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Promoting take-up of ICT among persons with disability

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


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