Proposal for new Article 8B "Accessibility for persons with disabilities"

Introduction

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) promotes the use of ICTs to enable full participation of persons with disabilities in all aspects of life, on an equal basis with others.

It would seem appropriate that the World Conference on International Telecommunications recognizes this by a provision that Member States encourage the provision of global services based on international standards that ensure accessible telecommunications and ICT services to persons with disabilities.

Proposals

In line with this proposal, Hungary hereby proposes a new article on International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) named “Accessibility for Persons with disabilities”.

The new article should appear after the current article 8. Thus it should be numbered 8A. We note however that a proposal for a new article 8A on a totally different topic is found in WCTI/4 Add.2. In order to avoid confusion, we propose therefore to provisionally number our proposed new article as 8B, as follows:

ADD HNG/5/1

ARTICLE 8B