Brief Background
Inclusive ICT access is crucial to upholding the fundamental right to communicate in today's interconnected world. It facilitates universal discourse irrespective of gender, age, ability, or location.
Web accessibility, a specific subset of ICT accessibility, focuses on enabling users with varying capabilities, including those who rely on assistive technologies and different operating systems, to reach, and navigate websites. Ensuring web accessibility complies with legal obligations and creates a more inclusive and equitable digital society.
Conversely, digital non-accessibility perpetuates reinforces negative stereotypes equating disability with incapacity and can hinder social inclusion, employment opportunities, and employee effectiveness. As such, organizations must prioritize accessible technologies.
Results
Our project focused on evaluating the digital accessibility of the UN system in Indonesia and compiling a set of recommendations for long-term ICT improvement. It resulted in an ICT accessibility baseline assessment of UN Indonesia, which in turn generated an action plan, as well as various all-staff training programs.
Lessons Learned
Our assessment revealed several key findings:
- While some UN Indonesia agencies, notably UNICEF, ILO, and IOM, demonstrated commendable ICT accessibility practices, challenges persist.
- Few agencies showed familiarity with international accessibility standards, like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
- Digital accessibility was rarely mentioned within internal UN agency communications, indicating a need for increased attention.
- Limited budget allocation for ICT accessibility hindered its implementation in some agencies.
- Consistently using sign language and captions in meetings and events was identified as a priority.
- Some agencies lacked the necessary technology to create accessible content or publications.
- Insights from staff highlighted varying levels of confidence and competence in interacting with persons with disabilities, underscoring the need for training and awareness programs.
Recommendations
To address these findings, we suggest that short, medium, and long-term recommendations be drawn up. These would include measures such as providing mandatory accessibility training, revamping UN platforms to comply with WCAG standards, establishing an empathy lab, and creating a network program for accessibility champions within UN agencies. Additionally, we suggest allocating budgets for ICT accessibility and enhancing knowledge sharing across agencies.
Some OMT members considered disability inclusion as ‘addition’ when it was presented to the group outside of bigger planning phases. To ensure it is a priority issue for the UNCT, RCO made presentations during the OMT Retreat 2023 clarifying relevant Disability Inclusion related indicators and recommended common services for BOS and OMT work planning.