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The 2030 and Counting pilot project sought to give youth with disabilities a seat at the table on the SDGs – providing them with the tools and confidence they need to become their own agents of change. This report provides an overview of the project, together with learnings and recommendations for the future.

In its pilot year, 2030 and Counting brought together young women and men with disabilities and DPOs from Kenya, the Philippines and Zambia to report on and advocate for their rights through the framework of the SDGs

The project had three consecutive phases: Training, Story gathering (data collection) and Influencing. 

In total, 332 reports were collected between June and September 2018. The highest number of reports were submitted under the theme of Education (44%), followed by Work (33%), and Health (14%). The category of Other, which almost entirely focused on discrimination in daily life, accounted for 8%. 80% of reporters had smartphones, offering the potential to increase the use of this feature in future.
 

This report focuses on digital inclusion as it relates to four of the 17 Goals for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda:

• SDG 9 - Innovation, Industry, and Infrastructure
• SDG 16 - Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
• SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals
• SDG 4 - Quality Education

For each of the goals, a number of major challenges and key recommendations are defined. Finally, general recommendations are given for improving global digital inclusion overall.
 

This report’s observations and recommendations were based on over fifty conversations with employers, technology vendors, disability experts—who were mainly people with disabilities, and technology experts, especially in artificial intelligence. It concentrates on human capital management (HCM) technology products used for attracting talent to companies, the actual interviewing/hiring process, and retention of employees once hired. Efforts on the market share leaders in each segment. 

Recommendations made concern:

• Embracing artificial intelligence.
• Boosting accessibility and accommodations.
• Collecting and using data to inform action.
• Guiding employers on the path from compliance to opportunity

This K4D Emerging Issues report highlights research and emerging evidence that show how mobile-enabled services can help increase inclusion of persons with disabilities. The aim is to provide UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) policy-makers with the information required to inform policies that are more resilient to the future. This report provides a synthesis of the current evidence on how mobile technology and mobile-enabled services can help increase inclusion of persons with disabilities. It was originally planned that this report would also explore how mobile enabled technology might exacerbate existing inequalities. Some evidence was found to focus on the barriers to ICT that marginalised groups encounter, however, no evidence was found to focus on how mobile technology might exacerbate inequalities. As such, the report focuses on the positive impact that mobile technology has been shown to have in increasing the inclusion of persons with disabilities. 

This report focuses specifically on evidence produced by academic research from low and middle income countries

"Languages are dynamic and change over the years. Changes in sign languages have been usually initiated to accommodate the needs of the local Deaf community. With the increase in smartphone use, sign languages are influenced not only by the local Deaf community, but also by foreign Deaf people on the other side of the screen, regardless of their location. Smartphones influence the sign language itself and the Deaf community by connecting different communities of Deaf people through messages, shared information and experiences, and news delivery. The popularity of this technology among Deaf communities is a social phenomenon emerging from Deaf people themselves. Smartphones may promote the globalization of sign language, shortening distances between Deaf communities around the world"

Disability & Society, Volume 33, 2018 - Issue 2

Employee and employer perceptions on barriers existing among Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled sectors to employ persons with disabilities (PWD) were investigated. Two hundred participants (147 PWD and 53 employers) from six organizations were included in the study, which was conducted in Hyderabad, India. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to the participants. The study also documented enabling factors that have facilitated employment of PWD. An assessment of awareness levels among employers and employees with disabilities on the provisions of the Indian PWD Act (1995) was also undertaken.

Indian J Occup Environ Med. 2017 Jan-Apr; 21(1): 36–41

doi:  10.4103/ijoem.IJOEM_44_16

A Toolkit on Disability for Africa has been developed by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD). It is designed for the African context and aims to:

• Provide practical tools on various disability-related issues to government officials, members of parliament, civil and public servants at all levels, disabled persons organizations (DPOs) and all those with an interest in the inclusion of persons with disabilities in society and development;
• Support the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and disability-inclusive development;
• Offer examples of good practices from many countries in the African region.

Toolkit Modules:

• UN DESA toolkit on CRPD – Trainers’ tips
• Introducing the UNCRPD
• Frameworks for implementing and monitoring the UNCRPD
• Disability-inclusive development
• Accessibility
• Building multi-stakeholders partnerships for disability inclusion
• National plans on disability
• Legislating for disability rights
• Access to justice for persons with disabilities
• The rights of persons with disabilities to work
• Inclusive health services for persons with disabilities
• Participation in political and public life
• Information and communication technology (ICT) and disability
• Culture, beliefs, and disability
• Inclusive education

It is reported that eight paraplegics – some of them paralysed for more than a decade by severe spinal cord injury – have been able to move their legs and feel sensation, after help from an artificial exoskeleton, sessions using virtual reality (VR) technology and a non-invasive system that links the brain with a computer. "After just 10 months of what the Brazilian medical team “brain training” they have been able to make a conscious decision to move and then get a response from muscles that have not been used for a decade". The work is part of the Walk Again Project.

“This document presents a Model Policy for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Education for Persons with Disabilities. The focus is upon the use of ICTs to support the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD, 2006), specifically:

• Article 9: Accessibility;
• Article 21: Freedom of Expression and Opinion, and Access to Information;
• Article 24: Inclusive Education”