Equal access for the disabled

Telecommunication has become such an integral part of our lives now that we cannot even imagine how we could have survived in the past without those telephones and mobiles. Keeping in touch and communicating with each other is a much-felt need for all human beings. Everyone including the disabled or differently-abled persons in society need access to telecommunications.

This is why the 2008 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, which is commemorated on May 17, has chosen as its theme ‘Connecting persons with disabilities’ so that telecom-related services and equipment would be made available to everyone in society even if they are among the differently abled.

This special day, World Telecommunications Day, as it used to be known, was organised by the International Telecommunication Union to provide people with special needs the right to information and to encourage them to participate equally in all activities, to enhance public awareness about the benefits of communication, making information and communication more accessible to people residing in under-developed countries and increasing the global reach of technology across all nations and socio-economic strata (layers).