ADC attends seminar held by ENCOM, ONTI, and OAS on accessibility

On October 20, the Association for Civil Rights (ADC) participated, through its PUEDA – For an Accessible Digital Environment campaign, in the Accessible ICTs Regional Seminar, organized by the Argentinian Communications Regulatory Authority (ENACOM), the National IT Bureau (ONTI) and the OAS Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL).

On behalf of ADC, PUEDA team member and researcher María Sol Abichain pointed out that «the purpose of the campaign is to create awareness of digital accessibility as a right for all people, and to disseminate key concepts and good practices related to digital accessibility to actors deemed critical».

«Is it enough to log in and have access to the Internet? Internet access is a fundamental right guaranteeing other rights. But if we do have connectivity, and access to web pages, platforms, or applications, but these are not developed in an accessible way, both in their programming and design; in other words, if there are barriers, then many people are impeded to interact with or use them, and therefore they do not have access to their rights,» said Abichain.

The meeting was opened by Oscar León, executive secretary of CITEL, Nicolás Karavaski, head of the ONTI, and Luis Lázzaro, head of ENACOM’s General Directorate of Institutional Relations.

The panel also included Ana Veneroso (Program Coordinator, International Telecommunication Union), Dr. Betildez Muñoz-Poggossian (Head of the OAS Department of Social Inclusion), Agustina Brizio (Head of ONTI Directorate of Technological Standards), and Dr. Alfonso Hernández Maya (General Coordinator of User Policy of the Federal Telecommunications Institute, Mexico).