Do your organization’s online spaces reflect its onsite vibe?
I have been volunteering for Red Cross blood drives. Often, these take place in fellowship halls of churches. One was remarkable to me: the space was full of welcoming symbols and social justice messaging. The message was: “We’re so happy you are here, no matter who you are.” Later looked at the church web site, and was stunned to see that the onsite messaging wasn’t similar – that welcoming feeling was not also there online.
Do your organization’s onsite spaces reflect what you do well online?
I’ve also seen the opposite: a web site full of images of people and messaging that make me think, wow, this organization really cares about people and really makes a difference. And really wants me to be a part of it! But onsite, when you enter, those images, or similar images, are no where to be found, the mission statement isn’t in big bold letters in the lobby, and the first employee or volunteer I encounter when I walk in doesn’t make me feel welcomed – I feel like I’m bothering the person by being there.
Potential and current clients, customers, donors and volunteers want to feel like you want them to be there, onsite or online. They want to feel welcomed. They want the space to be accessible. They want the doors to open easily and the web site to load quickly. They want to know where to find things in your lobby and on your web site.
No need to hire a consultant: just ask a friend to walk into your space to ask about volunteering. Ask another friend to go to your web site and look for information about volunteering. Ask more than one friends to do this. Ask them about the experience later. Did they feel encouraged? Enlightened? Discouraged? Confused?
Use the results to develop a strategy to improve both spaces, as needed.
In the case of your in-person, onsite space, it may mean reminding staff how to answer the phone or how to greet people when the come into your space. It may mean stopping by your local Habitat for Humanity ReStore and buying some picture frames and using them to display your mission, some photos from your program (clients or volunteers – but only if you have asked folks to sign a photo release!) and a QR Code allowing people to easily donate online using their cell phone. It may mean making sure someone in a wheel chair can easily enter your establishment, or someone using a walker can find a place to sit quickly in your lobby.
In the case of your online space… go over these resources with your web designer:
I spent 15 minutes early one morning last week talking to IT professionals in Moldova about how accessibility online makes the world a better place for everyone. The opportunity came about thanks to a colleague I worked with at the United Nations who now works for the Swedish Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Moldova. It was part of an initiative her government, and USAID, supported in Moldova regarding Diversitate, Echitate și Incluziune în comunitatea IT (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the IT community), an initiative of Tekwill, organized by Startup Moldova and in partnership with Izarra, TechWomen Moldova and the Moldovan Association of Information and Communications Technology Companies.
Evenimentul reunește antreprenori locali pentru a încuraja și abilita participanții să-și împărtășească ideile fără limite sau frica de a fi judecați dar și să manifeste mai multă atenție privind respectarea normelor și etichetei culturale din regiune – credințe, convingeri, ținută sau obiceiuri.
The event brings together local entrepreneurs to encourage and empower participants to share their ideas without limits or fear of being judged but also to pay more attention to respecting the rules and cultural etiquette of the region – beliefs, beliefs, dress or customs.
Located in the heart of the Technical University of Moldova (UTM), “Tekwill is a 4,000m² hub that has everything one would ever need for ongoing growth, from co-working spaces, tech labs (IoT, 3D printing) and community events.”
Tekwill is built on the belief that to be competitive economically in the years to come, Moldovan startups and innovators must begin adopting and creating industry-disrupting technology today. Therefore, this message was coded into our name; “Tek” – for technology and “will” – for our future. The organization regularly gathers local and international tech leaders to empower the development of Moldova’s startup ecosystem by facilitating results-oriented innovation and collaboration.
I’m very partial to Moldova, having met some wonderful young Moldavians in 2019 hosted by World Oregon (I did a workshop on countering misinformation online). I have always found a very electrifying entrepreneurial, optimistic spirit among young Eastern Europeans, particularly from Moldova, Ukraine and Poland – people ready to innovate, to include, to explore and to create. I so long for the days when we can travel again so we call meet up face-to-face again!
One of the many things I’m proud of in The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, is that it features an entire chapter on accessibility and diversity. I’ve been advocating for accessibility online since 1994 – and I’m going to keep doing it!
If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
A colleague of mine in another country wants to improve her report writing and writing for the web. She works in a government water & sanitation project. English is not her first language. She has a number of audiences she must write for, via various reports, briefing papers, project reports and the web: donors (mostly foreign governments), other government offices in her own country, the media in her own country and residents of her country, especially those her office is trying to help.
I think resources on plain language are the best guidance for writers anywhere. I use my journalism training and experience, which was steeped in plain language, to write reports, and at UN offices, I got a tremendous amount of great feedback from colleagues about my reports, along the lines of “Wow, I could understand this!”
Here are the free online resources I’m recommending to my colleague. Note that some of these resources link to even more resources:
Communicate Health, a health education and communication firm specializing in improving health literacy through user-centered design, research, and content development. Resources promote usability and accessibility of public health materials.
If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
I live two doors down from a home for adults with intellectual disabilities, most of them over 40 years old. Some residents are on the autism spectrum, some have Down’s Syndrome, and some have brain damage from birth. They are terrific neighbors: kind, observant and friendly. And a couple of them are my friends: we sit together on the low wall around my front yard and interact with my dog and the various neighborhood dogs and cats that pass by – and the people, but always from a safe distance, as this is a group of people who are particularly vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.
Because of the danger of COVID-19, most of the residents can’t do the daily things that have brought them joy: one that had a job has now lost it because there isn’t enough work. They can’t go to church. They can’t go to the bottle drop center to recycle bottles and cans, something they enjoyed as much for the social aspect as the money. They can’t walk through Goodwill or Walmart. They can’t take mass transit. There are no public festivals. There are few garage sales. And their favorite shows, Live PD and Cops, have been canceled.
A month ago, a sister of one of the residents I’m particularly close to decided to buy him an iPad, so he could watch the church services he’s dearly missing because of the global pandemic, as well as watch videos like the dog videos I regularly record and share on YouTube. I volunteered to try to set it up in such a way that her brother could more easily navigate it. My goal was that, once someone logged into the iPad for him, he could watch the videos he wanted to without someone having to load a video each time. What I imagined was that there’s a particular time of day – let’s say 10 a.m. – when a staff person would log on to the device for him and, from there, he would have just a few clicks to watch and re-watch the videos pre-selected for him, and he could do that for, say, an hour on his own. It was tough to set up: he cannot read, so everything has to be done by easy-to-recognize icons. I don’t think he can remember more than two steps on a device. There can’t be too many things to click on – it will just be a sea of confusing symbols. He’s over 70 and has no experience using any device other than turning a device on or off or changing TV channels manually (he can’t use a remote and a phone is much too complicated for him to operate, even to call someone).
I spent hours looking at the Internet trying to find apps he would enjoy as well, but all seemed too advanced for him. Everything I read about online about apps that people with intellectual disabilities can use required a level of remembering and understanding and reading he just doesn’t have. There are lots of resources for parents to find apps to help their children with intellectual disabilities use an iPad or Android, and there are lots of resources to help people help elderly people use these devices, but resources to help seniors with intellectual disabilities use these devices? THAT has been a fruitless quest.
Here’s how I set it up:
I made three web pages, which are on my own web site, so that I can change them from my own home, without having to take his device back. I have a shortcut to the home page for these pages on the iPad, in the top left corner of the main screen. I wish I could have made the icon a cat or a dog, two images he easily recognizes, but I never could figure out how. The icon also has his name on it, which he does recognize.
I made the icons on the iPad as large as I could (and even then I wish I could have made them larger).
I moved all the icons off the first screen that I don’t want him to use. I left the icon to the web page that I created as his main interface, as well as the shortcuts to YouTube, kids’ YouTube, FaceTime, Zoom, his contacts and the camera button.
I created accounts for him on Google (for YouTube and gmail) and Facebook, and automatic logins for such. He will not use email, but he needed an email account in order to have accounts on things like video-conferencing software his sister might want to use to communicate with him.
After someone signs him in, he clicks on the icon with his name on it and he will come to a web page with three photos on it. One is of his church, one is of his pastor and one is of me. If he clicks on the church photo, he goes to a long list of links that go to church videos on Facebook. If he clicks on the photo of his pastor, he goes to a long list of links to videos his pastor has made, some on Facebook and some on YouTube (singing, puppet ministry, etc.). And if he clicks on the photo of me, he goes to a long list of my animal videos and silly videos on YouTube. He clicks on a link and pushes the play icon, and can watch the video.
Here’s the problem: after the video is done, he doesn’t have the capacity to navigate Facebook or YouTube and go to the next video. Instead, he has to remember to push the home button at the bottom of the device. Then he starts all over: clicking on “his” icon, coming to the web page with the three photos, choosing which “channel” of videos he wants to view, and then choosing a video to watch.
So, how is it going? I can’t observe him using it, and I wasn’t able to train him myself on using it. But in the evenings, I have been sitting out on my wall, talking with the pastor’s wife sitting eight feet away, and my neighbor has come walking over to say, “I saw you on that box thing!” He then recounts seeing her or her daughters singing or her husband preaching. I don’t know how often he watches videos on it, but it seems to be enough to delight him a few times a week. And as we all stay home day after day, being delighted a few times a week is the best we can hope for.
I hope it continues to work out for him. But either no one is thinking about people like him in the development of apps and interfaces, or they are but they’ve made those tools extremely hard to find.
If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
A web site for any company based in the USA that is inaccessible to visitors with visual, auditory, or other disabilities may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to a recent federal appeals court decision in Robles v. Domino’s Pizza. This decision includes nonprofits’ websites, according to “Ninth Circuit Ruling Bolsters ADA Website Accessibility Suits: Risks for Nonprofits,” by DC-based law firm Venable.
But just as important as the legal aspects, a web site that is not designed to be accessible for people with disabilities – people who use verbal screen readers, people who use screen magnifiers, people with mobility issues that use assistive tech and cannot use a mouse, etc. – locks out potential customers, clients, employees, volunteers, donors, and other supporters. People with disabilities in the USA comprise more than 19 percent of the people living in the country, an even larger percentage than Hispanics and Latinos, who are the largest ethnic, racial or cultural minority group in the USA, making up 15 percent of the population. Law or no law, can any nonprofit really afford to leave out so many, many people?
71% of people with disabilities leave a website immediately if it is not accessible, according to 2017 research conducted by the governance committee of Section508.gov in the USA, as quoted on this 3playmedia website.
The population that needs accessible web sites includes people who don’t identify as people with disabilities. People who wear glasses, for instance. I wear reading glasses and have started using the accessibility feature on my laptop and phone that automatically makes text large – but it doesn’t work with a web site that isn’t designed to be responsive to such settings.
You don’t have to be a professional web designer or developer to produce a basic, content-rich web site. You don’t have to be a professional web designer to produce a web site that’s easy to navigate. You don’t have to know most web design and development terms to produce a web site, like HTML, CSS, Java, ARIA, and on and on.
And that’s been wonderful for many nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other mission-based organizations, as well as small, independent artists like musicians, dancers, singers, poets, sculptors, theater troops, photographers and on and on, as most can never afford to pay a professional web designer or developer.
But you do have to involve a professional web designer or developer if you want a web site to have certain advanced features. And you do have to involve a professional web designer or developer if you want your web site to be fully accessible for all users and all devices (mobile phones, tablets, the voice reader in your car, etc.).
That means, for the vast majority of nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other mission-based organizations, as well as for the vast majority of artists, they cannot have fully accessible web sites for all users, because they will never be able to afford to pay a professional web designer or developer.
That means many people with disabilities who want to donate to, volunteer to, or just learn about a small vast majority of nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other mission-based organizations, can’t do any of these things via these programs’ inaccessible web sites. That means many people with disabilities that want to buy a ticket to an upcoming event, to find out where to purchase a CD or poster or book or whatever, to attend a conference about a cause they care about, can’t do any of those things.
A study from 2019 by the nonprofit RespectAbility found that most foundations and nonprofits aren’t doing enough – if anything – to enable people with disabilities to have the access and accommodations they need to fully participate in the work these organizations are doing – not as program participants, as volunteers, even as donors. The study included a review of nonprofits’ websites and online videos. “Philanthropy-serving organizations don’t know what they don’t know and often haven’t even thought about including people with disabilities,” said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, president of RespectAbility. “Even among well-meaning groups who are engaged in a lot on racial and gender equity overall, disability is missing.”
What do we do about nonprofits not being able to afford fully accessible web sites? Anything?
The only program I know of that tries to address nonprofits that want accessible web sites, that tries to help small nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other mission-based organizations to have an accessible web site, as well as artists – just three to 25 organizations at a time – is the Accessibility Internet Rally, a virtual volunteering and web design/development training event by the nonprofit Knowbility. Otherwise… there’s nothing that I know of that is working to educate nonprofits, charities and other small mission-based organizations about digital accessibility – nor educating corporate donors and foundations about why they should fund such.
Are associations of nonprofit organizations going to explore how to address the inaccessibility of web sites for theater companies, dance troops, homeless shelters, nonprofits helping kids explore science, etc.? Are associations of museums, animal shelters, rural arts organizations, and other specific kinds of nonprofits going to at least discuss this?
Are companies that provide ready-to-use, customizable website templates and drag-and-drop web development platforms/web hosts like WordPress, Weebly, Wix, Square Space, Webflow and Jimdo going to address this, other than having a page on their sites that talk a bit about alt-text? (February 4 update: here is an excellent review of some of these sites regarding whether they are capable of creating accessible websites – spoiler alert: they aren’t).
Are companies and foundations that give money to nonprofits going to quit refusing to fund overhead – and, in fact, give special, additional gifts so that nonprofits can hire professional web site designers and developers to build accessible web sites?
Should associations like the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP), G3ict and/or the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) try to address this – or at least discuss it?
Or do we keep telling people with disabilities that want to donate, volunteer and otherwise support or be involved with nonprofits and artists, “Tough luck, they can’t afford to be accessible to you”?
I have no answers to these questions… if you have ideas or comments, I’d love to hear them. I have asked this question on Quora and my own Facebook page and ended up mostly with recommendations for techniques about how to make a website more accessible, rather than answers to how we elevate this as a priority at mission-based organizations.
In the meantime, if you need to make the business case to your board of directors for fundraising so that you can afford to pay a web site designer with accessibility training to build and maintain your site, here are some resources that can help:
And if you want to encourage your web manager, whoever that person is, part-time, full-time, volunteer, whatever: the government of the State of Illinois provides Implementation Guidelines for Web-Based Information and Applications (formerly Illinois Web Accessibility Standards) and, as a non-web site designer, I find it easier to understand than most other guidelines out there. These guidelines are good to ask your web site designer and manager – no matter that person’s web design skill level, to follow. These guidelines from the state of Illinois also provide links to resources from other organizations:
Knowbility has done a few webinars with TechSoup about accessibility for nonprofit organization’s websites and they are available free online on TechSoup. The most recent was this webinar with Knowbility Executive Director and myself in August 2017. This is a good video for anyone who manages your organization’s website, particularly the non-webmaster webmaster – the person who doesn’t have much training in web design but does have the responsibility to update the site.
It might be out of your nonprofit’s price range, but Knowbility also offers several online courses and onsite (Austin, Texas) training events that can raise the skill levels of your web site master regarding accessibility – they are worth looking into if you are looking for training for the person who manages your web site.
January 28, 2020 update: I encourage EVERY company, not just businesses but also nonprofits and NGOs, no matter your business or mission, to take the 2020 State of Digital Accessibility Survey from IAAP, G3ict and Level Access. For nonprofits and NGOs – choose “foundations & charities” as your org type. If you don’t have an accessibility program, don’t have an inclusion strategy, you should still take this survey – because we need to show that such strategies are NOT widespread (and that they should be!).
January 30, 2020 update: There are various web hosts that have ready-to-use templates that say things like “If your website is hosted with us or you are looking to switch to our nonprofit content management system (CMS), we can add an accessibility widget to make your website more accessible. Our widget will allow visitors to easily adjust settings on your website to meet their unique needs.” Among web accessibility experts, add-on accessibility toolbars are referred to as “toolbar overlays.” I asked a website accessibility expert about this and this was his response: “accessibility overlays are a scam and a lie and do not fix the actual problems” and then he linked to this article from Karl Groves and this website, overlaysdontwork.com. I also found this blog that begins: “Thinking about using one of those plugins or widgets that puts an accessibility toolbar on your website? This article will make you think again… What’s ironic is many of the toolbar companies tout the ‘We won’t touch your website code’ line as a selling point when, in fact, this is what buyers should want and expect.
If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) created a web site for the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) initiative called the UNDP-UNV Talent Programme for Young Professionals with Disabilities. It’s a program to recruit people with disabilities to serve as UN Volunteers. Its web site opens with this:
UNDP and UNV commit to leaving no one behind. As part of this commitment, the Talent Programme promotes the inclusion of persons with disabilities into our workplace. The Talent Programme also aims to build a talent pipeline of highly qualified professionals with disabilities who can contribute to the development sector, and to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at national and global levels.
In addition to the grammar problem in the first sentence, the UNDP web site for this initiative leaves lots of people behind: the web site is not accessible for people with disabilities. The web site does not meet even basic accessibility standards as outlined by numerous organizations, including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The UN General Assembly has designated the Department of Global Communications as the focal point for web accessibility in the United Nations, and this UN web site talks about the UN’s commitment to online accessibility – which, unfortunately, UNV and UNDP haven’t followed for their initiative specifically focused on people with disabilities. How can an initiative that says it promotes the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the workplace exclude those same persons online? As someone who has worked for the UN, I know the answer to this question, but shall save that for another time…
Highly qualified professionals with disabilities absolutely can contribute to the development sector and to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at national and international levels. In fact, they do already – if you don’t know that, you truly are not paying attention.
I have worked with highly-skilled people with a variety of disabilities – as employees, consultants and volunteers, online and face-to-face serving as web masters, editors, researchers, designers and more. It’s not unusual for me to find out someone I’ve been working with for weeks or months is, in fact, legally blind, or deaf, or is a person with limited mobility. We meet regarding what they CAN do, not what they cannot, and I’ve benefitted greatly, personally and professionally, from their expertise and talent.
I emailed representatives of UNV and UNDP in early December, saying pretty much the same thing I’ve just blogged, and I tweeted to UNDP and UNV as well. In my post, I also recommend to UNV and UNDP the nonprofit organization Knowbility to help their web designers and developers to fix this dire accessibility issue on the web site.
I got a reply via email on December 11th from “Erik on behalf of the UNDP-UNV Talent Programme for Young Professionals with Disabilities”:
Thank you very much for your feedback. We are aware of the limitations of the websites and currently have teams working on projects that are focused on making them user-friendly and compliant with accessibility standards. Since we launched this initiative, we have been able to reach a wide range of persons with disabilities as evidenced by increased numbers of candidates registered and of applications. We also provide the option to reach out to us in person in case specific assistance or concerns are needed in the application process. As we are a continuously learning organization, our goal is to strive for a fully inclusive working environment and take every opportunity to improve. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Please let us know if we can further assist you in navigating the site.
So, in other words, they mean to say: the site is working just fine, people are applying for this program, people who can’t navigate our website can just email us and we’ll help them with the process, and being a “continuously learning organization”, we can’t be faulted for not having an accessible web site for people with disabilities for a program designed especially for people with disabilities at the get-go. Don’t bother us.
I really hope that UNV and UNDP will realize how bad this makes the agency and this program look, and choose to RAPIDLY remedy this situation regarding the accessibility of their web site for a program meant to increase inclusion of professionals with disabilities. They made a mistake – no excuses. Let’s hope UNV and UNDP not only fix this web site, but make a future commitment to digital inclusion in all of their web sites – especially those that are supposed to cater specifically to people with disabilities.
If you would like to let UNV and UNDP know what you think of the site and their response, I urge you to email these four addresses:
If your nonprofit, school, government program, charity or other mission-based initaitive wants access to the greatest amount of talent and resources that volunteers can possibly bring to your program, you have to make all volunteering as accessible as possible. That means looking for ways to accommodate a myriad of people who have different abilities, needs, personality types and work styles.
Accessibility and diversity are about accommodating everyone, not just people with disabilities or people who are from minority groups. You want to make volunteering as welcoming to the widest number of people possible. – Volunteer expert Susan Ellis.
There may be a fantastic web designer out there who would love to volunteer at your organization, but who also isn’t very talkative and doesn’t make much eye-contact and, therefore, might be seen by some as unfriendly. Is your screening process such that you would still welcome this candidate into your organization?
There may be a fantastic person with the talents, skills and time to run your new volunteer orientations, but she doesn’t have a car. Do you have clear guidelines on your web site on how to get to your agency by mass transit?
There may be a fantastic writer out there who could tell stories about your organization in such a way as to move new donors to open their pocketbooks and new volunteers to sign up to help, but who also legally blind. Is your web site accessible so that that fantastic writer can read your web site and blog and online newsletter with an accessibility screen reader?
There may be a fantastic graphic designer out there who could do amazing work for your organization online and in your print material, but who also uses a wheelchair for mobility, or has no transportation to get to your work site. Could that volunteer with the mobility issues get through your front door for an interview? Would you be willing to have your mandatory interview online via Skype? Would you be willing to accommodate the volunteer through virtual volunteering?
Do you have a diversity of tasks – some that can be done by someone sitting at a desk, others that require a lot of movement, maybe even carrying things and walking a lot? Some that don’t require a volunteer to interact much with others and some that require a volunteer to regularly interact and help others? Some that put volunteers together as a group? Some that allow volunteers to provide service for a few hours on a Saturday, without any ongoing commitment? Leadership roles? Some that require expertise, some that don’t require any? Some that can be done during regular work hours and some that can be done on evenings or weekends?
Of course, not every volunteer role can accommodate everyone: a role may absolutely require a person with a clear, understandable speaking voice. Or may require someone that can carry a certain amount of weight and walk a certain distance. Or to interact regularly with other people. Or may require structural changes to a building that are too expensive for your program to afford. Or may require a volunteer to be calm and thoughtful in highly stressful situations and to be able to manage the anxiety that can arise from such work. But thinking about ways to accommodate a variety of people at your organization as volunteers will give your program access to an amazing range of talent, skills, energy and knowledge you will miss out on otherwise.
And one more thing: nonprofits, NGOs, charities and others MUST take a leadership role in creating community cohesion, in the face of the rise of violent extremism all over the world, including the USA, and the increasing belief in demonizing the “other” – people of a particular religion (or no religion at all), people of a particular ethnicity, immigrants, people with mental illness and more. It’s a bold, vital statement to make your program’s volunteer engagement as inclusive as possible, as representative of everyone in your community as possible. It’s a practice and state that affirms to everyone – board members, consultants, EVERYONE – that your organization makes inclusion and accessibility a priority.
If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
In July 2018 the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) appointed a panel to consider the question of “digital cooperation” – the ways we work together to address the social, ethical, legal and economic impact of digital technologies in order to maximize their benefits and minimize their harm. The Secretary-General asked the panel to consider how digital cooperation can contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the ambitious agenda to protect people and the planet endorsed by 193 UN member states in 2015. He also asked the panel to consider models of digital cooperation to advance the debate surrounding governance in the digital sphere.
The Co-Chairs of the panel are Melinda Gates (USA), representing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Jack Ma (China), Executive Chairman of the Alibaba Group. Ex officio members are Amandeep Singh Gill (India) and Jovan Kurbalija (Serbia) of the Secretariat of the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation. Members of the panel that contributed to the report include:
Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi (UAE), Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, UAE
Yuichiro Anzai (Japan), Senior Advisor and Director of Center for Science Information Analysis, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Nikolai Astrup (Norway), Former Minister of International Development, now Minister of Digitalisation, Norway
Vinton Cerf (USA), Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
Fadi Chehadé (USA), Chairman, Chehadé & Company
Sophie Soowon Eom (Republic of Korea), Founder of Adriel AI and Solidware
Isabel Guerrero Pulgar (Chile), Executive Director, IMAGO Global Grassroots and Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School
Marina Kaljurand (Estonia), Chair of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace
Bogolo Kenewendo (Botswana), Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Botswana
Marina Kolesnik (Russian Federation), senior executive, entrepreneur and WEF Young Global Leader
Doris Leuthard (Switzerland), former President and Federal Councillor of the Swiss Confederation, Switzerland
Cathy Mulligan (United Kingdom), Visiting Researcher, Imperial College London and Chief Technology Officer of GovTech Labs at University College London
Akaliza Keza Ntwari (Rwanda), ICT advocate and entrepreneur
Edson Prestes (Brazil), Professor, Institute of Informatics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Kira Radinsky (Israel), Director of Data Science, eBay
Nanjira Sambuli (Kenya), Senior Policy Manager, World Wide Web Foundation
Jean Tirole (France), Chairman of the Toulouse School of Economics and the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse
From the report:
Our dynamic digital world urgently needs improved digital cooperation and that we live in an age of digital interdependence. Such cooperation must be grounded in common human values – such as inclusiveness, respect, human-centredness, human rights, international law, transparency and sustainability. In periods of rapid change and uncertainty such as today, these shared values must be a common light which helps guide us…
We need to bring far more diverse voices to the table, particularly from developing countries and traditionally marginalised groups, such as women, youth, indigenous people, rural populations and older people…
The resulting report focuses on three broad sets of interlocking issues, each of which is discussed in one subsequent chapter:
Leaving No One Behind argues that digital technologies will help progress towards the full sweep of the SDGs only if we think more broadly than the important issue of access to the internet and digital technologies
Individuals, Societies and Digital Technologies underscores the fact that universal human rights apply equally online as offline, but that there is an urgent need to examine how time-honored human rights frameworks and conventions should guide digital cooperation and digital technology.
Mechanisms for Global Digital Cooperation analyses gaps in the current mechanisms of global digital cooperation, identifies the functions of global digital cooperation needed to address them, and outlines three sets of modalities on how to improve our global digital cooperation architecture – which build on existing structures and arrangements in ways consistent with our shared values and principles.
Some of my observations about the report:
I like the three broad sets of interlocking issues.
I was very pleased to see so much emphasis on countering misinformation and on the need to use online tools to build trust and social cohesion.
The date of the publication is nowhere to be found on the report. I think it was published in June 2019.
The term non-governmental organization (NGO) is never mentioned in the report. Not once.
Activists nor activism is never mentioned in the report. None once.
The phrase civil society is used. Does that include the work of NGOs, or activists, including those opposed to government or promoting alternative strategies to those being promoted by more mainstream international NGOs, all of whom mobilize people to engage online as consumers, clients, campaigners, supporters, proponents, opponents of activities by corporations/businesses and the government?
People with disabilities and their unique needs regarding access digital technologies are lumped in with other marginalized groups, which ignores the unique needs of people different kinds of sight impairments, people with hearing impairments, people with different mobility issues, and a range of other physical and intellectual challenges that people creating online tools do not design for. And there’s no mention that improving accessibility for people with disabilities improves access for EVERYONE. The scant references, lumped in with other marginalized groups, are easy to find: just look for the word “disabilities.” This would have been remedied if the panel had included Sharron Rush (USA), of Knowbility or anyone from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
For the next year or two, this report will be used to justify what any UN initiative does regarding ICT4D – and used to dissuade other proposals, like supporting the needs of human rights activists online, or initiatives that make a centerpiece of promoting accessible web design. And given those ommissions, it’s a mixed bag – a followup is most definitely needed to address this.
I really love this and I would love to see this guide built into all hackathons / hacks4good, the development of apps4good, etc.:
Ethical OS Toolkit: a guide to anticipating the future of impact of today’s technology Or: how to not regret the things you will build
I have only one disappointment with the guide, but I’ll save that for the end of the blog.
This is from the guide, and explains why this document is needed:
As technologists, it’s only natural that we spend most of our time focusing on how our tech will change the world for the better. Which is great. Everyone loves a sunny disposition. But perhaps it’s more useful, in some ways, to consider the glass half empty. What if, in addition to fantasizing about how our tech will save the world, we spent some time dreading all the ways it might, possibly, perhaps, just maybe, screw everything up? No one can predict exactly what tomorrow will bring (though somewhere in the tech world, someone is no doubt working on it). So until we get that crystal ball app, the best we can hope to do is anticipate the long-term social impact and unexpected uses of the tech we create today.
The last thing you want is to get blindsided by a future YOU helped create. The Ethical OS is here to help you see more clearly.
The guide includes:
A checklist of 8 risk zones to help you identify the emerging areas of risk and social harm most critical for your team to start considering now.
14 scenarios to spark conversation and stretch your imagination about the long-term impacts of tech you’re building today.
7 future-proofing strategies to help you take ethical action today.
The guide has lots of discussion questions that developers can explore. It’s not so much that the questions have right or wrong answers – they are meant to spur consideration of how a new technology meant to help people could be misused, something that all too many developers DON’T think about.
The guide also has suggested questions for board members and trustees to ask themselves about tech development, so they can understand the possible risks to their organizations as a result of use of the app.
My only disappointment with the guide – and it’s a BIG disappointment – is that the section on Economic & Asset Inequalities never mentions accessibility for people with disabilities. When tech tools are not accessible for people who have sight impairments, people who have hearing impairments, people with mobility issues, etc., those tools create economic and asset inequalities. It’s really inexcusable that this wasn’t mentioned even once.
Some other blog posts regarding tech4good and work ethics:
– You are available to be in Austin, Texas, USA May 15-17, 2019 for AccessU
– You are a skilled practitioner in the field of web and app accessibility
– You are a great teacher
– You want to share practical skills that make the web and other online tools better for everyone
– You find it incredibly difficult to say no to fun
AccessU is the time of year where some of the most amazing instructors in this field get to roll up their sleeves, let their hair loose (here’s lookin’ at you, Denis Boudreau), and dive in as they share their expertise in a hands-on, practical training environment. In addition to valuable networking opportunities and free breakfasts/lunches each day, AccessU instructors receive a complimentary conference badge for Knowbility’s 2.5 day conference from Wednesday, May 15 to Friday, May 17, 2019.
Proposal notifications will be sent by email for each submission no later than February 10, 2019 at 11:59pm CST.
Just want to attend AccessU and soak up the knowledge? Get 2019 tickets at 2018 prices. Sale ends on December 31, 2018, or once the limited seats are gone (only 50 of each ticket type!). Ticket information and pricing at the AccessU web site.
I really love this and I would love to see this guide built into all hackathons / hacks4good, the development of apps4good, etc.:
Knowbility’s