The ministry has assisted various institutions for people living with disabilities with ICT equipment, applications and services. There is a need for the ICT sector to take into account the needs of the people living with disabilities in the development of ICT programmes, applications and services.
At the Pitso, there were questions posed on how the ICT sector can ensure full participation of people living with disability in the mainstream of the economy through the use of ICT? How should these people participate in the various ICT structures in place now? What should be created to help the situation?
The conference resolved that what is currently lacking in the country is collaboration of institutions and lack of coordination between supporting individuals, and that there is a need to approach LEA for instance, and ask for support. It was resolved that the e-government strategy must have room to incorporate issues of youth development, especially at curriculum level, so that it is all encompassing. This must be done such that youth benefit and are ushered into economic independence, in the process reduce the number of school youth roaming the streets.
There was a suggestion that the youth must participate in innovation and acquire the necessary information needed. Also highlighted was that youth, women and people living with disabilities are not a homogenous group, as each group has got its uniqueness and needs to be treated separately. The was a suggestion that government and institutions need to collaborate and disseminate information in those constituents as a larger group.
Government too needs to use a vocational approach towards drawing up an ICT syllabi so as to foster awareness and practical skills to enable innovation. There is need to move away from a system of just delivering specific software packages such as Microsoft office. It was agreed that Botswana needs to learn from countries such as Japan and India to infuse practical skills in the learning of ICT from grassroots level.
There is a need to have ICT fairs and stimulation packages for youth and people living with disabilities so as to develop and nurture ICT skills and innovation among them. A deliberate policy to do away with mainstream mentality that usually sidelines or out-casts people living with disabilities should be in place. The policies must stimulate innovation to address the ICT needs of the target group and create an enabling environment for people living with disabilities to be part of the ICT innovation and use.
Among other things the conference resolved that the Maitlamo National ICT policy must be packaged in such a way that it is easily accessible to youth and the disabled from an early age (e.g. in the form of a pocket book), so as to ensure that they are fully aware of its requisites. There is need to improve areas of research so as to understand what government is doing with regards to youth, the disabled, ICT and economic empowerment. There is need too, to set up a policy to ensure seed capital for youth, disabled and ICT initiatives/innovations.
In financing and seed funding, it was resolved that government should set up a platform where youth and the disabled are able to generate original innovations rather than a restrictive environment where they are directed on what to do in terms of ICT innovation. There is need to have a fora and platforms where youth and disabled are able to air their needs and concerns. These include voice activated devices and other assistive technologies.
Policies to cater for the disabled should be updated and made explicit.Whenever there are fora, with disabled case studies and assistance projects, there should be efforts to follow up on them to ensure that they are continuously helped and catered for. There should be legislation that will address priority areas for youth, the disabled and ICT. Efforts to develop and help youth and the disabled should not only be a government issue, but a collaboration with the private sector. It was recommended that the disabled should be taken on board from grassroots level in all panels that are geared towards human development. Bench marking should be done in countries catering for the disabled like Ethiopia. The pilot resource centre in Gaborone Block 8 should reach out to the nation with assistive technology for the disabled.
Young people need to be appointed at Parliament/decision making levels so as to better capture and ensure the needs of youth and the disabled are addressed as happens in Rwanda. Also identified was the need for youth and disabled mentors at Botswana National Youth Council. Youth to be involved in the Innovation Board so that they can participate and shape direction in decision making. The disabled should collaborate to share their challenges, needs and bring about awareness and solutions to their problems.
Youth and disabled should take advantage of social and community structures such as churches and other gatherings to collaborate and create awareness and canvass support in their local communities for the purpose of innovation support/funding. There should be networking among the youth and disabled at a wider scale than small groupings and localities.
It was resolved that women should move away from the mentality of technophobia and relegating ICTs to men. A generation of young hackers rather than breed users should be developed. The country should move away from user mentality of close end products such as MS and explore open source (freeware), which helps people to build knowledge base of designing their own programmes. There is need to avail infrastructure for ICT development at primary school level. Youth, the disabled and women should form interest groups to facilitate fora at high levels such as meetings with the President. Youth and the disabled should be involved in the budget and planning process rather than at implementation stage and NDP 10 should be reviewed to emphasise relevance of ICT.
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Quelle/Source: Mmegi Online, 05.10.2012
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