internet4DBP - Blending diversity into the digital world!

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Angela Matlapeng | Jul 14, 2020 | in Digital change-maker challenge | Digital inclusion

Define three specific objectives that you would like to achieve with your proposal.

1. To capacitate at least 1000 deaf, blind and the deaf-blind community members on the internet and its usage, cyber security & online safety, and available accessibility tools by 2022.

2. To create a safe platform that will promote the interest of content development for and by the deaf and the blind persons to portray diversity as well as more visibility in mainstream and alternative media. 

3. To encourage and facilitate the active participation of the deaf, the blind and deaf-blind associations/communities as stakeholders in internet policy development processes and internet governance issues.

What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?

The Deaf and the Blind communities from Botswana are not represented in large numbers in internet governance and policy forums – According to an interview responded to by the programmes coordinators from both associations, BABPS and BOAD aren’t aware of ITU, IGF, ICANN, ISOC or any other organization that facilitates internet policy development.

The recent 2019 Botswana statistics report on Household Access to ICT indicates that 244,268 have no internet access, from this number, less than 5% gave physical disability as a reason to no access. However, the report is still not conclusive on the numbers of the persons with disability who has access to internet and smart mobile phones as the demographics used to conduct the study were just location, age, gender, and education level. A follow up interview to the associations revealed that about 80% of the blind have mobile phones and about 70% of the visually impaired have mobile devices, and both associations say that most do have access to internet even if its not necessarily at their homes, they use public Wi-Fi and library internet. However, the associations do not regularly conduct training on accessibility tools or really monitor progress of those using these tools.

For a population of about 28000 visually impaired persons in Botswana, there is an e-Library with only two computers installed with assistive software that turns text to voice says the programme manager at BABPS.

the bw ccTLD has experienced a growth in new domains being registered over the two months lock down period (April – May 2020) of which 440/480 were co.bw (for profit company). Different services and products have migrated online for convenience sake. However, not all websites are built with accessibility in mind and risk the visually impaired population trusting those who see to assist them while visiting these sites, and this has sometimes caused them concerns with having their private data at the disposal of the one assisting.

The communications sectorial CIRT at BOCRA have observed over 10 000 vulnerabilities caused by user behaviour during the two months lock down period (April -May 2020). Most threats came because of media such as movies, music, books etc, being downloaded from non-whitelisted peer-to-peer connections and torrents. Such activities make the whole country including our deaf and blind communities susceptible to attacks like ransomware, data mining malware and crypto mining caused by botnet infections that are attached to these unsolicited downloads.

From an interview conducted, both associations indicated that they have very little knowledge about cyber security and currently are not running any cyber security awareness programs both at office level and within the communities they are responsible for.

Anyone can go online and find some content about these communities especially from events they carry out. However, very little content online including on social media comes from members of these communities.

Value chain analysis shows that not much focus is put into targeting special interest groups by reducing/removing communication barriers and emphasizing on special needs services, and this is harming the supply chain competitiveness if people can't effectively use the internet to reach services and products. The BOCRA CIRT has had to deal with fake news and warning people against scams. If anyone can be phished, how do we then ensure that the deaf and the blind communities online do not also fall victim and that they have access to an internet with integrity? How do we ensure that their data is protected online, that they are able to discern what is fake and real news, and that young people from these communities don't become victims of cyber bullying which has taken its toll on the number of suicidal teens and young adults across the world?

What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?

Lack of participation from the deaf and the blind communities in internet governance and policy development fora – internet4DBP will stimulate conversations relating to the internet usage, safety and accessibility among these communities through the initiative, to encourage them to want to take part in forums and meetings that are centred around policy development and relate the importance of doing that. We will ensure that the associations sign up for memberships like ISOC, IGFs, and facilitate for sponsorship so they can go for study groups at ITU relating to accessibility and even attend ICANN's community meetings were they can voice out their concerns with first-hand information and experience.

Not all are connected, not all are conversant with accessibility tools – internet4DBP will facilitate sponsorships to connect all members of the community and increase resources in e-Libraries to be enough to serve these populations. We will run tutorial programs to simplify the use of accessibility and assistive tools on mobile devices and computers used by the deaf and the blind communities.

Lack of integration of accessibility in Botswana websites – internet4DBP will liaise with Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority which is the secretariat to a local technical working group developing the minimum security guidelines for emails and websites hosting, to advice on adding accessibility integration as one of the security guidelines to be used by website and mobile developers, and this will help keep private data private to the individuals from these communities as relying for help from other people will reduce.

Heightened cybercrime risk – Besides making accessibility a priority and making sure our special interest groups are confident and reliant on their assistive tools, internet4DBP will also focus on changing culture to promote cybersecurity hygiene (e.g. using strong passwords) through capacity building programs especially designed for the associations’ employees who handle the sensitive/personal information of members of these communities, as well as conduct awareness on staying safe online for the deaf and the blind.

Lack of content online by members of the deaf and the blind communities – I grew up watching Mr Bean, an individual with a disorder known as selective mutism which made him unable to speak in some social settings. However, he was the funniest person I first came across, even doing much better than some stand-up comedians. Similarly, through my interactions with the blind and the deaf, I have witnessed first-hand their talents, skills, and abilities. Internet4DBP will create a conducive environment to harness and nurture these communities, always looking out for opportunities to advance their exposure and marketing. We will also aid in putting services and products offered by the deaf and the blind communities online through e-commerce platforms.

Apart from the above mentioned solutions, the internet4DBP will also facilitate online support communities for the deaf and the blind internet users. Here the members will interact with each other on relevant topics, assist each other in figuring things out on the internet and engage in peer counselling. 

Internet4DBP will also introduce fun computer skills such programming to encourage community members to enrol in computer science and other computer related majors, and ultimately not have to leave their homes to find jobs as they too get absorbed into the ICT jobs.

In the long run, we wish to turn this initiative into a foundation.

Share your story (your narrative)

In my late teens through a youth church program, I started volunteering at the school of the blind and a rehabilitation institution for children with disabilities. This was a life changing experience taping into the world of a community that wasn't always out there. These children were a happy bunch, enthusiastic and some even more confident than I. As a lover of arts, I noticed many were talented poets  and dancer, even story tellers. In 2012, the church took an initiative to introduce sign language to encourage the hard of hearing and deaf youth to participate. This was the year I was introduced to sign language for the first time through the now Executive Director of the Botswana Association of the Deaf/Botswana Federation of Disabled (BOFOD) who is also a member of my church. I was ore than intrigued to  learn this language and caught real fast such that our youth choir begun to sing along signing.  As time went on i interacted more with these communities and begun to observe their way of life.  Despite what seemed to be a sight for pity for most community members, these young people radiated so much positive energy to say the least.

Last year 2019, through my new job as ccTLD Admin, I begun to be exposed to internet forums and organizations that had a mission to make the internet better and available to all. I begun to sit with policy makers and attended meetings around internet governance as well.  Here i also observed that a multi-stakeholder approach was used, however I had not seen any member representing the special interest groups nor heard any discussion towards their inclusion. With this observation, I began to participate more and ask ore questions on what was done to include special interest groups in the business of the internet and to my disappointment no concrete answers and prove was given, except for vague ones like "we always try to include them in our programs". This worried me because universal access and cyber security and child online protection were hot topics being discussed in and around our country yet as focus groups were being formed to address this issues, it seemed like the special interest groups were lacking behind in participation.

What pushed me to compete with this initiative is because of a very recent event that caught my attention. During the country's response to Covid-19, the associations of special interest groups had been doing  their best to disseminate information to their different community members about the pandemic until  the Botswana Association of the Deaf made an official complaint to the Director of disability at the Office of the President about the one and only national television - BTV, raising their  dissatisfaction about  critical updates and information that was being missed by the interpreters used by the national television. It was resolved that that interpreters needed to be frequently monitored and evaluated, and most importantly they need to be retooled in order to align with  sign language standard. The association also mentioned that since covid-19 is an unfamiliar disease, it difficult to communicate about it accurately as it is not something people are used to interpreting on.

From this same incident, I figured that since cyber security and online safety are also fairly new topics to Botswana that are giving even the leaders in ICT a challenge, what more of the normal users including our special focus groups who also need to worry about accessibility on the internet. As businesses migrate online, users are at risk of loosing their moneys to scams and having their personal data misused or leaked due to cyber crime and not being able to implement measures of online safety.  For the deaf and the blind communities, going online for services means that they should be aware of accessibility tools in their devices.

I also went on social media and the web to look for content from our country concerning the special interest groups but so little was found. However I started following DeafNation and ASLsociety on social media and the likes of  Heather Lawson, Tommy Edison just to mention a few who have truly inspired me by using the internet to upload catchy content and spread awareness about their communities.

While the recent 2019 Botswana statistics report on Household Access to ICT indicates that 244,268 have no internet  access, from this number, less than 5% gave physical disability as a reason to no access. However the report is still not conclusive on the numbers of the persons with disability who has access to internet and smart mobile phones as the demographics used  to conduct the study were just location, age, gender and education level. Therefore  a follow up survey is necessary to investigate  not just on internet penetration but as well as on awareness and safe internet usage as well as accessibility.  Through the country's associations for special interest groups, I was able to conduct a further study to reveal the needs of my target groups, who have shown much enthusiasm to be part of this initiative.

With the internet4DBP initiative, we will continue to perform drilled down studies on the deaf and the  blind populations to measure the impact of the initiative  on capacity building, content development and active participation of members in internet governance and policy issues.

To all leaders and experts out in the internet space who are doing a related work, or those who have interested in this initiative, I sincerely ask for your helping hand in any contribution possible, be it research, more ideas to beef up the initiative, bench marking, expertise & skills, and more. I wish to see this initiative come to live as it will not only help our country but Africa as well as many of our regional countries face a similar cry. Together we can achieve an inclusive and safe internet which will present opportunities for the deaf and the blind communities to have an online presence, have businesses, show case their talents and tell the world a different story. The internet is the perfect tool to fight stigmatization. 

Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.

The internet remains a fundamental enabler of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the perfect tool that has proven its capability to reach far and influence others beyond physical borders. We can use it to  to push back against general biases, phobias and misconceptions about persons with disabilities.  Most important, cyber safety and security should be every internet user's right, and if so, we all deserve to know about and understand internet safety guidelines, and to be protected from cyber crime. Finally, we should remember that it is not internet for all or universal access if it is not inclusive of all communities!

Your Final Proposal for challenge

yes