Call to Action

A Call to Action for National and Global Public Inclusive Infrastructures

A diverse array of academic, commercial, consumer, and service organizations have come together to support the development of National and Global Public Inclusive Infrastructures. This call for action is based on the following beliefs.

1) Advanced Communications Capabilities by All are Essential for the 21st Century

“The broadband-enabled Internet is rapidly changing the world. It has become a catalyst for innovation, economic growth, job creation, educational opportunity and global competitiveness. It enhances public safety, homeland security, health care, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability and the worldwide distribution of millions of products, processes and services. It aids in revitalizing depressed urban and rural economies and addressing the special needs of senior citizens, individuals with disabilities, and young people. It creates a vehicle for enhancing the level of civic participation and discourse so important to a functioning democracy.” (US Broadband Coalition)

Yet currently many individuals who need special interface technologies are unable to effectively access and use the Internet, either because techniques are not available for their condition or because they cannot afford aids that are good enough to work with the full range of content and services on the Internet.
 

2) Mechanisms to ensure access are needed now. 

We are at a critical juncture. Too many people with disability, literacy, or aging related barriers still do not have affordable access technologies that are capable of handling the new mainstream technologies. In order for these individuals to participate on a level playing field with their peers, our broadband networks and related infrastructure must be accessible and usable enough that all people can take advantage of emerging and future information, applications, and services on the Internet.

We live in an increasingly competitive society – and the lack of equal access by individuals from these groups leaves them at an unfair disadvantage to their colleagues.  Now, as we are launching efforts to build out the broadband infrastructure to connect everyone, we need to ensure that a whole segment of the population is not passed by - to ensure that they are not "connected but unable to use" the wealth of broadband information and services that are emerging.
 

3) National and Global Public Inclusive Infrastructures can make it possible and more affordable to do this.

National and Global Public Inclusive Infrastructures can facilitate the development, dissemination, and delivery of alternative interfaces to these individuals when and where they need them - and at a cost they, and society can afford. These Inclusive Infrastructures would be a software and service enhancements to our broadband infrastructure that would provide the following:

1. A broad awareness effort to ensure that people are aware that solutions exist 

2. A SIMPLE and SAFE way to identify products and built-in features that would meet their needs

3. A Unified Delivery System to allow them to automatically activate built-in access features and download assistive technologies and services from multiple manufacturers as needed to meet their needs, anywhere, anytime on any computer or device they encounter or have to use. 

4. A Rich Development Environment and Set of Common Components that can be used in both commercial (proprietary) products and built-in or public access features  - to lower costs to develop and deliver access technologies and that can make it easier for new developers or researchers to bring ideas to market and distribute them widely and to enable new types of assistive technology and services. 

   In the same way that a highway system is essential infrastructure for a country's transportation system, these infrastructure components are critical to an accessibility system that is effective and scalable to meet the needs of all who require it in a manner that is affordable to users and society.  And like a highway system, these infrastructure components are not something that could or would be built by the private sector and operated for the public good - with equal access to all developers large and small.  They are components that need to be developed as a public infrastructure: to support inclusion, to be available to all developers and providers, and to provide preference and access techniques without harvesting or using these vulnerable populations' characteristics or use patterns for commercial purposes.  

They are all network infrastructure in nature which will allow them to scale and take advantage of decreasing network technology costs over time.  They also lend themselves to collaborative development across borders and replication in different countries. 

4) International Collaboration

We therefore believe that there should be international collaboration in the development of National Public Inclusive Infrastructures, so that countries can build upon each other's work, draw from each other's core components and language support, and form a federated Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) that can benefit all nations, including those that do not have the ability to design an NPII themselves in order to serve their citizens.
 

Next Steps

We urge policy makers and stakeholders to begin to work toward establishing National Public Inclusive Infrastructures that include the components described above and to work toward a Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure.

If you agree - show your support by going to the  Endorse/Help page and use the quick-mail to add your name to those who support such an effort.