1. 1 ICT for Empowering PWDs The Egyptian Experience Abeer Shakweer, Ph.D., Advisor to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology for Social Services WSIS – Geneva 29 th May 2015 Arab Republic of Egypt Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

2. 2 Content ICT4PWDs’ strategy Innovation in Accessibility Technology Enhancing education and employment through innovation The Regional ICT Center for PwDs

3. 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

4. 4 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

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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 14 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Prime minister listening to 3 people with disabilities at the conference Annual international conference and exhibition

21. 21 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

22. 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

23. 23 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

24. 24 Thank you www.tamkeen.gov.eg