The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) commissioned Research ICT Africa (RIA) to conduct a research project to assess the access to and accessibility of information and communication technologies (ICT) by persons with disabilities in South Africa.
While there is significant rhetorical commitment to inclusion of persons with disabilities and even some strategies to improve access and usage of ICTs for persons, there appear to be no targets or monitoring of digital access and use by persons with disabilities. There appears to be little evidence to understand how persons with disabilities can benefit from access to ICTs and increasingly advanced technologies and associated harms and risks mitigated.
This project highlights and analyses the bottlenecks and challenges faced by persons with disabilities access to and use of ICTs. The project further intends to evaluate the effectiveness of existing policies, laws, and regulations in relation to digital inclusion of persons with disabilities regarding international commitments and goals within the local context for the purpose of providing policy recommendations on targeted interventions.
