According to a report, approximately 40% of Africa's population is disabled, including 10-15% of school-age children. This implies that there are over 300 million people with disabilities in Africa.
Even though people with disabilities are often referred to as the world's largest minority, in Africa, they face exclusion, discrimination, and barriers to exercising their fundamental rights and participating in development.
However, Kenya, an African country, is changing the narrative.
How? Kenya has developed a standard for digital accessibility for people with disabilities.
This means that people with disabilities, and older people who are largely disconnected from most e-government services and business-owned digital platforms, will be connected, supported, and empowered by digital products to increase their digital inclusion.
How? It will be accomplished by providing computer assistive technology to the blind and visually impaired. Also, public and private sector digital products and services (like websites and mobile applications) will be more accessible and usable by all Kenyan citizens.
This follows the announcement by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) of a partnership with inABLE to develop a national information and communication technology (ICT) accessibility standard.
This is similar to EnableMe Kenya, an online platform, aimed at providing community-oriented technological support and increasing digital inclusion for people with disabilities.
According to Bernard Njiraini, KEBS Managing Director, "To accommodate all people in the society, inclusive design and universal design principles should be integrated into digital products and services."
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