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ICT for Empowering PWDsThe Egyptian Experience

Abeer Shakweer, Ph.D.,Advisor to the Minister of Communications and

Information Technology for Social Services

WSIS – Geneva 29th May 2015

Arab Republic of Egypt

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

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Content

ICT4PWDs’ strategy

Innovation in Accessibility Technology

Enhancing education and employment through innovation

The Regional ICT Center for PwDs

A diagram explains the strategy for ICT for People with Disabilities. The strategy is based on 3 basic layers which are the infrastructure, Science Technology and Innovation, and Services. Three pillar will function based on those 3 layers. The pillars are Education, training and employment. This will lead to the ultimate goal of developing an inclusive, empowering and participatory society.

Strategy framework

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55 million Arabic speaking PWDs are challenged with

the lack of ICT based assistive technologies which

support the Arabic language

The Egyptian Ministry of ICT launched “Tamkeen”

Innovation competition for the development of software

and mobile applications for PWDs in 2012

Innovation in Accessibility Technology

Identifying the themes of the competition

A hearing impaired person contributing to identifying the themes of Tamkeen competition

Running information sessions

Idea generation session to identify the themes of Tamkeen competition. 2 males and one female working on a white board to come up with the specific needs for pwds.

Money reader mobile applications for the visually impaired.

Now available

on play store

A visually impaired male using his mobile to read the currency and pay at a café.

To help combating the challenge of differences in the sign language

The unified educational sign language digital dictionary

Welcome screen of the unified sign language digital dictionary

Application translates from Arabic text to sign language

The version which translates from sign language to text is now being

developed

Screen shot representing how text is translated into sign language

The deaf reader

Builds on the digital dictionary

Fundamentals of the Arabic language for the hearing impaired

Welcome screen of the program which teaches the Arabic language fundamentals for the hearing impaired.

Builds on the digital dictionary and the Arabic language fundamentals for the hearing impaired program

Touch typing program for the hearing impaired

Welcome screen of the program which teaches touch typing for the hearing impaired

Graph for the number of inclusive and special education schools equipped with relevant equipment and programs. 199 schools for the hearing impaired, 26 for the visually impaired, 35 inclusive schools. A total of 260 schools

Providing better education opportunities: The 1000 schools for PwDs initiative

Students at a special girl’s schools for the hearing impaired using the unified sign language digital dictionary

The unified educational sign language digital dictionary

Now being distributed at the special schools for the hearing impaired

Teachers are being trained on the digital dictionary

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Teacher woks with hearing impaired kids to explain the fundamentals of the Arabic language for the hearing impaired

Fundamentals of the Arabic language for the hearing impaired

A visually and cognitive impaired male student using a large screen computer at a special school for the visually impaired

Providing better education opportunities: The 1000 schools for PwDs initiative

Training for Employment

Graph introduces the number of People with Disabilities graduated and being trained through the ICDL grant and the training for employment grant. For the ICDL grant, 129 were graduated and 237 are being trained. For the training for employment grant, 210 were graduated, 250 are being trained and 152 were employed. The total engaged in the 2 grants are 826.

Training and qualifying for employment

Training and qualifying for employment

An employed visually impaired female working at a call center

The touch typing program for the hearing impaired will be used to qualify them as data entry

Annual international conference and exhibition

Minister of ICT and ITU vice president testing an application for People with visual disabilities at the exhibition.

Introduce the developed technologies

Feedback on the applications in the pipeline

Raise awareness of available technologies, programs

and grants

2 female youth and one male show how their robot follow special roots to guide people with Alzheimer indoors

Youth with hearing disabilities explain their developed

robot to help people with Alzheimer

Annual international conference and exhibition

Prime minister listening to 3 people with disabilities at the conference

Annual international conference and exhibition

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The Regional ICT Center for PwDs

February 2014: Egypt announced its strategy to launch a regional ICT center for PwDs

March 2014: at the WTDC, the ICT accessibility for PwDs initiative was announced as one of the 5 initiatives of the Arab Region

December 2014: Arab ICT ministers blessed the proposal at their ministerial meeting held under the umbrella of the League of Arab States

April 2015, the ministry announced the launch of the center as a partnership project between the ITU and MCIT

Dr. Abeer Shakweer with Mr. Houlin Zhao the Secretary general of the ITU

The Regional ICT Center for PwDs

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The Regional ICT Center for PwDs

Developing ICT Accessibility Policies and Strategies

Developing ICT based assistive technologies

which support the Arabic language

Capacity building for ICT designer and

developers in the area of ICT accessibility

Advising Governments and other entities in

ICT accessibility affairs

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Thank you

www.tamkeen.gov.eg