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Doha, Qatar: The role of digital innovation in supporting persons with disabilities (PWDs) is vital. Being at the forefront of e-accessibility initiatives in the country, Mada Centre has played a crucial role in actively supporting the implementation and advancement of the national policy.
In its recent edition of Nafath magazine, the Mada Centre said that Qatar’s digital accessibility policy landscape reflects a commitment to fostering inclusivity and equal access to digital services for all citizens, including individuals with disabilities.
Through the establishment of legal frameworks, collaboration with stakeholders, awareness campaigns, and training programmes, Qatar has made significant progress in creating a digitally accessible environment and positioned itself as a leader in the field of digital accessibility, it said.
The Mada Centre said the impact of these initiatives is evident in the increased accessibility of government websites and services as well as the growing awareness and understanding of accessibility principles among stakeholders, which contributed to achieving first place globally and regionally in the Dare index 2020.
Technology has made social inclusion possible for people with disabilities as it ensures access to media, education, and employment through assistive technology. “Qatar will continue to invest in cutting-edge technologies, innovative policies and infrastructure improvements to enhance digital access for its citizens. However, it is crucial to ensure that the digital accessibility policy keeps pace with the technological advancements and is adaptable to new technologies, platforms, and devices, ensuring that individuals with disabilities have equal access and usability across different digital environments,” the magazine said.
To create inclusive policies and laws, decisionmakers must understand ICT products and services, their compliance with international accessibility requirements, and their use, the Centre said. It further explained the role of MARSAD tool in fostering inclusion and sustainability.
MARSAD is an e-readiness assessment instrument developed and implemented by Mada Centre to discover factors that influence ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities living in Qatar.
It measures the national ICT accessibility adoption rate and makes recommendations to increase digital access for government and semi-government organisations’ digital platforms. Fourteen educational and cultural institutions have used the tool. It is part of the ecosystem of Mada Innovation Programme that aims to increase the number of the digital accessibility solutions and innovative assistive technology.
The Mada Centre said the primary focus area requiring enhancement was to enable persons with disabilities through ICT within the domains of education, community, and culture in addition to the measure the impact on the elderly as an indirect goal. MARSAD is a tool focused on ICT accessibility standards that facilitates ICT adoption by organisations and institutions in Qatar.
The MARSAD e-readiness tool was used to measure the state’s ability of institutions in Qatar to provide accessible digital platforms for persons with disabilities. The primary focus areas of ICT usage by persons with disabilities are within the domains of education, culture and community. The e-readiness assessment tool measures the utilisation of accessible ICT in various domains and identifies gaps in the ICT infrastructure of government and semi-government institutions in Qatar.
Mada Centre will provide the necessary support to empower organisations in Qatar and the Arab region to make the shift towards a digital ecosystem accessible to all.
The magazine said Qatar has undergone a huge transformation in the realm of inclusive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) towards cultivating an ecosystem that promotes ICT accessibility and embraces diversity in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), to which Qatar is a signatory and a ratifying party.
