Africa-accessibility-awareness-campaign

From Internet Society Accessibility Standing Group

African Accessibility Awareness Campaign Subcommittee

The context The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect and a right. 15% of the world population has at least one kind of disability. So an inaccessible design and contents excludes this population from education, information, e-health care, public e-services…, resulting in economic and social exclusion. In the African Continent, this exclusion is deeper.

To help alleviate this situation, the ISOC ASG, decides to conduct an awareness campaign.

This document synthesizes the campaign.

Goals The main goal of the campaign:

  • Raise awareness on web accessibility challenges for PWDs
  • Call for action to make Web design and content accessible for PWDs
  • Call for a strong, proactive policy and legislation to guarantee an equal access to web content (educational, medical, informational, e-Gov...) for everyone
Targets and type of message
Target Type of message
Public Accessibility challenges faced by PWDs
Businesses and tech ecosystem Making the web content accessible is beneficial for everyone
Government (lawmakers, officials Proactive policy to guarantee access for everyone

How to run the campaign on the ground? The ASG can hire a local communication agency and provide it with a brief (specifications). The campaign will be conducted in collaboration with the local ISOC Chapter (this can significantly alleviate the workload)

The campaign materials (will be specified in the brief)

  • A local icon to convey the message (the voice of a local celebrity is mostly heard): a PDW, a sports star, a well-known artist or journalist…
  • Public display
  • Social medias
  • Radio / TV spot (still great audience sources)

Campaign duration: 2 months (depending on the budget)

During the campaign, the ISOC community members will be invited to share and relay the messages on their preferred social network for maximum impact. For this purpose, an email can be sent to the community members with links to the contents.

Where to start?

Even though the long term goal is to cover as many countries as possible, the first campaign will be run in one country:

Let’s start with one of these countries (suggestions based on the Chapter maturity in accessibility, expressed during the Survey): Zimbabwe / Zambia / Tanzania /Mali.

Budget (to be estimated)

The budget’s components:

  • The cost of a local communication agency for: content creation, campaign management, impact analysis…
  • The cost of the local icon (but we should prioritize a voluntary based participation)
  • The cost of :
    • Public display (major cities, affluent areas, business districts/groups)
    • Social media
    • Radio / TV spot (1/day)

When to start?

As soon as we are ready (budget, establish contacts …)