Arab Digital Inclusion Platform: Future perspectives

COVID-19 made new digital platforms necessary to ensure the continued access to education, health services, government services and the economy. This raised the need for e-accessibility, to ensure that all people have the access necessary to continue their daily lives. In the Arab region, people with disabilities, are still the most vulnerable with limited access, therefore it is imperative that electronic accessibility are developed and implemented. This will ensure greater economic participation, providing an equal footing with others economically and socially. Although Arab countries have made overtures to support people with disabilities, progress has been slow. Therefore, it has been important to encourage the building of policies and tools to turn the voiced support into actions. 

For ESCWA, e-accessibility is an important area to continue development in. The private sector is also focused on providing platforms that grants access for the elderly and people with disabilities.

The survey had a 33 per cent response rate with 57 completed surveys received. In general, the efforts put into ADIP and the digital platform was commended indicating that there is a need for projects and initiatives to advance e-accessibility in the Arab region. Issues highlighted by participants included:

• Difficulties experienced in using the technical toolkit taking into consideration national conditions, especially if there is no national policy guiding technical requirements.
• More resources needs to be included in the platform, as some, especially national resources are not available.
• Training is needed on technical guidelines, but also on the implementation of strategy or policy.

The future activities focused on the proposed 2022-2024 action plan focused on moving forward, advancing e-accessibility in the Arab region and helping countries meet their commitments. Under the plan the templates and tools will be updated in consultation with stakeholders and experts, a study will be published on the status of e-accessibility in the Arab region, while advisories will be conducted to help countries develop national policies and localised technical guidelines. Participants asked for more opportunities to share experiences, especially with the tools and initiatives created, to aid the further.

The technical cooperation programme provided by ESCWA was explained, informing participants that advisory services, consultations and events can be delivered at national level, based on requests received from the country. In the area of technology ESCWA focuses the programme on digital government, empowering Arab countries to use artificial intelligence and the digital economy and information society. A walk-through of the request process was given along with an explanation of the steps if the request is a policy advisory service.