Ministry of Communications holds workshop on national policy for digital accessibility of people with disability

A workshop on preparing the national policy for the digital accessibility of people with disabilities was held in Damascus on Thursday by the Ministry of Communications and Technology in cooperation with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

The workshop is the first of its kind in Syria. It will discuss the national strategy for disability and the draft national policy of digital accessibility of persons with special needs.

The Ministry of Communications and Technology started preparing the national policy of digital accessibility of persons with disabilities last September with the aim of creating a suitable environment to facilitate the accessibility of persons with disability to the internet, public services and electronic applications, so that they can find diverse contents that improve the quality of their life.

 During the opening of the workshop, Ibaa Arbash, Advisor to the Minister of Communications and Technology, said that the digital accessibility, which is concerned about the ability of persons with special needs to have access to digital services and benefit from them, constitutes a great support for achieving the national strategy for digital transformation in the country through expanding the categories that benefit from it.

On his part, Director of ESCWA’s Statistics, Technology and Information Society Group Haidar Farhat said in a statement through Skype, that the topic and timing of the workshop are very important for integrating persons with disabilities and enabling them to have access to digital services. 

He stressed that ESCWA’s experts are very enthusiastic about working in Syria and they are looking forward to providing more services to the Syrians.

In 2007, Syria signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which was approved by the United Nations in 2006.

Hamda Mustafa