance learning or digital teaching in this case and digital teaching almost overnight right across the board so so thank you for that finally John turning to you now with some final question so your view which are the would be the essential tools and strategies that universities colleges would need to to address you know both in this present moment of COVID now and in the future that pertain to accessibility we've talked about you know from this systemic approach but in your view just a few ideas and just let me tell you that we've got like four minutes you know to finish off so so I'd like to get you some from you some some quick bullet ideas if possible thank you yes so I think three things and and kind of starting off first again with this idea you know you're talking about you're not starting from scratch here institutions are not going to kind of build back from the ground up and so you're talking about you know right now tens of thousands of PDFs at a large university with accessibility issues you're talking tens of thousands of images that need description so how do you start to make a dent in this mountain of barriers to access and so it really starts it's a data problem when we think about scale and addressing kind of challenges at scale data is really fundamental to being able to solve those challenges as Amanda mentioned thinking about the ecosystem around teachers there's lots that the institution can do once they have an understanding of where accessibility barriers are at the institution and how they can support those lecturers to address those issues a common strategy that i'm seeing now is being able to leverage data and bring that to the librarians the librarians are often the ones working directly with publishers with library databases oftentimes they're receiving inaccessible materials from from those publishers and so and then the instructor is using that in their course so starting to advocate and use the data to advocate for accessible materials across the different parts of the institution really important you can also use that data to start to drive a culture shift and I think that that's really what Amanda was talking about as well is driving a culture shift to where inclusive design is is really a core component of your pedagogy it's how you think about instructional design and I think that you know certainly developing policies around accessibility can help drive instructors to buy in to the value of inclusion but also showing them some of the research a great study out of Switzerland looked at the impact of more accessible content and less accessible content on non-disabled people and among those non-disabled people they had higher information retention and faster speed of caste completion when they engaged with accessible materials so those types of findings start to drive home to instructors the value of why making this commitment can help them achieve their goal which is student success that their students can be more successful and the last point as we wrap up is just that impact on students and and what kind of this digital transformation the opportunities that it allows as far as engaging with digital content being able to transform content into different sensory modalities using different tools it's just going to it really enhance the learning experience for all students and accessibility is a core part of that transformation that's great thanks John thanks for your insights and thanks for being so well great in providing this response so we're running out of time I would just like to leave a question that one of our attendees has suggested from Sergio saying shouldn't digital accessibility inclusion be mandatory in the academic curriculum of specific specialized higher education courses so as we've run out of time I'll leave that for you guys as food for thought okay but I want to thank you all because otherwise Ratiz is going to start pushing me out of the sessions he's going to cut us off right away but I would like to thank you all I would like to thank the attendees as well and if they want to send any questions to any of us please go ahead do so so thank you so much Manos, Amanda, Marta and John and John in particular for being so early available on the other side of the ocean so I want to wish you all a great day and I think Latia I'm going to pass it over to you now so we can introduce some special video messages now thank you so much have a great day have a good one bye bye thank you so much Ricardo and all the panelists this is such a great discussions we have today so we now will move to the lunch break we will have next session at the 13th but before that I would like to introduce our special message video that we get it's from Mr. Joaquista it's from Deputy Minister for Education of Portugal and also from Mr. Fernandez he is the coordinator of ICT Resources Center for the Spatial Education in Amadara and Lisbon so we will play several videos for you along us also with these special messages and we will see you at the 13th for our next session it's about smart and accessible cities thank you the pandemic that assaults the whole world and all citizens and across countries and in Europe as well do our attention to some factors that we already knew there was an accelerator put on inequity on inequalities and they were already there but became more visible because this virus attacked everyone but attacked in most mostly the most vulnerable ones this means that schools social services therapeutic services have to grow have to focus their attention on the younger ones and on those that are more vulnerable this is a message that rehabilitates and is very much based on the social grounds of the of the European model we know how to do it we know how to be together and there is a message that we can give to our schools and convey to our schools one is we will grow faster if we grow together students will have to learn that sometimes we have to go a bit slower so that more people and more students achieve the same goals this is a wake-up call the pandemic is a wake-up call for all these vulnerabilities that we already knew some have some kind of disability based on a on a cognitive or physical impairment some because they are migrants or do not speak the official language of the country and those that live in a very very poor neighborhoods and socioeconomic contexts that are more difficult they will need the conjoint efforts of all of us so this is what europe can provide this is what recovery and resilience is about called it's a very inflecting portraits of a reality that we thought we knew in view of the weaknesses that were discovered in a few days that our schools organized an outstanding response we have to recognize the role of the teachers who had to learn to work with learning platforms with video conferencing systems who sought training with itself training some of them made videos and podcasts and blogs for the very first time they created and shared resources they built learning communities and designed distance learning plans as if they had never done anything else what we achieved at the technological level but also at the pedagogical and even organizational level is unprecedented and can be expanded and exploited to be the tipping points we need for the school it would be great for a teacher to never feel alone in the mission of teaching or for a student to choose between several ways of learning and several ways of showing what you learn that students and teachers could find ways to feel they are parts and owners of the school and of their own growth and of their own learning processes we believe that digital literacy can play a role in responding to these concerns what are we going to do with so much we have learned we think we can do pretty much anything we just need the professionals that's in march and now have learned how to reinvent themselves to create and reinvent a new school hello my name is dr john scott i'm a product manager on the blackboard ally accessibility solution and i've spent the last several years visiting dozens of colleges and universities around the world analyzing over a billion digital content items for accessibility and through this investigation i've learned a few things about challenges institutions face in delivering accessible inclusive digital learning experiences first what we're starting to see is a culture shift around how we think about accessibility accessibility is no longer exclusively associated with people with disabilities we're not just thinking about access for people who use screen readers we're also thinking about the access issues faced by students who rely on a mobile device to access their content or students who are second language learners students with dyslexia and other kinds of processing challenges students who just need more flexible ways to engage with their content we've also learned a lot in neuroscience about how engaging content through different sensory modalities through different forms of engagement can empower learners and improve cognitive processes and we enable that through more accessible content the more accessible the content is the more easily it can be transformed into these different media and so what we start to realize when we prioritize accessibility when we make inclusion part of the core mission of our teaching and learning processes we're not just benefiting those students with disclosed disabilities we're providing more equitable more accessible learning experiences for all of our students and this is going to impact the mission of education specifically as we transform into fully online in digital learning environments accessibility will be a key pillar in that transformation in this video we will introduce the global accessibility reporting initiative or gaari for short the reality is that sooner or later we all will develop at least some limitation in vision hearing dexterity or learning to help overcome this and to help us find a wireless device that best suits our needs the mobile and wireless form created at gaari gaari is an online database of the accessibility features that various wireless devices have built into them so to give you an idea of how it might be useful let's say you have one of the many eye conditions that might cause you to experience blurred vision or even partially blurred vision this can make reading the text on the screen difficult for those conditions you could use some of the speech functions that will have the device read out the text for you almost one in five of the world's population lives with some kind of recognized disability likewise if your eyesight is getting worse and you find that the text on the screen too small you can use various functions increase the size of the font if your eyesight is extremely poor or if you are blind then you can have the device speak out all of the content on the device there are also many features for those with various hearing impairments and if you're experiencing movement challenges in fact many of the features that we use each day we don't even think of as accessibility features a voice assistant is extremely useful in the large number of scenarios but for those who have vision impairment it can make a huge difference there are a lot of these features built into devices today and gaari helps you to identify which device has which features it also lets you look for apps that might extend the usefulness of your device even further and gaari is not just dealing with phones it includes tablets and wearables smart TVs it doesn't cost anything to use gaari it's also available in a range of languages and covers products available around the world so why not visit the gaari website www.gaari.info and have a look for yourself it is full of amazing art we are all familiar with unique van Gogh 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 add 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 comers of nature he likes to take photos with feel if and discover a beauty around him although he's 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 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 nations 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 in physical spaces such as buildings public roads transportation schools housing hospitals or medical facilities workplaces cultural centers recreation and sports among others promote access to information and communication services including those needed in situations of emergency promote accessing use for persons with disabilities to new information and communication technologies and systems including the internet buildings 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 access to an inclusive education changes lives by providing an educational experience that is both equal and effective we create opportunities to take part in society and ultimately grow as people not providing the chance to learn alongside others in their local communities particularly in the early years of school life can have a profound and lifelong effect at the european agency for special needs and inclusive education we work with over 30 member countries throughout europe to provide meaningful and high quality educational opportunities that make sure every learner feels included in their local school alongside their friends and peers from early childhood education through to teacher education and financing we provide information and guidance in all areas of inclusive education by identifying needs and raising the achievements of all learners we can recognize and build on their knowledge and talents to effectively meet their individual learning requirements to make our shared vision a reality each country must commit to including every learner no matter what their needs an inclusive education system is the shared responsibility of all educators leaders and decision makers and so legislation and policy must clearly reflect this vision the impact of an inclusive educational experience has far reaching and positive benefits for everyone so the earlier this begins the better working together throughout europe we know we can achieve high quality equitable educational opportunities for everyone all individuals with impaired speech to express themselves and communicate using their own voices by allowing all individuals to speak with their own voice voice it fosters independence empowerment and social inclusion we're building more than just an app we're building a way to communicate connect and be more independent we've created a simple easy to use accessible mobile application designed to support individuals with disarthuric speech caused by conditions like cerebral palsy stroke al s parkinson's down syndrome traumatic brain injury and other situations affecting speech it doesn't matter if you're ordering a coffee or simply saying i love you voice it will ensure you are understood you want to be a firefighter when i grow up my mom says it's too dangerous but i think it's only dangerous if there is a fire i was born 12 weeks before my expected birth date is 1.9 pounds heavier light i want to speak but the words remain inside me people just don't understand me my name is ray and five years old and tomorrow i will start speaking 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 passport 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 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 hi my name is Melanie for me cool was how the learning materials were too complicated and the teachers were far too fast when I was 14 people thought I would never learn and be 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 Melanie's 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 texts capito digital is an online tool that assists you with writing easy to understand texts it is based on artificial intelligence with capito digital you can check 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 learning difficulties to live self determined lives there are some quotes from users of caravine 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 freedom time from worrying about how something was written to concentrating on the content that I have written he worked mine independently 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 couldn't burst it really reduces stress and removes barriers to learning and 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 and you 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 but since lots of time and increases your confidence to peter gustin it has changed his life he says there'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 being made possible by this software thanks caro read so many people who've really benefited from caro read software we developed a tool that helps people what makes it easier for people to serve for people with disabilities to serve in the internet caro has a cognitive disability and wants independent access to the web for his daily life and happiness unfortunately he often encounters problems while surfing content might be too difficult for him to understand information he is interested in can be difficult to find and navigation features like menus may be confusing therefore caro uses the easy reading framework which supports him in three ways tools like this ruler make text easier to read difficult content is explained with symbols videos or text layout and structure are modified to be easier while content is translated into simpler formats easy reading is a cloud based software tool that enables people with cognitive disabilities to better read understand and use web pages it is able to adapt itself to caro's personal needs and preferences all of easy readings transformations are directly shown in the web page itself so caro can independently surf the web and so join others online for me means easy to read the sentences should be short and the font size be a little bit bigger not too small no difficult words no pictures in the text that is important for me easy reading is an easily installed browser extension or mobile app be sure to check out the website for the latest updates w w w easy reading 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 ote i am CEO 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 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 travixi it instantly turns travel agencies and platforms into disability travel experts travixi built the first api for seniors and disabled travelers enabling travel platforms to make bookings for them a breeze travixi 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 travixi takes this hassle away from platform users and travelers with a simple api call travixi 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 travixi accessible travel solutions itu and european commission are committed to making europe more accessible through icts for people with disabilities and specific needs information and communication technologies are fundamental enableness to living independent lives and having an active role in society from the 23rd to the 25th of march 2021 policymakers experts civil society associations