Indra y acceso a las TIC a personas con movilidad reducida - ESP - ARG

Indra presentó dos sistemas informáticos dirigidos a personas con movilidad reducida, con la intención de que puedan controlar el cursor y teclado de la computadora a través de un software de reconocimiento de rostro que sólo requiere de una webcam para funcionar. Los programas (Headmouse yVirtualKeyboard) pueden descargarse de forma gratuita y apuntan a igualar las condiciones de acceso a las tecnologías y fomentar la reinserción laboral.

[ 1 ]   Nieto, Viaggio, Pilar Ferro de CARE y Klemensiewicz

La compañía anunció la disponibilidad de los programas en Brasil, México, Colombia y Chile, y continúa expendiendo su alcance en América Latina. SegúnRicardo Viaggio, director general de la firma en Argentina, el 50% de la población mundial usa Internet, pero sólo el 5% de las personas que presentan alguna discapacidad motora navega en su tiempo libre.

En este sentido, Marina Klemensiewicz, presidenta de la Comisión para la Plena Participación e Inclusión de las Personas con Discapacidad (COPIDIS) de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, aseguró que en Argentina existen aún muchos obstáculos para lograr una integración completa. "Estos desarrollos son herramientas claramente igualitarias".

Además, la funcionaria señaló que desde Secretaría de Inclusión y Derechos Humanos de la Jefatura de Gabinete de Ministros porteña trabajarán en conjunto con la cartera Educativa para que ambos programas se puedan sumar a las netbooks educativas que está repartiendo el Gobierno de la ciudad.

Según el Indec, en Argentina hay 2.176.123 personas con discapacidad, siendo las dificultades motoras las más frecuentes (40%).

Especialistas

No es novedad que las grandes empresas realicen aportes a la comunidad, ya sea a través de donaciones, planes de inclusión social o colaboraciones con distintos países. No obstante, Hans Nieto, director de Comunicación y Responsabilidad Corporativa de Indra en Latinoamérica, afirmó que su posición no es tener un departamento "que se dedique a firmar cheques", sino que tiene que estar en línea con la actividad natural de la compañía, "y para nosotros eso significa seguir brindando soluciones de IT".

 

IT for social development - Pakistan

http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102978&Itemid=2

ISLAMABAD, May 14 (APP): Adviser to the Prime Minister on IT Sardar Latif Khosa said Pakistan was using potential of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in education, employment, environment, empowerment, energy and equality as the visionary tools of Pakistan People's Party manifesto envisioned by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. 

The Advisor expressed these views while addressing the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) 2010 Forum, says a press release received here on Friday.

He conveyed the democratic government was acting to solve the problems of youth, which stood at almost 60 percent of population of over 170 million by using ICT and highlighted innovative use of Universal Service Fund for expanding Broadband penetration, establishing community tele-centers and affordable voice telecommunication system availability by outreaching to the rural and far flung areas of thr country.

The Advisor highlighted Pakistan's ICT Research and Development (R&D) Funds contribution towards research and development in ICT related projects and providing scholarships for students, training teachers and thus enabling export of skilled workforce for flow of FDI.

He projected the Benazir Income Support programme as the government's initiative of using technology based smart cards in ameliorating hardships of the poor womenfolk. He informed that tele-density of 63.5 percent was one of the highest in the region. 

The Advisor effectively made pakistan's case for use of ICT in addressing major challenges the country facing today and added Pakistan is looking at the utility of ICT as one of main drivers of economic development.

"Broadband being an important element in the regard can help address many challenges related to governance particularly in the field of education, health, energy, infrastructure development, etc.  It can be equality beneficial in the field of disaster management and fighting cyber crime," the Advisor maintained.

The Advisor is on four-day visit to Geneva to participate in the summit and was received by Dr. Hamadoun I.Toure, Secretary General of ITU. Earlier, both the dignitaries held meeting and agreed ICT could provide solutions to challenges of poverty reduction, education and health care prevention as well as natural disaster/emergency management and unemployment.

Dr Tours assured full support to Pakistan in all these areas including increasing its broadband penetration.

 

Communication for Social Change Consortium - USA - UK

http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/

The CFSC Consortium is a nonprofit organization working globally to help people living in poor communities lift their voices, stories, ideas, and beliefs in order to influence the change they need in their societies and in their lives.

Founded in early 2003 as a nonprofit organization, the Consortium builds upon work that began in 1997 at the Rockefeller Foundation as a special grant-making exploration.  Since their founding, they have worked through advocacy, research, publications, teaching and training to enhance the practice of communication for development and social change with a special emphasis on participatory approaches such and public and private dialogue leading to community-based decision-making and collective action leading to long-term social change....

 

Project puts 1M books online for blind, dyslexic

Even as audio versions of best sellers fill store shelves and new technology fuels the popularity of digitized books, the number of titles accessible to people who are blind or dyslexic is relatively small. A new service announced May 6 by the nonprofit Internet Archive in San Francisco is trying to change that. The group has hired hundreds of people to scan thousands of books into its "Open Library" digital database—more than doubling the titles available to people who aren't able to read a hard copy. Brewster Kahle, the organization's founder, says the project initially will make 1 million books available to the visually impaired, using money from foundations, libraries, corporations, and the government. He's hoping a subsequent book drive will add even more titles to the collection. "We'll offer current novels, educational books, anything. If somebody donates a book to the archive, we can digitize it and add it to the collection," he said. The Internet Archive is scanning a variety of books in many languages, so they can be read by the software and devices blind people use to convert written pages into speech. The organization has 20 scanning centers in five countries, including one in the Library of Congress. "Publishers mostly concentrate on their newest, profitable books. We are working to get all books online," Kahle said, adding that the organization does not run into copyright concerns because the law allows libraries to make books available to people with disabilities.http://openlibrary.org/subjects/accessible_book

 

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