ITA celebrates World Information Society Day 2008

The celebrations took place under the patronage of Dr. Sharifa bint Khalfan Al Yahya'eyah, Minister of Social Development at the Intercontinental Hotel - Jibreen Ballroom.

According to Dr. Salim Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, 'ITA has been joining the world to celebrate this day since 2006. This year's theme is 'Connecting Persons with Disabilities: ICT Opportunities for All', to address the special requirements of persons with disabilities and we will be honouring the visually impaired students with laptops and a specialised screen reader software'.

Mideast Data Systems (MDS) is the main sponsor of this event with Omantel, Qalhat LNG, Oman Oil Company, OmanMobile and Gulf Business Machines (GBM) as co-sponsors. All these sponsors have generously donated cash incentives, computers and laptops to visually impaired students and non-profit associations for the visually impaired. Further, MDS is also supporting an IT trainer to be trained at the Qatar center for the blind.

The World Summit on the Information Society, through the Geneva Plan of Action, urged Member States to address the special requirements of persons with disabilities in their national e-strategies and encouraged the design and production of ICT equipment and services suited to their needs, including adherence to the Universal Design Principle and use of assistive technologies. A further call was made for research and development to facilitate accessibility of ICT for all, including people with disabilities.

The World Information Society Day 2008, calls for action from all stakeholders to raise awareness of the need to adopt policies and strategies that would meet the ICT needs of persons with disabilities by ensuring that both equipment and services are accessible.

Oman's focus this year on meeting the ICT needs of persons with disabilities is aimed at empowering every citizen with information and knowledge, improving the lines of communication to the remotest and most vulnerable groups and building an inclusive information society geared towards the advancement of a better, more peaceful and productive world.