Good morning, everyone. I am Dr. I am Dr. Mohammed should be the coordinator of its dynamic Coalition on accessibility and disability, and I welcome you in the session building various three emerging tech through open solutions, jointly organized by the dynamic Coalition on accessibility and disability and the dynamic Coalition on open educational resources. I am thankful to the Internet Governance Forum for the opportunity, and also to the team who have worked with me to organize this session. Just a house, a couple of housekeeping rules. There aren't many. First we have amongst us some speakers. We will talk about different issues. Each speaker would have about 810, to 12 minutes for their early or initial intervention. Then we would come to the hall and online for the participants. If there are any questions, people can address the question to a specific speaker or make general interventions as well. And then we would have the wrap up by the by the moderators, and we would have rabbi, and in the end, there will be a vote of thanks. So to start with, I would invite our first speaker, Dr Fauci, Assistant Director General, communication and information sector UNESCO. Dr janasi will speak about overview of UNESCO's vision for digital accessibility and open content. Dr janasi Over to you.
I know. Good morning to all of you. Thank you for coming to this session. And let me also thank our moderator, Dr Shabir, but also Dr Harold Stein of the dynamic Coalition on accessibility and disability for CO organizing this important session in the context of IGF 2024 I'm very pleased with the topic that was selected, building barrier free emerging technologies through open solutions. Clearly, this is a very timely topic, especially in the context of IDEA, the multi stakeholder approach that characterizes this global forum, but also in the I think it's a timely topic in today's digital environment. I'm sure that the session will explore open solutions and demologies, in particular, how various and foster inclusive digital spaces. We all know that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and generative AI are drastically impacting the way we approach education. When we pair open education resources with these technologies, the impact can only be transformative. What sense, what type of learning value can we deliver to pupils and to students? And here, I can say something from my more than three decades big university professor and dean and then Minister of Higher Education, I think the new technologies of today with Open Educational Resources, give us the opportunity, maybe unique opportunity, to deliver personalized learning value so learners can adapt to the content, to their pace, to their style, sometimes even choosing their preferred language to get access to knowledge. The second element beyond Personalized learning is enhancing accessibility. You can hear, I think, as an example of visually impaired students. How can they navigate textbooks? I can help translate text speech and facilitate graphics. This is very important in terms of accessibility, especially for persons with disabilities. The third, I think, major transformative dimension, is how to expand localization, and when we talk about today's world, of course, it's borderless, it's global. But also I think technology can help us have relevant, value added content that is culturally relevant, and this is very important nowadays. However, these technologies, especially when I say artificial intelligence tomorrow quantum computing, they have to be used in a responsible and ethical manner. And I want here to mention the landmark recommendation when you Let's go back in 2021 on the on the ethics of artificial intelligence recommendation being currently implemented by more than 60 countries worldwide. So the ethical use of AI is a major challenge for everybody. We need to combat existing biases and very take the gender related biases. You know that in some of these Gen AI large language models, there are many biases that depict women in domestic roles, and there is an association of women with family, with children with household, while men is related to men are more linked to business career thing. So obviously, what we have seen from our studies at UNESCO is that large language models in generative AI not only replicate online the gender biases that exist offline, but they even amplified them. So I was a very dangerous second dimension, besides the gender bias, is the digital we were reminded two days ago at the opening of this 4.6 billion people worldwide activity, and therefore they don't benefit from any digital literacy. This is obviously a major challenge as well. The third is representation in AI systems. 40% of course, population lacks access to education in their native language, and therefore they are being excluded. This is something very important, and we need to tackle it as well. So these are challenges, but of course, we have to take stock of some accomplishments, whether it is in terms of enhanced accessibility, whether it terms of access to open educational resources, which are universally available through digital platforms. And here, I want to mention a major outcome of the UNESCO Third World Congress on open educational resources that took place last month in Dubai, and the Dubai declaration. which was endorsed at the end of this major event. Very much goals for a commitment to advance and include education, through open solutions and.
Mentioned here also the UNESCO revised guidelines with disabilities in online and distance learning. These revised guidelines offer comprehensive roadmap to create open educational resources and digital platforms that can serve diverse needs of learners. Let me try to conclude here by saying that this session this morning, forgot of ideas, hopefully it is a springboard for change each all in this context, us as educators, we can for open educational resources that are tailored to local needs. Policy makers can ensure internet connectivity, bridging the digital divide, especially in the areas. And thirdly, developers can design technologies from the outset, that's alright. Joseph sticklitz, who said, information is a public good, and that's a public good, information needs to receive public support. I think the same is true for openness and accessibility, and we this requires, obviously, a collective commitment by all. Let me assure you that UNESCO is unwavering in its mission to ensure that no one is left behind in the digital age. We should together seize this moment, not just to envision change, but hopefully to make it happen. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr for this welcome these welcoming remarks, as well as the enlightening vision of UNESCO and how UNESCO is contributing in making digital environments accessible to open resources. Our next speaker vivid best was supposed to be online, but unfortunately, we received a message from her this morning that she fell in so she cannot contribute, so we wish her best and good recovery. Next, I will be speaking about challenges and solutions into addressing accessibility barriers in emerging technologies. And this is a topic when, as I myself, person with disability, encounter and interact with emerging technologies. There are number of challenges that come in the way, and it is really unfortunate that technologies that are coming up in these days, they carry a huge potential to facilitate persons with disabilities, but due to certain barriers in the development, in the planning or execution of those solutions, those emerging technological solutions, that when they come to people with disabilities, they encounter certain barriers. And before I move forward, I would like to give a personal example. Some years back, I happen to encounter a wonderful VR solution headset with with some specific solutions, but when I tried to use that it was we found that it was only applicable or activate table through vision or touch, and it did not had Any voice over features. I'm not sure if the latest VR or AR systems, they do come with these kind of assistive technologies or solutions, but it was about two or three years back. I believe it wasn't in the end of 2021 so we may have those solutions. But unfortunately, some sort of developers, when they saw start developing solutions, they either forget, either are or are unaware of, or sometimes they feel it convenient to disregard the accessibility considerations. There comes the role of sessions like this. And this session is a remembrance that disability as UN CRPD, United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, says that disability occurs when impairments in persons interact with the societal barriers. And this way, I would say disability is not specific to me or any specific group. It is transgender, trans geographic boundaries, trans race, trans religion and trust, the boundaries of developed and developing world. So any accident, any natural or man made disaster, or any illness, or just by passing of time as we age, this disability can catch us. So to whether you are policy maker, whether you are developer, or in between the chain where the decisions are being made, you need to ensure that the technologies that are being developed are developed inclusively and inclusively, following the design of universal access, or universal design, so that when, if today, we need it tomorrow, it may happen, though We won't wish it on anyone, but it may happen that you may need it, and you may find that technology was inaccessible, and the time has passed to take the decisions. There are AI technologies in the system, in the system where we are increasingly using those technologies, but persons with disabilities are found neglected in the development of those technologies, chat, GPT and other LMS systems, they certainly provide certain accessibility issues. I would not talk about their biases against disabilities. That's another topic and not the subject of this session, but we need to consider how they interact with people with different kind of disabilities. There. There aren't any sign language interpretation, for instance, coming with these kind of solutions or or platforms. Similarly, when different banks and different financial institutions, they start they develop their applications. They develop in a way that to make them secure. They make the websites and the apps in accessible for people with disabilities. Same is the case with the learning management systems LMS. I have encountered number of LMS in Pakistan that are provided through international providers and the local providers as well that well the students and teachers with disabilities when they interact with both kind of technologies and LMS, we found that those technologies were developed without considerations of people with disabilities in mind. So what is the solution? Then the question comes to mind, what is the solution? The solution is definitely number one. The developers needs to be aware of the standards that are internationally available to make the solutions and platforms accessible for people with disabilities, such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the stable version is 2.1 and more. As we move along and more and more technologies are coming out, these standards are also being evolved. So the developers need to know this. The policy makers need to consider the policies that the development phase, the research phase and the execution phase. All phases include persons with lived experience of disabilities and testing them that these developments and technologies are being developed accessible and inclusive for everyone. I will stop here and give the cue to the next speaker who is online again, and we will keep discussing this and more topics related to accessibility, but my next speaker is amila auto basic director of broadcasting, Bosnia. And amila shall be speaking about regulatory frameworks and policies for accessible digital technologies. Amina, the floor is yours. Thank you very much
to all of you. I would have preferred to be out with you, but unfortunately, I would not say
that. So let me first say the time that Lydia Beth did not join us because she's such an expert in his field. But however, Dr Shapiro made an excellent introduction into into, into the topic. Let's say that I am not, not going to call me from the from the perspective of the regulatory policy, but I'm also
coravid for the question. I accessibility, the
purpose of disabilities that have been discussed within the national telecommunication period, and I have been involved in the topic over the last 2000 criteria. People quite a long time. So I will definitely touch support and tell you on what are the biggest challenges make efficiency or lack of efficiency in the creating legal and regulatory frameworks available. So if you allow me refer to some of the global practices and convey what are the difficulties that members of the National Telecommunications Union are facing in Union are facing. So, as was previously pointed out, there is no result in our contemporary era as the digital revolution continues to gain momentum to global impact on information and communication technologies in technologies in our deniable across all sectors. And it's something that within the question that I mentioned at the International collectification Union, we always read that the topic on IT accessibility cannot be singled out. It cannot look at this topic as dialog. It should take like look at it within a holistic approach. So Dr Shapiro already touched that person with disabilities are facing. And then wherever, whichever country you look at, so at the same time, quite interesting to see where, for example, during our meeting we did at the ICU, we have in the same representative disabilities as well as the representatives of the policy makers, ministries, regulators, policies, other governmental topics. We also have industry. We also have civil society. We also have academia. Also have academia, etc, and it's really not easy for us. While coming from the from the, from the policymakers area, the government area, really, to face all the challenges are facing. Again, as I said, they are there. Many are challenges persons with disabilities are facing is especially even time 10 years ago that the barriers were even more solid and bigger. And that has considerably changed within this period. Persons, even persons with disabilities, they became the association, but they became more
organized more for example,
in both countries, in particular, we encourage associations of persons with disabilities to be a little bit more love
in advocating for their for their
goals and government and really demanding that their needs have been made and The and I would just say that during one meeting, we always quite like to refer to this topic, that persons with disabilities have their specific needs. And I will always remember that one of the negative or one of the associations of persons with disabilities, well, look, our needs are the same as yours as yours, okay for us in
the category of so we do not
have specific needs. Our needs are the same access to communication, etc, and this will be
all music that we are really asking for. So the first person that I said is they are in the government, not only persons with disabilities, but even the government, should be open to have a dialog, to
listen to these comments that they have and try to do their best. However, we always think that governments are very close body the police authorities that are not allowing access to external parties. We as the regulatory
authority, regulatory authority of I personally rightly go to knowledge group of international
communication union, another lady and many, many other actors. Adamant that the government, but we as a regulatory authority, and that the policy maker should, should listen to disability. So the most important thing is not only to have that dialog, but the most
important thing is really to implement are really to implement, implement the condition in order to make services accessible, available and affordable. So my personal
view is desired.
So my personal view is the biography system as an implementation of guidelines of the tender of good practices. And there are plenty of them, and they're all along
fine. There is a report that are available on the ITU website. Of
development section. So there are many, there are so many different things that can be replicated, that can be adjusted to our environment. So there is the government policy maker, excuse me, but what excuse me, but what are the government usually
going to say? For
instance, now we are talking about the government is going to say, well, sorry, because we particularly Europe, there is a body, there is a European Union, okay, countries, members, both in history, COVID now and other fixed countries altogether are legal. We are not members of the European Union. However, at the level of the European Union, there is a very distinct legislation that is being developed and implemented in the countries of the European Union. So in the countries that are not members of European Union, the government will always find they will say, Well, look, we are not members, so therefore we cannot implement because it's not obligatory, in the sense that, let's say, European Union is going to follow and monitor our work. And this is basically the role of the regulator, sorry, regulatory authority. That is crucial, because regulatory authority, although the government links to the government, but we are experts. Okay, our job is we follow what is happening internationally, to see what kind of objective is, to talk to all the interesting parties in this case, and to try to do our best, do the development of the regulatory framework, okay, to implement the COVID obligation. Okay? I mentioned the in the light of the artificial intelligence at the level of the European Union, there is the law on artificial intelligence has been adopted and put in force as of May this year. So inevitably, we as the regulator, we can follow what are the provisions that are referring to digital inclusive altogether, because we are also, as you said, in this global digital revolution, we are moving away figuring out for The IEC disability, but putting it in the context of digital instruction, because that's the only way you know that we somehow respond adequately to this cross cutting topic. Okay, so for example, in our country and in many others, like in many other countries in Europe. So what we can do for now. We can follow the development we can follow the practices and D if there are any provisions that we can already put in our in our in our regulatory framework, okay, inevitably for that, the regulatory authorities should have legal mandate to do that. Okay? However, in most of the countries, we do not have legal mandate, because even artificial intelligence, I mean, in such a brand new topic for the regulatory authorities to deal with. However, what the regulators could do, they could follow the topic, they could see for political practices, and then and then they could have developed some recommendations or guidelines for the for the for our licenses, wherever relevant, and try to sort of like impose them
as a non obligatory measure, somehow, which can be a risk, but in that way, both regulators, they educate, they raise awareness, okay, they share knowledge, and then At the same time, they encourage, let's
say, licensing. I public. However, at the same time, the regulatory authorities establish a dialog with policy makers, okay, and then they could advocate that certain provisions should be put or the government should be to create a law that the certain provisions should be put in law and encourage the government that is the process of public consultation and other parties are involved in process that their comments are very clear and make sure that they're implemented in the best way. So this is good process, okay, however it may look, it may look as a very complicated process, okay, but still, it is possible to do a very specific have a very specific result in practice. Okay, I tell you when I first get before with this topic, when I came back, I will give to me,
if you, if you allow them, okay?
And a few years later, we met to have the pool, for
example, we tried to identify what you need to wrap up, please. Okay,
so I will come from silicon. So let me just wrap up and say that, yes, the topic is very challenging for the for the government. However,
I believe that all stakeholders, as Dr shave already pointed out. Okay, as long as
the efforts are extremely important, we should look at it as a cross cutting topic, and we should really advocate for the policy makers. I'll stop here. If there are any questions based On I will be available. Do
I Yes, hello, again, okay, thank you very much, amila, for your great intervention. Surely, our audience and I do have some questions to ask you, but the unfortunate responsibility as a moderator includes to cutting across speakers when they are exceeding their time limit. Our next speaker is from Qatar, Mohammed, Doctor Mohammed Kribi. He is the digital accessibility services acting manager and ADA of Arab states, and he will be talking about innovations in accessibility services in the Arab states region. Dr Mohammed, the floor is yours.
Thanks so much.
Good morning. Hello everyone. It's a pleasure to be here at the IGF forum 2024 you know, 20 years I first participate the wises summit in Jonas, back in 2005 you know, I participate in the summit, representing, at that time my University, Virtual University of of Tunisia. Today, I'm honored and pleased to represent and privilege to represent the organization to which I belong, mada Calcutta, Assistive Technology Center, where I work as acting director of the digital accessibility services. But, you know, I'd like to like define myself informally, just saying that I'm passionate advocate for open and inclusive digital education for all. Initially, I prepared the presentation to shed lights on meta contributions to bridging the digital accessibility gaps. But, you know, the setting does it, but it doesn't, you know, fit to the setting to our panel yesterday. So I'm gonna just talk rapidly about my organization and shed light on, shed light on, you know, some of the meta flagship projects in terms of digital accessibility, with the ultimate goal to empower people with disabilities accessing technology in order to live independently and participate in all aspects of life. But let me first get back to what has been said by Dr Mohammed, actually, when he explained it and he focused on how we need to address disability and how to focus on the accessibility barriers that prevent people with disabilities to access technology. So you know, disability is often misunderstood, or, let me say, it's normally defined from the medical or the charity or the special needs perspectives. In my view, I think we need to focus more on the interactions between person with disabilities and the social barriers preventing them to, you know, avail all digital services and opportunities, and our work is to enhance access for them. Is to, I will not say, remove these barriers, but at least reduce these barriers. So that's we are. This is what we are doing in our organization at Qatar assisted technology. We are trying to enhance ICT accessibility in Qatar and beyond. Let me rapidly say a few words about about meta. So meta, it's non profit organization under the at that time, under the Ministry of communication, information technology. Now we shifted like two years ago with the Ministry of Social Development and Family, as I've purposely said we are focusing on enhancing ICT accessibility for person with disabilities in Qatar and beyond, and we are working closely with all the stakeholders involved in the field of digital accessibility in order to innovate and to, you know, create and develop and offer innovative digital solutions for all we are offering, in meta, a wide range of digital accessibility services as well as programs and activities. We have contacting a research agenda dealing with ICT accessibility and assistive technology. We have leveraging emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, AR VR in order to develop, you know, digital solutions for people with disabilities, let me talk a little bit about the digital accessibility services that we are offering. Basically, the services are around three pillars. The first pillar is the ICT accessibility services. So we are partnering with local entities, whether governmental or from the private private sector, to enhance the accessibility of their existing digital platforms. You know, websites, web based applications, kiosks and ATMs, mobile application, etc. So we are offering like consultation sessions with you know, these users, in order to let them make their digital platforms accessible. We are, you know, preparing, like auditing reports in order to check these websites and make them and help them to make these websites accessible. We are offering, also accreditation services to these you know users, so that we can make sure that their solutions are fully accessible for persons with disabilities. We are offering also assistive technology services. We have assistive technology assistance that taking step technology assessment of person with disabilities in order spot in order to identify which assistive technology solutions or devices that fit better their specific needs. And based on the assessment, we ensure the provision of assistive technology devices and solution for personal disabilities, based on our internal policy of 80 provision and also based on key priorities, like the areas, you know, key strategic sectors that we are focusing focusing On, for example, education sector, the employment sector and the community sector, offering also one on one training session for person with disabilities to help them use the assistive technology that We've provided them with. We also offer like continuous support for them in order to make sure that the assistive technology, devices and solution keep to their to their needs and but not least, we are offering also drainage and capacity services, not only for personal disabilities, but for all the stakeholders in order to foster city accessibility ecosystem. So we are delivering sessions for like teachers from the education sector, from the Ministry of Education, from universities, also for a web developer in order to make sure that they are developing a designing digital solution that are fully accessible and aligned with with the tip sometimes of Accessibility, our training services are delivered like in different training modalities. We have face to face training workshops, we have online chats, and we also contact like blended learning experiences. So our meta Academy initiative based on, you know, like you said, Dr Mohammed, learning management system that we tailored in order to, you know, cater to the needs of everyone, including person with the second part, I'd like to shed light a little bit on the academy project is that pillars, the first pillar is dealing with city framework. The second is the ICT at OER Open Education Russia and the delivery of accessible, open and accessible training materials. So first of all, I would like to take this opportunity, opportunity to record based on studies that we've been involved in. The key findings of this study, that is, there is a lack in terms of ICT accessibility. Also, there is a lack in terms of accessible open educational resources. And there is like no existing common competency framework that covers all the required competencies around the topics of ICT, accessibility and input design. My mic is not working. Okay? There is an interruption, right? Okay, but let me, let me first maybe recall the main motives that drive us. You know, working on this, on this, let me say proposals. You know, the data, the digital accessibility, variety valuation index. It's a benchmarking tool developed by gt ICT organization, global, you know, initiative or inclusive. ICT organization that aims at tracing the progress of countries in terms of offering accessible, digital, accessible services in the data index, the edition 2020, Cata has been ranked first with the score of it, 89 out of 100 however, there are many domains in the data index that needs more, you know, endeavor and more work in order to enhance access for people with disabilities to these different sectors like the ICT in Education, for all sector. And the key findings of the devendex report is that there is a lack of ICT accessibility competencies and expertise all over the world. There is also a lack in ICT accessibility courses. This means that, this means that students, basically, you know, in the field, in the major in the discipline of computer science, or it, continue to graduate with it without having any competencies or skills in the field of digital accessibility. Also employees that want to build their capacity in the field of digital accessibility, visibility and inclusion, they cannot find like professional training or education services and to learn more about these topics. Okay, and the most important thing is that the college, colleges of education, don't include in their curriculum topics around digital inclusive, digital education or digital accessibility to let them be able to create and develop accessible digital content. So based on this, you know, key findings, we proposed the ICT health competency framework, which is a comprehensive competency framework covering, you know, all the required competencies in the field of ICT accessibility. So there have six competency domain in this competency framework dealing with how to create accessible digital content, how to create accessible web content, how to become familiar with disability, accessibility and other competencies. So 21 to the six, there are six competency domains. Then we developed it also common repository, hosted on the OER Commons platform. It is called ICT health competency framework in which we are gathering all the accessible, open educational resources around the teams of ICT accessibility and inclusive design, and we are using this open educational resources to contact training workshops and to provide continuous online learning experiences. Okay, I got the stop now.
Yes. Thank you very much, doctor. And it is indeed a pleasure listening to your work and the kind of activities that you have been doing.
At least I was not aware of this, so it was really exciting. So the next speaker, ladies and gentlemen, is Revenant. I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing the name wrong, so please forgive me for that. Revenant is global implementation project manager of learning equality, and she'll be speaking about open content platforms for Inclusive education. The case study and insights is online. You
organization
about the challenges that exist, and have discussed many different ideas. I'll be talking about how all of this specifically, how some of the specifically comes alive in the work that we do at learning equality. Yeah, so I think in the world today, there are 2.6 billion people who remain offline and are unable to participate in the digital learning revolution, and more than 70% of the learners are unable to read even a basic text, that this paints a dark picture of the Global Learning crisis, right? And unfortunately, the learners who are most affected by the crisis are often the ones who also lack access to digital resources. And what that does is further widens the gap in learning opportunities for these learners, while we know that tech is not a silver bullet solution, we believe that it's a strong means for addressing some of these gaps. And I think, yeah, and we build at Learning Quality, we build and maintain Colibri and open source software solution designed to provide offline for teaching and learning experiences. Polyprene is free to use and openly licensed and is equipped with over 200,000 Open Educational Resources, or OER to the part of our library which covers a wide range of subjects and learning needs. And for those of you who may not know what open educational resources are, these are openly licensed materials that can be reused, redistributed and even repurposed, depending on the license and Philippines versus the platform that was such resources. We also provide support to educators to our platform to differentiate learning and personalized learning, and there's also features to collect granular data from the learner performance, which is further help in facilitating for differentiation, and all of this is enabled by a comprehensive toolkit with the detailed guidance materials to empower individuals and organizations to implement policy independently without relying on an equality support and periphery is worth the time and adaptable, working with a wide range of hardware models all the way from older and local devices like raspberry pi, and it also supports diverse pedagogical approaches, including self learning, blue face learning, whole class instruction, while blending technology into the learning environment aligned with the focus on equity, we also ensure that our products are compliant for people with disabilities. We work to continually improve the user experience for everyone. Accessibility Standards, and we keep adding new features consistently. The COVID free learning platform is partially confirmed with WC 82.1 level. Aa, while the platform is accessible, many OER that still do not adhere to access. And I think Dr Chavez spoke about this when he was presenting, most of the OER do not adhere to the standard, which prevents them from being useful for learners with disabilities, right? It's like, one of my colleagues is like, it's like, you build a big door, but nobody can get in from there, right? And that's what it feels like when you work with policy and make it, you know, friendly for users with disabilities, but the content that is inside is not thoughtfully designed, and that's that's a challenge that we often face. And in addition to that, policy also suppose use of access to devices, but many of these devices are cost prohibitive in underserved communities where we work with and some of these challenges continue to hinder our efforts in equitable access to learning materials, but we keep doing everything that we can to make this more and more accessible for learners with disabilities. And some examples of what this looks like is to ensure accessibility. We focus on multiple features, such as making all text functional, screen reader compatible and resizable up to like 200% while some videos also include sign language and captions and links that are included in Colibri are designed clearly to indicate the purpose that they serve. And all of these features make Colibri beneficial for a range of context and learners around the world, and through our organic adoption and strategic partnerships, learning equality reached over 10 million learners across 220 countries and territories. And Colibri also adapts to various implementation models depending on the unique context and needs of learners. Right? Colibri can be implemented in several ways for self paced learning, through an application for group settings, enabling collaborative learning and hybrid learning models as well, where learning occurs across multiple different locations. For example, learners can visit a central location connected to a colipi server, receive lessons and quizzes chosen by an educator, and then continue learning independently at home, and when they're back at the central location, their data seamlessly sinks so an educator can make informed decisions for learning journey, all without the Internet. And this flexibility showcases the power of thoughtfully designed technologies, ensuring that the products are tailored to the real world challenges faced by learners and educators in underserved communities, and additionally, to touch upon a little bit around our work with emerging technologies to ensure that the technology can be used meaningfully, we believe that it's crucial to make the relevant quality materials available as well, and we have been leaning into a new process that leverages advancements in generative AI and machine Learning algorithms based on years of data collected to through manually organizing digital content to curricular standards. As a result, we have developed a new holistic process that creates sets of curriculum aligned to digital resources by dramatically reducing the resources needed for an otherwise labor intensive and knowledge intensive process. And we've been piloting this across three countries and two languages. And in one of the projects that we did, we successfully mapped 6500 content items to over 2000 learning objectives and reduce the time spent for this process from months to a couple of days, right and to quickly. Before wrapping up, I wanted to share an example of what Colibri usage can look like in a school setting, right? Like so let's say there's a student. Imagine that there's a student called Angela, a student at a school where internet access is limited or unavailable, Angela, school administrator receives a USB key pre loaded with Colibri and digital learning resources, and they install that on a school's existing laptop, which is then used as a class server, and Angela accesses the pre curated content on a tablet, exploring lessons aligned to her curriculum. And as she progresses, her teacher can view a detailed report that highlights Angela's trends and areas where she's struggling. And this enables the teachers to provide targeted support, recommend additional resources and help Angela overcome challenges to succeed. And meanwhile, Angela school data is recorded locally, and when possible, it gets synced centrally. This allows the program administrators, who are remotely located as well to analyze reports and make alternative improvements in the program. And here's the most powerful part, which is everything happens seamlessly without, even without internet connectivity. And this is how Colibri brings impactful learning to students like Angela, who may not have internet accessible. And to close out, I think at learning equality, just like all of you, we also similarly want the world to be connected, but we know that the process is stagnating, right? Like even when there is connectivity, it may not be consistent or reliable enough to support classroom instruction, and hence, based on the work that we do, there are a couple of calls to action that I want to invite you to hold on to, and in your work, I encourage you to consider the tech tools that you're using and the reliance on connectivity. Who is left out when the internet is not available? That's a question that I want us to think about. And if you're advocating for use of emerging technologies like AI, is it being equitably used, and how can it be used as a tool for back end processes that enhance teaching and learning for everyone? Because not everybody can be able to afford technologies that
it's learning through AI, right? And if, if you're developing content, the question is, how it's created, are accessible for all? And I hope that you will consider equity in a new way as a result of this presentation and the examples that we shared through the work that we do. And I invite you to connect with me to discuss more about how we can strive to strive for equity in learning enabled by Ed Tech even when internet is limited. Thank you so much for this opportunity, and I happy to answer any questions that might Yeah, that that come up.
Thank you very much for your very insightful comments case study, and then wrapping up in promptly in time. So thank you very much once again. So before I open the
list of my own question,
I would like to see if there are any online questions or someone wants to interact ask questions from the participant.
Back, we have an online question. Can you hear me? Is this working? Yes, okay, we have an online question. And the question is
for um, for how many of the in many countries in Africa, persons with disabilities have for different disabilities, they may be slower learners, or they may require different types of learning environment, and often times, the teachers are not as knowledgeable about how to teach persons with disabilities differently. I know with people with autism and people with dyslexia, there's other different ways of teaching. And what can we is there something that we can do that can help provide more training, more capacity building? Is the question directed to a specific speaker, well, directed to either Dr Shapiro or Maha Mohammed or learning ecology or to You, the last speaker, is that possible? Thank you. I technical Yes.
I think I can give chance to Dr Mohammed, and then if you
want to add in Yes, thank you. Thank you for the question. It's certainly very crucial, as I previously said in my speech that you hear you hear me, right? Okay, it's okay, yeah, when it comes to offer like inclusive learning experience, there is you know, lack in terms of you know, capacity building for teachers their knowledge and their competencies around the topic of inclusive education, how to deal with learners with disabilities, how to prepare like digital education content, which is, like, fully accessible for people with disabilities. So this is also, this was also part of the key findings of, as I've mentioned previously, of the tenant X report. So how to tackle that? I think there is a need that universities, especially colleges of education, there is a need that they integrate in their curriculum courses dealing with accessibility, disability, inclusive education for all teachers, not only for those who are, you know, registered in the special education discipline for all teachers, there is a real need to build their capacities In terms of digital accessibility and inclusive education. One way also to do that is to invest in the continuous training of teachers in service I mean, in service training. So we need to collaborate. We need like, multi stakeholder approach. We need to collaborate with all involvement parties in order to build the capacities of in service teachers in terms of how to deal with live dogs with disabilities in the inclusive education, you know, perspective we at Medha, we are doing a lot in this perspective, as we are collaborating and definitely with the ministry of education and higher education and with local universities, and we are offering many training workshops around the topics of Digital Accessibility and the close of education,
yes, thank you, Dr mahaman. And instead of going to remarks, I think I need to ask this question to Dr COVID jerasi, since UNESCO is okay, so I think Dr jerasi
left you to so remarks
to shot of this. One of the things
that I often think about already shared is when you talk about supporting learners with disabilities, teacher capacity, building support methodically strategies like differentiation and personalization goals. But when we're talking about developing countries or global South, second class are huge, but that's where I think technology needs to be affected in terms of getting that data about learner performance and differentiating support using that data so that each learner gets their own you know, like learning materials that they can engage with, the teacher is playing a role of life, connecting them with understanding, clarifying a lot of that, and learners can engage with learning at their own pace, which is what is useful for learners who sometimes struggle with certain aspects of learning processes. The other point that I also want to add is when I look at process like this, it's important to approach it from a more systemic lens. And there's this particular framework that Dr peranna would recommend. You need to look at any education intervention through five different perspectives. It needs to be cultural, political, psychological, institutional and professionals, I think even to for something as simple as providing teachers with the tools to cater to learners with disabilities, there are all of these five things that need to come together so that is effectively delivered. I think those would be the two ways in which I would respond to the answer. It's not an easy solution, but it's a solution
exactly I understand. We understand that there aren't any easy solutions. And search for easy solution is not always a good one. So no matter how difficult we have to adopt these solutions if we truly want the inclusion and participation of all so Judith, if we have a question online, and if they are available, because, yeah, by themselves.
No, we can't. We cannot do that. This question is directed to Amelia, and is what should be the role of regulatory Authorities in advancing digital inclusions for persons with disabilities,
however, regulators
cannot take
the government, however, and expert authorities and expert regulators should gain necessary knowledge all the people and then they can in advocacy efforts to government. However, there was one activity that I did not mention in my intervention, and it's also equally relevant for the regulators, and that is to tailor the activities that they implement under the umbrella of media and information literacy, in particular, in light of digital literacy, producing researches, mapping the challenges, you know, gathering all these sort of like stakeholders together and trying to achieve as much as possible, especially about what was being said. I mean, when it comes to education, you see, for example, in bodhisat COVID 19, the education system is extremely complex, and it's usually also sort of like any changes in that particular area, they take a long time. However, considering the target that the children and minors, you know, should be really should receive necessary support in, you know, in as much as possible. I mean, so that they can progress in their development. You know, without boundaries, the regulator should focus also their activities on on media and information literacy and touching discussing on accessibility and digital inclusion particularly. I mean that is something that we do in botany, COVID And again, that will be another topic.
I think I would just want to add a couple of points in your intervention with a little bit of differentiation to the point that regulator do not have the sort of powers or authority of policy makers. Yes, they do not, I understand that. But what the regulators can do, and this we have been doing in Pakistan as well, with both the telecom regulator and the banking regulator, on both sides in terms of digital accessibility, we have been feeding them information about and training them about the activities, abilities and requirements of person with disabilities, and in turn, they because one role of the regulator is they are the specialist in their own area, and they feed the policy input to their governments. So what they can do is they can advise the governments to guide their governmental policies in the right direction. And when the policies are made, then the it's the job of the regulator to ensure that they are continuing. So that's the crucial point where the role of regulator
company I have been, however, see, I was only sort of like looking at the role of the regulator as as the link between, you know, towards the government. However, the regulators can as they definitely as much as they as they can in order to implement the provisions in the regulatory framework. You see, for example, that is what we did in Bodnar COVID. We detected that are weaker, that when it comes to TV accessibility, for example, that the percentage was extremely low. So what we did, we completely changed the provisions within the regulatory framework. We did not be the government, and new law for that, and we introduced quotas and considerably improved that area. So yes, I absolutely agree with you. The regulators can do a lot, and this was just
one example. Yes, thank you very much for that.
Thank you any, any input you
thank you. I hope
Am I audible? Yes, thank you.
Is it okay now? Yes, my name is I'm a fellow. I think I comment that what she said on that disability needs are not specific needs. They are like any other person and so in tackling such we should be aware that anybody may be in need of such accessibility. Needs to accessibility
and inclusion. Let's say, in this case, in the education sector, wanted to add on, on the learning equality platform that the apart also should much focus on the trainers. Because I remember, I'm from Kenya, and I remember our previous government administration had a digital program for the education sector, where they issued a laptop
the tenants and the power they ended up with. This one so it was implemented as we go to pass on.
Okay, sorry, sorry,
okay, as you focus on getting the offer analysis to so that they are
Thank you, Nicodemus, I think there isn't any question
unless we have any questions
from the audience. So it was more of a comment after the moderator. What attracted me about the what opens? Yeah, what attracted me here was the word open solution, and you talked a lot about the kind of one, and that is what very important in this talk, because it's the developers who are going to view all these solutions. So I'd like us to always engage this open community for that with how we can embed all these beautiful software that concept digital platform at that point, of course,
Hi, my name is it? So I'm I'm one of the bigger fellows. I don't have a question as more like a comment. I think that the education for people with disabilities is uncommon challenge in both countries and broadly. Before we think about technology and access to the internet, we should make sure that all students with disabilities have access to basic education, because in case of Mexico, that's something that it's not happening. And how can we think about inclusive education when the system and the governments refuse to invest in the development of people with disabilities? Because that's what's happening in Mexico. You know, we only think they speak a lot.
It's not happening in the reality.
Yes, thank you very much for the comments, both my liquid emails and itself. I am sorry to have this unfortunate duty performed once again. We cannot take any more questions, because if the time to and wind up the session, so for the key takeaways from the speakers and the discussion, I would like to request who is the Senior Specialist in the Information and Communication Center of UNESCO, so I would request that you Give us a brief summary of the three part
conversations. The key
takeaways are that, first of all, we talked about the importance of governance and and the role of regulators in ensuring that there is equality and equity in
access to regulation and learning and learning. And second of all, the role of openness has been underscored, and the role of stakeholders in terms of governments
and in terms of
educational institutions has been
underscored. And the third
point that we might just underscore is the fact that what we're talking about here is not the it's not the there are other factors that are involved in terms of education and in terms of access to information and to learning that has to be paid into account which are not digital, and that played
a very big role in ensuring that there is
actually movement in this way, but technology is an important factor, and it's when technology is done. It's important that it's done inclusively. It's done with the persons with disabilities also flagging the way and ensuring that they are part of the process of the development of these technologies to ensure that they're actually serving the purpose that they're supposed to serve. And if I may, I'd like to just give the floor back here, but to thank also
the speakers on behalf of UNESCO also and also underscore the importance of thought of having a joint cooperation of the two DCS in this meeting, because the complementarity and the richness that
comes from the discussion. So with that, I give the call back to thank you very much. And last, but not the least, I would now pass on
the board to speak. She is my
co coordinator. At the ideas dynamic position on accessibility and disability, on the summary of key takeaways from the discussion that we just had.
Thank you so much. Dr Shapiro, yes, it was very fruitful and meaningful discussion, and we was some of the key takeaways from the questions are the importance of the regulator and what the regulator can do in helping advance technical issues for persons with disabilities, whether it is through subsidies for universal access for smart devices because of disabilities, whether it's other type of subsidies there, what is their role as policy makers and regulators in ensuring that technology is available to all participants and also also underscores the importance of the Education Department and the work on there in making sure that education is open and available to all persons, and not only and not giving the focal thought to only one type of Education, as we saw from one of our speakers, there are multiple options of learning platforms that can be adjusted and that can work for different persons with disabilities. So we want to make sure that we take in account all types of issues. And thank you so much because we are ending our session on time because the captain does have to leave for lunch. Thank you and thankful Yes.
Thank you very much. Judith, thank you very much Zainab and the DC we are for collaborating with us on this session. I would also like to thank the participants who came here to attend this session, and last but not the least, a profound thanks to all the teams who assisted us, including the technical team, the captioners, the sign language interpreters and others who made this session a possibility. Thank you once again. You
