The Investment, Industry and Information
Technology Ministry and the National Commission Persons
with Disability (KNPD) announced an initiative to help
families with members with disability overcome the cost
barrier to the use of technology in their homes.
The new project means that computers used in schools
and public offices are refurbished to adapt them to home
use and distributed to families who are financially
disadvantaged, some of whom may include members with
disability.
The ministry and KNPD wish to make it especially clear
that these initiatives are not measures of charity or,
worse, dumping of unwanted material on persons with
disability. This emphasis is being made to counteract any
such impression which the general public may have formed
from the way some sections of the press reported this
initiative when it was first announced.
In order to allay any fears, the Ministry and KNPD
wish to make clear that:
Firstly, no computer is being dumped on persons with
disability instead of throwing it away. Refurbished
computers are perfectly suitable for home use and are not
dumped on persons with disability instead of being
discarded.
Families which are financially disadvantaged, among
them some families with members who are disabled, often
have to prioritise their expenses which means that
technology is not always the first expense they would be
able to make. However certain technologies can help
persons with disability overcome barriers of access using
services that would otherwise require them to move around
to acquire them. While government departments need to
change their computers more often than a private
household needs to, a used, but carefully-refurbished
computer can fulfil all the ICT needs of a home.
This is not a "charitable" initiative. It is the view
of the ministry and KNPD that persons with disability
have the right to public help to live a full life and
funding technology take-up in their homes is a sure way
of helping them do just that in today's technology-driven
society.
Secondly, the KNPD is a public agency and as such is
not a beneficiary or distributor of public services to
persons with disability. The beneficiaries are the
persons with disability themselves and volunteer
organisations who work with them. This might seem like a
very fine distinction but it is relevant because some
press reports referred to KNPD as an NGO and while such
organisations are very common in our community, KNPD is
not this type of organisation.
The ministry and KNPD concluded by underlining the
most important consideration that emerges from this
project. The PC refurbishment programme will include
hundreds of families with members with disability that so
far may not have been able to participate in Malta's
steadily-growing information society. This is an
important process of empowerment which technology helps
us achieve.
The KNPD and the ministry are committed to continue
their partnership to ensure that no disability becomes in
and of itself a barrier to full enjoyment of the benefits
of Malta's information society and economy.
Source
www.independent.com.mt
