An evening for a worthy cause

It was with great pleasure that I accepted the invitation recently extended to me by the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility to attend and address their annual general meeting. Those present included foundation officials, educators, parents of children with special needs and stakeholders who came mainly from the IT sector.

The point I made in my short address was that when one talks of accessibility of IT for those with special needs one is not talking of an act of charity but rather of an investment in human resources. When one goes out of one's way to put such "tools" at the disposal of people with such needs one will be contributing in one's own way towards enhancing their contribution to society and to the island's economy at large.

As an example of how it is never too late to familiarise yourself with IT I mentioned the case of the mother of a British Labour MP friend of mine who managed to learn how to use her computer at the age of 85. All this in spite of her permanent disability and the fact that she left school at the tender age of 14 years. Nowadays she communicates freely with her relatives in Australia by e-mail and does most of her shopping over the 'net.

Increasing accessibility of disabled persons to IT helps further their integration in society by offering them new opportunities and new methods of doing so. It also helps reduce their dependence on both the state and their own families.

I appealed to NGOs and private entities to follow the lead taken by the government itself to make IT more accessible to such people by reducing their reliance on excessive animation. Text only versions of such information obviously make such data so much easier to access.

It is highly important that when striving to enhance accessibility to IT for people with special needs we should rely on so-called "disability sensitive policy options" in the IT sector.

We must also permanently keep in mind the recommendations of the ad hoc committee on a comprehensive and integral convention to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities which the UN had adopted some three years ago.

During the same evening I was particularly touched by an initiative called the San Miguel Tablet PC Initiative, which is being proposed by the resource centre of the San Miguel School, Pembroke.

Its aims are simple but commendable :

¤ to enable children with severe communication difficulties to make meaningful choice through handheld touch screen computers;

¤ to offer a cost effective communication aid to Maltese families and

¤ to be used as an educational and teaching tool.

In doing so they will be working within the parameters of MITTS's own strategic plan; primarily that of stepping up the fight against the digital divide across all levels of society; promoting and extending holistic ICT education and accessibility to technology while using ICTs to improve further the quality of life of Maltese citizens.

As explained in a backgrounder we were provided with, San Miguel School offers a wide range of alternative access and ICT software to support communication and learning through the use of assistive technology (AT) and alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) systems for children with physical and communication difficulties.

In addition, over the past weeks the San Miguel resource centre has been programming dynamic communications systems on ordinary computers using adaptive equipment to meet the various complex needs of children with profound learning disabilities and multi-sensory impairment.

This Tablet PC project is highly commended because, due to lack of portability, ordinary computers can only provide training in a clinical set-up and the device's functionality is thus questionable.

While congratulating all those involved and wishing them success in their endeavours, let everyone keep in mind the ever-growing need for exciting new learning solutions in the classroom by using cutting edge educational technology.

Mr Brincat is the main opposition spokesman for foreign affairs and IT.

leo.brincat@gov.mt