The document explores the potential role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in engaging and including people with disabilities (PwD) in society. It discusses the challenges PwD face from a lack of inclusion and the opportunities ICT presents. A quality function deployment (QFD) analysis is proposed as a way to prioritize ICT tools based on customer needs. Two example QFD matrices focus on the needs of people who are deaf/hard of hearing and visually impaired. The document argues that ICT can play a key role in improving access to areas like education, employment, healthcare and independent living for PwD.

1. Exploring the potential role of ICT in
the engagement and inclusion of
PwD in the Society (the mutual
benefits)
Authors/Presenters
Marwan Awad &Osama M.Khair
Acknowledgments and appreciation for the contributions of :
Ms. Weam Elfadil
Mr. Osama Ibrahim
Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 1December 10, 2017

2. 1. The problem statement
Disability was not included in the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) or in their
operationalizing targets and indicators. As a result,
disability has largely been invisible in their
implementation, and is rarely included in national
policies, programmes, or in monitoring and
evaluation efforts related to the MDGs.
This has perpetuated a situation in which
environmental barriers are still preventing persons
with disabilities from accessing, participating and
being fully-included in social, economic and political
activities.
Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 2December 10, 2017

3. 1. The problem statement (Contd’)
• The challenges facing the PwD stem from the failure of the society in managing the diversity and
accommodate the right resources(1).
• The society mobilize its resources whether if all persons lay in what defined normal range observed by
majority of the society.
• Statistical distribution for disability regarding seeing, hearing, moving, and mental according to the ranges,
it similar of the distribution in age, tall, etc.
• We lose the power of the diversity when we fail to deal with it
• 1-7% of GDP are estimated as the cost of PwD exclusion (2) (loss of productivity)
• Exclusion by design, design of technology followed observed normality exclude many from the beginning,
Universal Design is needed (to avoid the high cost of technology adaptation for PwD, in addition to the
affordability barriers)
• Stigma, Discrimination, and Exclusion
• An early effective learning and personal development are critical to lifelong learning, employment, and
independent living. Education System fails to design an inclusive system
December 10, 2017 Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 3

4. 2. The challenges
• The size : PwD are estimated at 15% of the population (4) (SBoS estimates ~ 5% of Sudan’s population?)-15%
is a big percentage to be marginalized!
• Diversity : PwD are across different genders, cultural backgrounds ,socio economic backgrounds, geographic
locations , business community maturity levels , and nature of disabilities variabilities.
• Access areas as defined by ITU (4) :
o Primary education
o Secondary education
o Lifelong education
o Employment
o Independent living
o Government services
o Participation in political and public life
December 10, 2017 Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 4
• ICT tools with potential (and actual) contributions :
o Websites
o Smartphones
o TV
o Radio
o Other emerging technologies (e.g. IOT)

5. 2. The challenges
December 10, 2017 Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 5
Based on the ITU study (4).
This table represents Expert
assessment of the contribution
of ICT to improving persons with
disabilities’ access to social and
economic activities

6. 3. The opportunities / Setting the tone
Persons with Disabilities
have abilities … and
scarce ones !!
The power of the comparative advantage !
December 10, 2017 Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 6

7. 3. The opportunities (examples)
Hybrid Organizations (5):
Hybrid organizations have been described as
pursuing primarily a social mission but relying
significantly on commercial revenue to sustain
operations. Hybrids help their beneficiaries by
creating complementary assets. In
consequence their beneficiaries will be able to
participate in the free market without a need
for subsidies or charity
December 10, 2017 Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 7

8. 3. The opportunities (examples)
• A successful example of a hybrid organization :
• Specialisterne, a Danish social enterprise hiring people with autism to work in software testing (their goal is
to enable 1 million jobs for people with Autism globally). Specialisterne shares freely its knowledge
demonstrating that
• people with autism possess hidden skills that traditional firms have missed.
• Specialisterne was founded in 2003 by Thorkil Sonne, after his son Lars was diagnosed with Autism
Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Conventional wisdom held that Lars would never hold a job and would have to rely
on social disability benefits. However, Thorkil realized that for all their social handicaps people with ASD had
a unique skill: they were
• able to give phenomenal attention to details. Drawing on this “specialist” strengths Thorkil launched
Specialisterne with the express goal of “harnessing the special characteristics and talents of people with
autism and use them as a competitive
• advantage, and as a means to secure meaningful employment.” Specialisterne offers IT services around
software management, data logistics, and software testing
December 10, 2017 Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 8

9. 3. The opportunities (examples)
Another successful example of a hybrid organization:
1. A similar logic is followed by Telehandelshuset, a
telemarketing house which employs blind people
exclusively. This target group typically struggles to
find employment due to their handicap and
resulting in unemployment rates of 70-80%
among the blind.
2. Telehandelshuset stresses, that its staff’s visual
impairment results in their having unique
listening and verbalization abilities.
Some local examples of capitalizing on the
comparative advantage of the PwDs
1. DAL company in employing labors with hearing
disabilities and capitalizing on their skills in the
loud production lines
2. Alfanjari air-conditioning workshop in Obeid (all
technicians are with hearing disabilities)- this is a
complete Hybrid organization
December 10, 2017 Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 9

10. 3. The opportunities (examples)
December 10, 2017 Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 10
An example from the ICT sector:
Assistive Technology for the Deaf-Thailand Experience (addressing CSR and Customer Experience)
Thai Telecommunication Relay Service (TTRS)
• National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) of Thailand was established in 2011 as a
broadcast and telecoms regulatory body in Thailand.
• At present NBTC forms the Universal Service Obligations (USO) Division which relies funding around 3.75%
from revenue of telecommunication corporation to promote and develop telecommunication for remote
areas and disadvantaged people.
• Universal Service Obligation Master Plan (2012-2016) aims to provide the telecommunication services for
persons with visual impairment and persons with hearing impairment at least 100,000 persons to access to
information.

11. 3. The opportunities (examples)
• TTRS is a not for profit organization , providing 6
relay services : SMS/MMS, IP text relay , VRS
(Video relay service)via mobile app, VRS via Kiosk,
Emergency relay service.
• Language Access
1. Thai to Thai Sign Language, Thai Sign
Language to Thai
2. Thai Sign Language is natural and first
language of deaf people
3. Thai text conversation help hard of hearing
people who do not know sign language
December 10, 2017 Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 11

12. 4. Why ICT? (6)
The Communications is the core of ICT
mandated and its the heart of social
engagement and participation (7)
Telephone is intrusion invention as Bell
Coined(3)
Coverage, Adoption, and Convergent.
ICT and Socioeconomic development
ICT and Education(continuum of skills and
abilities).
ICT and Economic Sector(Productivity)
ICT and Business
ICT
Communicati
on
Technology
Communicat
e messages
Connect
Peoples and
Things
Information
Technology
Multimedia
Processing
Intelligent
Conversion
ASR,ACR
Store/Retriev
e

13. 5. Why multidisciplinary ?
It is critical to have a deep understanding for the problem addressed and the proposed solutions to address it; this requires
careful engagement of the right stakeholders from multiple disciplines (List below is an example).
And more importantly the collection of the correct requirements for the addressed segment (the “Voice of the
Customer”).
Furthermore , the power of extensions of tools from various disciplines can be helpful (Market segmentation and QFD as
examples)
• Persons with Disabilities &NGO
• Education System
• Universities and Research Center
• Communication Service Provider
• Family and Society
• Business Entrepreneurs &Employers
• Social Science Researchers
• Assistive Technology Researchers & Computer Science
• ITU and Regularity Authority
• Economist
• Cognitive Researchers
• Psychologist
• ….

14. 6. Why QFD ?
Usually used by a multidisciplinary team, to translate “customer requirements” or Voice of the Customer, to an
appropriate number of prioritized engineering targets to be met by a new product design.
QFD is meant to be a” customer focused approach for development” :
The purpose of using such technique is threefold :
1. It is a “customer centric” approach , the intention is to not decide what PwD need ; rather listening for their needs
and prioritize accordingly.. QFD can be considered a tool for co-creation here (where the “customer” participates
in the product design.
2. The issues related to PwDs are diverse and can easily lead to “Scope creeping” at the planning phase , QFD can help
contain the scope in order to help with a successful , impactful “proof of concept”
3. Have a pilot that may lead to application of other methods used in different fields for addressing social issues (e.g.
market segmentation , CX disciplines..etc…)

15. 7. A QFD example ?
WHATs
HOWs
Relationship matrix
Importance(andease) Correlation
Priority Score
Targets
PriorityScore
QFD (although stems from TQM discipline) seems like
a reasonable tool for “Co-Creation”.
Co-Creation: is a powerful concept (appeared in the
1960’s but is still evolving): engaging broad
stakeholders in a design or problem-solving process
as co-designers (in marketing the customers but in
this case, it will be the PwDs whom are the customers
for the product/service being developed)
Co-creation evolved to become “Human Centered
Design” , and is now an ISO standard. : ISO 9241–
210:2010. A major principle of the standard is “users
are involved throughout design and development.”

16. 7. A QFD example (DHH) ?
Importance
Ease
Websites
Mobile
devices
TV
Radio
Othertech
(IOT..etc..)
SCORE
SCORE%
Healthcare 5 1 9 9 3 1 3 125 11%
Primary Education 9 1 9 9 3 1 1 207 18%
Secondary Education 7 1 3 3 3 1 1 77 7%
Lifelong Education 9 1 9 9 3 1 1 207 18%
Employment 7 1 9 9 1 1 1 147 13%
Independent living 8 1 3 9 1 1 3 136 12%
Government services 5 1 9 9 1 1 1 105 9%
Participation in
political and public life
5 1 9 9 3 1 1 115 10%
SCORE 374 422 118 56 82
SCORE % 36% 40% 11.217% 5.323% 7.8%
Vey insightful inputs
comes from an
interview with Ms.
Weam Elfadil . This
served greatly in this
example as a proof the
concept.
The actual
implementation needs
to include a
representative sample
and all stakeholders

17. 7. A QFD example (Visual Impairment) ?
Importance
Ease
Websites
Mobile
devices
TV
Radio
Othertech
(IOT..etc..)
SCORE
SCORE%
Healthcare 5 1 3 9 1 9 3 125 10%
Primary Education 9 1 9 9 1 9 1 261 20%
Secondary Education 7 1 3 3 1 9 1 119 9%
Lifelong Education 9 1 9 9 1 9 1 261 20%
Employment 7 1 9 9 1 1 1 147 11%
Independent living 8 1 3 9 1 3 3 152 12%
Government services 5 1 9 9 1 1 1 105 8%
Participation in
political and public life
5 1 9 9 3 3 1 125 10%
SCORE 344 422 58 314 82
SCORE % 28.2% 34.6% 4.8% 25.7% 6.7%
This was built as a
mere example to the
best of knowledge by
Marwan and Osama
(just as an example)

18. 7. A QFD example (Visual Impairment) ?
Apparent overlaps between both disabilities in the areas of Primary Education and lifelong learning to be the
focus areas (employment and independent living are considered correlated with employment serving as a
“means” to achieve “independent living”.

19. References
1. MIKE OLIVER (23 July 1990). "THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL MODELS OF DISABILITY" (PDF). leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2012-11-10.
2. Buckup, S., (2009). The Price of Exclusion: The Economic Consequences of Excluding People with Disabilities from the World of
Work. Employment Working Paper No. 43, Geneva; ILO.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell
4. The ict Opportunity for a Disability-Inclusive Development Framework (a collaborative effort between ITU, UNESCO,G3ict,Broadband
Commission, Microsoft, telecentre.org, and International disability alliance)
5. Kai Hockerts, Copenhagen Business School (CBS): How Hybrid Organizations Turn Antagonistic Assets into Complementarities
6. Zuppo, Colrain M., Defining ICT in a Boundaryless World: The Development of a Working Hierarchy (PDF), International Journal of
Managing Information Technology (IJMIT), p. 19, retrieved 13 February 2016.
7. http://www.signall.us/

20. Q&A
Exploring the potential role of ICT in the engagement and inclusion of PwD in the Society 20December 10, 2017