Arab Accessibility Legislations and Initiatives

The active participation of Arab countries in shaping digital accessibility is evident particularly in two important initiatives; the “Marrakesh Treaty” ^[50] in 2013 and “Cairo Declaration on Supporting Access to Information and Communication Technology Services for Persons with Disabilities” ^[51] in 2007.

The Marrakesh Treaty establishes lenient restriction on traditional copyright laws to allow reproduction of published books in formats accessible by people with blindness or visual impairments. Since it was endorsed and signed in 2013, many countries around the world including the EU, has signed and enforced the treaty in addition to few Arab countries as shown in Table 8 below.

Table 8. Arab countries who signed the Marrakesh Treaty

Source: WIPO-Administered Treaties, 2017 45

The second important initiative is the 2007 Cairo Declaration on "Supporting Access to Information and Communication Technology Services for Persons with Disabilities." The declaration was issued by during a regional conference on best practices in ICT services for persons with disabilities. The 280 ^[c]countries attended the conference, including 14 Arab countries, called upon Arab governments to have a more active role in the development of a local national strategy and policies for disability. It Also called on government to adhere to the CRPD and to supply accurate and up-to-date statistical information pertaining disability. The declaration calls for the exemption of ICT devices and assistive equipment from all taxes and customs duties for persons with disabilities. Other important recommendation called on governments to facilitate the use, design, and implementation of Arabic based user-friendly software for persons with disabilities who are not bilingual.

However, and according to the 2018 and 2020 ranking of the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict), Arab countries have low ranks in 2018 with the exception of Oman who was ranked first in the world and Qatar ranked in 5th place. However, in the 2020 rankings, Qatar came in first place and Oman dropped to number 16. Table 9 below shows the rankings of Arab countries according to the G3ict, government sites responsible for disability and if e-accessibility is clearly mentioned in a policy or a strategy. Surprisingly some countries have no information and thus no ranking form the G3ict but local sites show significant progress, such as Jordan and UAE. The table also shows that all Arab countries have mentioned digital accessibility one way or another in their digital policy or strategy for digital transformation and inclusion.

Table 9. Rankings, Government sites, and e-accessibility inclusion

Source: Collected from official websites

Government and civil society organizations in the Arab region are focusing on web accessibility and implementing their own recommendations for helping to achieve the W3C’s requirements. Some use particular parts of either the new standards or guidelines while other countries are still using the old guidelines in the design of their own websites. In general, none of the Arab countries has enforced a law on any government or private sector web sites to comply with any e-accessibility standard or guidelines. For example: Saudi Arabia e-Government Program (Yesser) issued a recommendation and detailed guidelines for website design^[52] that include important parts on e-accessibilities but complying with the recommendations is rather voluntary.

Similar recommendations ^[53] issued by the Central Bank of Kuwait for Web Accessibility, that include many sound guidelines for people with visual and hearing impairments, and for public websites to ensure equal participation by persons with disabilities in the country. In Morocco, the Ministry of Solidarity, Social Development, Equality and Family built its own site on the WCAG2.0 guidelines with underlying topic-based approach which is made up of 11 structuring instructions in accordance with the main 4 basic principles. However, the ministry does not force design guidelines on any other government or non-government entities.

A more detailed example is the effort of Jordan through the issuing of law No. (20) " on the rights of Persons with Disabilities" ^[54] for the year 2017. Article (40) calls upon all media organizations to facilitate granting and renewal licensing requirement for persons with disabilities in accordance with International regulations, and to grant access for persons with disabilities to all media materials^[55]. The council also with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, issued the Jordan Government Website Checklist to prepare governmental institutions to review the guidance activities planned, in accordance with Jordan Government Website Standards (GWS v1.0)^[56] to make the Jordanian government websites more usable, user-centric and universally accessible. The standard addresses website design, structure and navigation. It includes (36) guidelines, categorized under (5) components that include accessibility (8 guidelines), usability and design (8 guidelines), content and site architecture (8 guidelines), responsive web design (2 guidelines), and web security (10 guidelines).