State of the World's Children 2013 - Unicef

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PERSPECTIVE End the ‘book famine’ with better technology, attitudes and copyright law By Kartik Sawhney Kartik Sawhney is a nationalaward-winning high school student in New Delhi, India. He is active in advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities and is a member of the Leonard Cheshire Disability Young Voices network. Visually impaired people face what at least one writer has called a ‘book famine’. This is not news to us: The visually challenged and printimpaired have been struggling for accessibility for a long time. ‘Accessibility’ is an all-encompassing term that includes access to the physical environment, transportation, information and communication technology, education and other facilities. In my view, it is crucial that accessible material be readily available. The urgency is even greater when we consider the situation in developing nations. When I conducted an informal survey of nearly 60 visually challenged students in primary and secondary grades in mainstream schools in India, I found that less than 20 per cent of them had access to material in their preferred format, and less than 35 per cent to material in any format. Being visually challenged, I’ve had several experiences where lack of accessibility has impeded me from availing myself of the same opportunities as others. The effort needed to make reading material accessible is monumental. Thanks to advances in optical character recognition (OCR) – a technology that converts printed, handwritten or typewritten text into machine-encoded text, making it possible for computerized voices to read the text aloud – there has been some improvement. However, technical content remains inaccessible. I spend around two hours a day typing out the printed material from my science and math classes, for example, because OCR software cannot read diagrams and special symbols with sufficient accuracy. The plight of rural students is even worse: They depend on humans to read volumes of information aloud to them. For instance, my friends in a small village have no option but to rely completely on volunteers who come by weekly. Even much online content cannot be read by standard screen reading utilities, primarily as a result of the varying standards and platforms used by authors and designers. Although the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has produced guidelines for websites to follow in order to ensure a wonderful 82 THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2013: Children with Disabilities
Being visually challenged, I’ve had several experiences where lack of accessibility has impeded me from availing myself of the same opportunities as others. experience for all, this vision is far from achieved. I come across websites daily that are not W3C-standard compliant. This calls for greater scrutiny by not only governments, but also civil society, academia and international organizations. The Government of India has taken steps to bring about a positive change on this front; it now offers a National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in the category of ‘Best Accessible Website’. This incentive drives organizations to make their websites accessible. If applied by enough countries, such measures could usher in a revolution. This is not just a matter for governments: Anyone can make a positive difference. I recall a historic achievement made in 2011 by a group of visually challenged youth in Bangalore, India. Preparing for the entrance exams to prestigious business schools in the country, they contacted the well-known educational publisher Pearson Education and requested that they publish their material in an accessible format. Pearson agreed and has since then made much of their material available for the visually challenged. However, not all publishers are as sensitive and understanding. Lack of awareness and insensitivity are two of the biggest challenges. Unless – until – there is a paradigm shift in attitudes towards people who are visually challenged, it will be difficult to overcome the challenges that plague the print-impaired community today. But there is another barrier to access – a political and legal, not technical or attitudinal, one. Currently, only 57 countries have amended their copyright laws to provide concessions for people with visual impairments. Thus, providing e-books for the visually challenged is unfortunately still considered an infringement of copyright in many countries – and this prevents local publishers from helping out within the community. For a young student, these facts are extremely disturbing: Since most countries have pledged to provide maximum support and cooperation for the welfare and empowerment of persons with disabilities, there turns out to be a vast difference between the laws on paper and actual, real-world implementation. The need of the hour is to translate words into action. I suggest an international body to oversee implementation of international disability legislation, to the extent that it does not violate national sovereignty. Copyright law must be amended. I hope that countries will continue to work on the legal framework, and that the United Nations will take action towards a referendum on this issue. With concerted effort, I believe we will secure this inalienable right for all people with disabilities, everywhere: the right to access all material! AN AGENDA FOR ACTION 83
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THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN
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THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN
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FOREWORD Is there a child who does
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FOCUS Violence against children wit
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Reports such
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Under the Convention on the Rights
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People with disabilities are becomi
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Education is the key to stopping th
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(continued from p. 3) the right to
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CHAPTER 2 FUNDAMENTALS OF INCLUSION
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hierarchy and traditional expectati
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to education and health-care servic
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An inclusive kindergarten in Nizhny
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Assistive technology products Categ
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We need to make media more accessib
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CHAPTER 3 A STRONG FOUNDATION Good
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Early childhood stunting, which is
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are particularly important. Develop
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the needs of all children. In an in
Page 39 and 40: Look at Hanif and you will see that
Page 41 and 42: terms for 20 schools at a time, wit
Page 43 and 44: epilepsy. The ketogenic diet is an
Page 45 and 46: Reading Braille at a school in Ugan
Page 47 and 48: Saja opened my eyes to my own abili
Page 49 and 50: CHAPTER 4 ESSENTIALS OF PROTECTION
Page 51 and 52: Independent States, institutionaliz
Page 53 and 54: Children with disabilities are at g
Page 55 and 56: It is much harder to protect childr
Page 57 and 58: CHAPTER 5 HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE Hum
Page 59 and 60: Explosive remnants of war (ERW) on
Page 61 and 62: esist, than children without disabi
Page 63 and 64: Since monitoring began in 1999, the
Page 65 and 66: FOCUS (continued) Child casualties
Page 67 and 68: Child casualties by type of explosi
Page 69 and 70: If people with disabilities can’t
Page 71 and 72: CHAPTER 6 MEASURING CHILD DISABILIT
Page 73 and 74: Mental Development Scale, 120 canno
Page 75 and 76: single set of questions for both gr
Page 77 and 78: FOCUS Lessons learned Since 1995, U
Page 79 and 80: A strategy for intervention on beha
Page 81 and 82: Data can be hard to gather: Indigen
Page 83 and 84: CHAPTER 7 AN AGENDA FOR ACTION The
Page 85 and 86: discrimination is vital in reducing
Page 87 and 88: I would like to be confident that w
Page 89: Support families The CRC states tha
Page 93 and 94: Six-year-old Nemanja (far left) sit
Page 95 and 96: We [in government] must understand
Page 97 and 98: 33 South African Disability Institu
Page 99 and 100: 106 Mental Disability Rights Intern
Page 101 and 102: Statistical Tables Economic and soc
Page 103 and 104: under-five mortality rate (per 1,00
Page 105 and 106: TABLE 10. THE RATE OF pROGRESS The
Page 107 and 108: under-five mortality rankings The f
Page 109 and 110: TABLE 1 BASIC INdICATORS Countries
Page 111 and 112: TABLE 1 BASIC INdICATORS Countries
Page 113 and 114: TABLE 2 NuTRITION Countries and are
Page 115 and 116: TABLE 2 NuTRITION Countries and are
Page 117 and 118: TABLE 3 HEALTH Countries Use of imp
Page 119 and 120: Countries Use of improved drinking
Page 121 and 122: TABLE 4 HIV/AIdS Prevention among y
Page 123 and 124: TABLE 4 HIV/AIdS Prevention among y
Page 125 and 126: TABLE 5 education Countries and are
Page 127 and 128: TABLE 5 EduCATION Countries and are
Page 129 and 130: TABLE 6 dEmOGRApHIC INdICATORS Coun
Page 131 and 132: TABLE 6 dEmOGRApHIC INdICATORS Coun
Page 133 and 134: TABLE 7 ECONOmIC INdICATORS Countri
Page 135 and 136: TABLE 7 ECONOmIC INdICATORS Countri
Page 137 and 138: TABLE 8 WOmEN Countries and areas L
Page 139 and 140: TABLE 8 WOmEN Countries and areas L
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TABLE 9 CHILd pROTECTION Countries
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TABLE 9 CHILd pROTECTION Countries
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TABLE 10 THE RATE OF pROGRESS Count
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TABLE 10 THE RATE OF pROGRESS Count
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TABLE 11 AdOLESCENTS Countries and
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TABLE 11 AdOLESCENTS Countries and
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TABLE 12 disparities by residence C
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TABLE 12 dISpARITIES By RESIdENCE C
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TABLE 13 dISpARITIES By HOuSEHOLd W
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TABLE 13 dISpARITIES By HOuSEHOLd W
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TABLE 14 EARLy CHILdHOOd dEVELOpmEN
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