[Chapter-delegates] Observing International Day of Persons With Disabilities on Tuesday 3rd December 2019 #idpd

[Joly MacFie]

[image: Accessibility SIG] <http://a11ysig.org/>[A message from
Accessibility SIG President Muhammad Shabbir Awan - Please feel free to fwd]

On Tuesday 3rd December 2019, the Internet Society Accessibility Special
Interest Group <https://a11ysig%2Corg/> (A11ySIG) joins the rest of the
world in observing International Day of Persons With Disabilities
<https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/news/news/idpd2019.html>
 (IDPD).

To recall, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities has been
annually observed on 3 December worldwide since 1992. The theme for 2019
IDPD is: ‘Promoting the participation of persons with disabilities and
their leadership: taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda’. The theme
focuses on the empowerment of persons with disabilities for inclusive,
equitable and sustainable development as envisaged in the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development
<https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld>,
which pledges to ‘leave no one behind’ and recognizes disability as a
cross-cutting issues, to be considered in the implementation of its 17
Sustainable Development Goals.

The ISOC Accessibility SIG aims to make the Internet and its attendant
technologies accessible to the largest audience possible regardless of
disabilities. On Tuesday, while we are observing IDPD, I call upon the
developers to remember that not everyone uses your product in the same way.
Moreover, the digital divide is not just about having the access to digital
technology, it could also be about having the access to technology and not
being able to use it. Among other factors in the domain of Internet and
digital accessibility, a lot depends upon the technical community and
developers. So, if you are a developer, and developing a device or a
website, you need to ensure that your digital product doesn’t prevent
nearly one billion of world’s population to access or use it.

Thus, if you are not making your website accessible, you are contributing
to the digital divide. If you want to make your website or mobile app
accessible, follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
<https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/>. In ensuring that the
Internet is for Everyone, the developer is either the part of solution or
the problem. *There is no middle way*.

With Best Regards,
Muhammad Shabbir Awan
President,
Internet Society Accessibility Special Interest Group.
Email: mshabbirawan at gmail.com
<https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=mshabbirawan@gmail.com>
Twitter: @mshabirawan <https://www.twitter.com/mshabirawan>
Website: http://www.a11ysig.org

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