Cynthia
Waddell speaks at the United Nations Internet
Governance Forum held in Rio de Janeiro November 12 through 15, 2007
11/24/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Michael R Burks.
Public Information Officer
ICDRI
(919 349 6661
icdri@icdri.org
Cynthia D. Waddell, Executive Director of
ICDRI and Vice-Chair of the
Internet Society Disability &
Special Needs Chapter, gave two presentations at the United Nations
Internet Governance Forum held in Rio de Janeiro November 12 through 15, 2007.
On the first day of the conference she spoke at “The Intersection of Open
Standards, Development and Public Policy” where she discussed the new Convention
on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and how countries are impacted by the
accessible ICT mandates of the new treaty. Dr. Waddell called for all the IGF
Dynamic Coalitions to mainstream the disability perspective in their platforms.
In her second presentation organized by the International Telecommunication
Union, Dr. Waddell discussed accessible web design at “Making Accessibility a
Reality in Emerging Technologies and the Web.” Her presentation also addressed
technology convergence and included a live demonstration of remote captioning of
the workshop. The workshop was audio streamed with a writer in the United States
posting the captioning of the words being spoken at the workshop on a website.
Caption First
provided the services so that workshop participants could read what was being
spoken.
ICDRI was privileged to be credentialed to participate in the UN IGF and we
look forward to actively working with the global community on accessible ICT.
More information is available at
Imagining the Internet a
Pew Internet Project
and Elon University web
site with several videos about the Internet Governance Forum. Dr. Waddell
was inteviewed in the video under November 11,
Video on DIVERSITY - by Dannika Lewis.
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