Abbreviations and Acronyms

ADAAG Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines

ADIP Arab Digital Inclusion Platform

AI artificial intelligence

ATAG Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines

ATM Automated Teller Machine

CRPD Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disability

EDGI E-government development index

ESCWA Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia

EU European Union

G3ict Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs

GCC Gulf Cooperation Council

GUI Graphical User Interface

HTML Hyper Text Markup Language

ICT information and communications technologies

IEC International Electrotechnical Commission

IOS iPhone Operation System

IoT Internet of things

IP Internet Protocol

IP TV Internet Protocol Television

ISO International Standard

IT information technology

ITU International Telecommunication Union

MENA Middle East and North Africa

NGO non-governmental organization

OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

PDF Portable Document Format

POUR Perceivability, Operability, Understandability and Robustness

SDG Sustainable Development Goal

UAAG User Agent Accessibility Guidelines

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

W3C World Wide Web Consortium

WAI Web Accessibility Initiative

WCAG Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

WHO World Health Organization

WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization

Acknowledgement

In an effort to support policy makers in the Arab counties to develop/improve their national policies and guidelines for enhanced e-Accessibility, which would help to bridge the digital divide and enable all society members to access and use Information and Communication Technology, ESCWA launched in 2020 the Arab Digital Inclusion Platform (ADIP) project. The ADIP project falls under the Statistics, the information society and technology cluster led by Mr. Juraj Riecan and the Gender Justice, Population and Inclusive Development cluster led by Ms. Mehrinaz El Awady.

The E- ACCESSIBILITY NATIONAL TECHNICAL GUIDELINES FOR THE ARAB REGION, was developed under the framework of the ADIP project and Ms. Mirna El Hajj Barbar and Mr. Nawar Al-Awa supervised the related work, coordinated efforts, conducted needed reviews and solicited feedback from internal colleagues: Ms. Gisela Nauk, Mr. Alaa Sebeh, Ms. Sumaya Almajthoob, Ms. Lize Denner and Ms. Zahr Bou Ghanem.

Special thanks and appreciation for Mr. Baha Khasawneh, ESCWA Consultant, for his efforts in this report. Under difficult circumstances (COVID-19), Mr. Khasawneh worked hard to compile all possible available data and related activities.

ESCWA would like to thank all Arab country delegates and experts who contributed to the online consultative meeting, held on 10-11 November 2020 and provided their comments to enhance this document.