SV: SV: [governance] Main sessions @ IGF

[Kicki Nordström]

Dear David,

I wish I could be with you, but an important meeting of a total different kind has been scheduled at the same time and I have been more or less "forced" to attend that meeting. 

But I would be very happy if people have the 650 Million persons with disabilities in mind (among other things) then you meet  in Athens!

Warm regards and good luck with the meeting!

Yours
Kicki


Kicki Nordström
World Blind Union (WBU)
Immediate Past  President
Chair, WBU Working Group on UN Issues
c/o SRF 
122 88 Enskede
Sweden
Tel: +46 (0)8 399 000
Fax: +46 (0)8 725 99 20
Cell: +46 (0)70 766 18 19
E-mail: kino at iris.se


-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: Norbert Bollow [mailto:nb at bollow.ch] 
Skickat: den 18 oktober 2006 14:12
Till: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Kopia: goldstein_david at yahoo.com; Kicki Nordström
Ämne: Re: SV: [governance] Main sessions @ IGF

Kicki Nordström <kino at iris.se> wrote:

> I agree on this, but need to add that 650 Millions of Persons with 
> disabilities also belong to the target group  of need of ICT!

Yes.  I'm not sure how much awareness of this point there was when the theme "Internet Governance for Development" was chosen for the IGF, but I'd strongly advocate to interpret the IGF's theme so that it involves everything that can reasonably be done to bridge all kinds of digital divides, as well as preventing the creation of new digital divides (e.g. if it should happen that DRM systems become an integral component of office software, and text documents of business correspondence are often DRM-"protected", that'd create huge problems for persons with visual disabilities.)

That said, I think the biggest threat to the success of the IGF isn't the risk of important concerns being overlooked.  I've been getting the impression that there's a much greater risk in that the IGF could become co-opted into allowing most of the attention to go to pursuing various kinds of internet governance discussions without paying any real attention to the IGF's stated theme.

If the IGF doesn't go significantly beyond merely paying lip-service to the needs of people with disabilities, people in developing countries, etc, I will consider the IGF a dismal failure no matter how pleasant an experience the conference might otherwise be.


David Goldstein <goldstein_david at yahoo.com.au> replied to Kicki

> Thanks for raising the issue Kicki, as it's a very important one, and 
> a very ignored one.

At least there's a worshop abou this topic (organized by W3C):

"Equal Access on the Web" (11:30-13:00 on Wednesday, Workshop Room III)
http://info.intgovforum.org/yoppy.php?poj=69

Greetings,
Norbert.


-- 
Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch>                       http://Norbert.ch
President of the Swiss Internet User Group SIUG        http://SIUG.ch
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