Activity Plan/2022

ISOC Accessibility Standing Group Activity Plan 2022

Vision statement

Our vision is digital inclusion for persons with disabilities. This means that the Internet and its benefits are fully and equally accessible to and independently usable by persons with disabilities.

Description of what SG does

• Promote and advocate the digital inclusion of persons with disabilities by providing support, strategies, and mechanisms that enable us to access our digital rights
• Raise awareness about digital inclusion with policy-makers, decision-makers and developers
• Build and share expertise in digital inclusion in terms of training, mentoring and support

Internet Society’s Mission

The mission of the Internet Society is for the Internet to be open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy. In that vein, ISOC supports and promotes the development of the Internet as a global technical infrastructure, a resource to enrich people’s lives, and a force for good in society. By promoting digital inclusion for persons with disability who comprise 15% of the global population, the Accessibility Standing Group closely aligns with ISOC’s mission. The Internet is for Everyone!

Goals

Long-term goals

• To change the perception on accessibility by policy-makers, decision-makers and developers so that accessibility is addressed right from the start
• To erase barriers to accessing digital services for people with disabilities, ensuring that we are able to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services within the same timeframe as individuals without disabilities, with substantially equivalent ease of use.
• To create new leaders who are strong advocates for improving accessibility in the Internet eco-system

Goals in next two years

Building understanding about accessibility through:

• partnerships with key organizations
• promotion and communications
• training and mentoring* Implementation of a pilot program for training emerging leaders among persons with disabilities
• Improved digital inclusion for persons with disabilities in the Internet Society

Short-term goal in 2022

Building understanding about accessibility through:

• partnerships with key organizations
• promotion and communications
• training and mentoring

Activities for 2022

Ongoing liaison and cooperation with ISOC staff on ensuring the accessibility of ISOC content, policy and practice

Our plan is to work closely with the ISOC internal working group on accessibility and other ISOC staff. Actions include providing feedback on ISOC’s training module on accessible content, ensuring that any tools used are accessible, and work on the development of an accessibility statement and framework. Further input will be on encryption, privacy, training and accessibility. We anticipate that this will be a productive relationship on a number of accessibility issues going forwards.

Build partnerships with ISOC staff, Chapters, SIGs/SGs, disability and non-profit organizations, NRIs, and Schools of Internet Governance

We have already partnered with the Asia Pacific School of Internet Governance and will build on this with other Schools of Internet Governance. We also partner with ISOC staff as discussed above.

As well, we wish to gather information from Chapters, SIGs and other SGs about their events and activities to ensure that they are accessible to all. This may lead to new partnerships. Key organisations such as G3ict, Zero Project, IAAP, BillionStrong and Valuable 500 will be approached. We have links with NRIs and their networks on accessibility issues and will develop that further.

Develop an interactive online course for training emerging leaders with disabilities about Internet governance.

We are partnering with Asia Pacific School of Internet Governance to deliver a face-to-face workshop on disability digital rights and Internet Governance as phase one of a project to expand disability leadership in South Asia. Funding will be sought by APSIG to ISIF Asia to support and mentor further advocacy and outreach in participants’ own countries and beyond as part of phase 2. A key component of phase 2 is the development of an interactive online training course to facilitate a wider reach. This is a pilot project to be evaluated for adoption in other regions.

Learning @ Internet Society has indicated significant interest in the development and running of the online interactive course. Discussions are underway. This course aims to be a model for accessibility. The action plan budget includes indicative costing for components of the course such as inset sign language interpretation and captioning as well as underlying accessibility features of the learning platform.

Launch a communication campaign targeting different stakeholders each year such as businesses, web/app designers, developers, project managers, education community and policy makers.

For each targeted community, specific content will be designed (eg. for designers/developers, a country/regional level annual digital accessibility challenge can be organized). For organizations/businesses we will focus on the benefits of complying with digital accessibility standards and the costs of not complying (legal costs, impact on the reputation etc) as well as the positive aspects of ICT accessibility criteria in public procurement.

Each year a particular target stakeholder group and/or country/region may be targeted.

In 2022, it will be a six month campaign due to funding potentially available mid-year. We are considering conducting a pilot campaign targeting business in a country where the government has accessibility legislation/regulation.

3 key messages will be delivered via email, LinkedIn, Google display and Facebook for business with a dedicated landing page.

3 webinars will be organized targeting business each based on one of the key messages.

The table below summarizes the communication actions for 2022.

Target	Key message	The channel/medium	Time
Business	1/ Your business can reach 15% more potential customers by making your digital services accessible for people with disabilities.	* Google display * LinkedIn * Facebook business * Emailing	6 months
2/ Avoid legal penalties by making your digital services accessible to persons with disabilities.	* Google display * LinkedIn * Facebook business * Emailing	6 months
3/ ICT accessibility becomes a criteria for supplying the government. Put the odds in your favor.	* Google display * LinkedIn * Facebook business * Emailing	6 months
Develop and deliver one message each per webinar t	Webinar	3 webinars

• In addition to the communications campaign to business, members of the leadership team will find external travel funding to give presentations and participate at national, regional and global Internet conferences and meetings. Promotion of existing resources such as the ISOC Accessibility Toolkit will be part of this communications campaign as well as networking with the Internet community. Three members of the leadership team have submitted three separate workshop proposals to the APrIGF. We will also organise a workshop proposal to the IGF. The need for business cards is important for profiling the ISOC Accessibility Standing Group. These will be produced with 3D-UV Braille.

• In addition, we will arrange an annual meeting with members.

Key Performance Indicators

• Accessibility features developed for online training course
• The number of partnerships developed
• Number of views and clicks on social media
• Number of webinars/seminars delivered

Targets

Goal	Activity	KPI	Target
Building understanding about accessibility through: partnerships with key organizations	Build partnerships with ISOC staff, Chapters, SIGs/SGs, disability and non-profit organizations, NRIs, and Schools of Internet Governance	The number of partnerships developed	5 partnerships developed in 2022
Building understanding about accessibility through: promotion and communications	Spread key messages to business sector in designated country/region as a pilot by google ads, social media, flyers, and webinars	- Number of views / clicks by the target community (Google display, LinkedIn, Facebook) -Total number of actions (Email, webinars). -Number of businesses reached.	Views: Google 15K, Linkedin 1K, Fb 10K Clicks: Google 3000, Linkedin 500 Fb 3000 Businesses reached by email: 100 Total no. of webinars : 3
General accessibility promotion campaign on social media	Number of posts and tweets via social media	25 posts
	Workshop presentations at Internet conferences/meetings	Number of presentations	7 presentations
Building understanding about accessibility through: training, mentoring and support	Incorporate accessibility features in content modules for training emerging leaders with disability about Internet governance	Sign language and captions incorporated on an accessible learning platform	4 modules with accessibility built-in

Budget

Item no.	Activity name	Description	Qty	Total cost (USD)	Proposed vendor
	Spread key message to business community	Website setup on Wordpress plus domain name		500	TBC
		Advertising/promotion and marketing Branding		3000	TBC
		Setting up social media presences	3	1000	TBC
		Business Cards	7 people (250 cards each). Set-up + printing	2500	Where the Trade Buys, Perth, Australia
		Promotional flyers	500	1000	Where the Trade Buys, Perth, Australia
		Webinar costs - planning, captioning, Interpretation, promotional materials, (depending on the webinar focus, decide on 1-2 languages besides English+ Sign Language)	3 + Annual Meeting	7000	Caption First 1-2 languages for interpretation + Sign Language
	Develop interactive online training course	Inset sign language interpretation and captioning as well as underlying accessibility features in each of the four modules. Please note that an assumption is made that overall course development will be funded by Learning @ Internet Society	4	15000	TBC

Notes

• For 2022, the Internet Society allocated a maximum of 30,000 USD per SG/SIG to pursue significant activities that support the mission of the Internet Society through the SG/SIGs work. The Accessibility SG Activity Plan (AP) needed to include Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and an activity budget. The activity framework needed to conceptualize, measure, and evaluate the work the SG/SIG would carry out throughout 2022.
• Mar 15 2022 ISOC has supplied a template for the Activity Plan. (docx, pdf)
• May 11 2022 After deliberation, and a consultation of the SG members, the finished Activity plan was submitted to ISOC. pdf
• For 2023, the allocated budget for Standing Groups was $15k