Doha: Vodafone Qatar has reiterated its commitment to make technology accessible to all on the occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities which falls on December 3.
To ensure its ongoing support to people with special needs, Vodafone provides an accessibility discount of 20 percent on 3G and 4G-enabled handsets with accessibility features. Any customer showing their MADA ID (provided by Qatar Assistive Technology Center) is eligible for the discount.
Vodafone keeps updating its website based on international standards of web accessibility to enables people with disabilities to access and make the best use of it. Through these standards, people can easily navigate, understand the content of the site, use accessibility tools tailored to their disability, and interact.
Vodafone strives to ensure that the accessibility standard of its website reflects the fast-paced industry and developments of platforms and media. Vodafone Qatar has set guidelines provided by Vodafone Group that are used as a basis for its website and cover accessibility principles. The company is working with MADA locally to complete the path to achieve MADA certification.
Guidelines and success criteria for the website are organised around the four principles: Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive; user interface components and navigation must be operable; information and the operation of user interface must be understandable; and content must be robust to be interpreted reliably by user agents, including assistive technologies.
Dana Haidan, Head, Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability, Vodafone Qatar said: “We want to make mobile phones and the technology we provide easier to use. The number of people excluded from mobile communications due to disabilities is small, but benefits of technology to improve quality of life are substantial. We keep working with handset manufacturers and software designers such as RIM to incorporate accessibility features into mainstream handsets. We are also encouraging application developers to design handsets and develop software applications that consider accessibility needs from the start.” The Peninsula
