CAIRO – The World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, which raises awareness on the role of ICT in meeting long-term development goals, will focus this year on connecting persons with disabilities to opportunities offered by information and communication technologies (ICT).
The World Telecommunication and Information Society Day occurs each year on May 17.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message to mark this World Day, “It is vital that we change attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities, ensuring that all fundamental rights and freedoms are honoured, including the right to fully participate in the information society, and bring forth input, ideas and effort from the disability community.”
ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Toure added, “The phenomenal growth of ICTs over the past 25 years has seen the birth of a dazzling array of new technologies to empower persons with all kinds of disabilities to take active roles in mainstream society.”
Toure called for the redoubling of efforts to create an inclusive, people-centred, development-oriented information society.
As well, the ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award this year goes to Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt; the DAISY Consortium – Digital Accessible Information System (a worldwide organization of libraries and ICT companies); and Andrea Saks.
