WORLD BANK GROUP

 

 

Accessible Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Development Project

Project Discussion Points

 

Co-Sponsors:

This effort is sponsored by a joint partnership between IDEAL Group, Inc. and the World Bank Group.

 

Mission:

To enhance the accessibility, and effectiveness, of World Bank's information and communications technology (ICT) development efforts.

 

Project Partners:

Steve Jacobs

President

IDEAL Group, Inc.

 

Photo of Mohamed V. Muhsin

Mohamed Muhsin

Vice President & CIO

World Bank Group

 

The discussion points presented in this paper are being introduced in support of achieving the following objective:

 

"To structure World Bank Group (WBG), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) information and communications technology (ICT) loans in manners that strongly encourage and reward the development and implementation of ICT to meet the wants, needs and preferences of as many individual consumers as reasonable, technically possible and economically feasible."

 

Discussion Point 1: Accommodating People with Disabilities [top]

The same techniques used to make ICT accessible to people 65+ years of age can make that same ICT more accessible to people with disabilities.

Supporting Data for Discussion Point 1 [top]

The estimated number of people with disabilities in the United States and worldwide varies greatly from source to source. The National Council on Disability estimates that there are approximately 500 million people with disabilities worldwide16.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 report there are 49.7 million people with disabilities living in the United States [Table 4].

 

Discussion Point 2: Accommodating People Living in High Density Populations  [top]

The same accessible design techniques used to make Human Computer Interfaces easier to use by people with learning disabilities can be used to reduce the time it take to complete transactions on public access terminals, thereby reducing wait times in countries with high density populations. 

Supporting Data for Discussion Point 2 [top]

The top eleven largest developing countries have population densities from two to 15 times more than that of the United States. There are more than 3 billion people living in these countries [Table 5].

 

Discussion Point 3: Accommodating People of Low Literacy [top]

The same speech recognition technologies used to accommodate people with mobility disabilities can accommodate the needs of people of low literacy.

Supporting Data for Discussion Point 3 [top]

The average 2000 primary school enrollments across 17 of the top 20 largest developing countries with data listed was 92.5% [Table 6]. However, this number decreases significantly to 69.5% [Table 7] when one looks at across the 12 of the top 20 largest developing countries with data listed in World Bank’s Development Indicator Database.

 

Discussion Point 4: Accommodating People who Never Learned to Read [top]

The same text-to-speech technologies used to accommodate people who are blind and people with low-vision can accommodate people who never learned to read. 

Supporting Data for Discussion Point 4 [top]

In the top 20 largest developing countries there are 740 million people who never learned to read [Table 8].

 

Discussion Point 5: Accommodating the Enhancement of Distance Learning [top]

The same captions used to enable people who are deaf to enjoy video programming, and people who are hard-of-hearing can be used to quickly search for and retrieve video content, by frame, for distant learning.

Supporting Data for Discussion Point 5 [top]

 

Discussion Point 6: Enhancing the Translation of Content into Other Languages and Accommodating the Needs Users of English as a Second Language (ESL) [top]

The same “Plain Language” writing techniques used to accommodate children who are deaf, people with cognitive reading disabilities and users of English as a Second Language (ESL) can reduce the cost to translate content into multiple languages by as much as 30%.

Supporting Data for Discussion Point 6 [top]

            Plain Language Resources:

 

Discussion Point 7: Accommodating the need to Translate HTML Content in Wireless Device Formats [top]

The same techniques used to make, e-commerce sites, and e-learning content accessible to people with disabilities can enable the automatic transcoding of these applications into formats that are accessible by wireless devices operating from within low-bandwidth environments.

Supporting Data for Discussion Point 7 [top]

 

Discussion Point 8: Accommodating the Needs People 65+ years of age [top]

The same techniques used to make ICT accessible to people with disabilities can make that same ICT more accessible to people 65+ years of age.

Supporting Data for Discussion Point 8 [top]

There are 237 million people, 65+ years of age living in the top 20 emerging markets [Table 12].

 

Income and population data
for the World Bank countries cited in the discussion points 1-8, above, can be found in [Table 1], [Table 2] and [Table 3] below:

 

Table 1 [top]
Income Classification Detail

Abbreviation

[LI]

[LMI]

[UMI]

[HI]

Income Classification

Low-income

Lower-middle-income

Upper-middle-income

High Income

2003 GNI per capita

$765 or less

$766 - $3,035

$3,036 - $9,385

$9,386 or more

Number of Countries

61

56

37

54

 

  

Table 2 [top]
Income Classification by Country

Rank by Market Size3

Country

Income Classification4, 5, 6, and 7

1

China

LMI

2

India

LI

3

Russian Federation

LMI

4

Brazil

LMI

5

Mexico 

UMI

6

Korea, Dem Rep.

LI

7

Indonesia

LMI

8

South Africa

LMI

9

Turkey

LMI

10

Poland 

UMI

11

Philippines

LMI

12

Argentina 

UMI

13

Egypt, Arab Rep.

LMI

14

Thailand

LMI

15

Venezuela, RB 

UMI

16

Colombia

LMI

17

Malaysia 

UMI

18

Chile 

UMI

19

Peru

LMI

20

Czech Republic 

UMI


 

 

Table 3 [top]
Population

Country

Population
(July 2004 est.)
8

China

1,298,847,624

India

1,065,070,607

Indonesia

238,452,952

Brazil

184,101,109

Russian Federation

143,782,338

Mexico 

104,959,594

Philippines

86,241,697

Egypt, Arab Rep.

76,117,421

Turkey

68,893,918

Thailand

64,865,523

Korea, Dem Rep.

48,598,175

South Africa

42,718,530

Colombia

42,310,775

Argentina 

39,144,753

Poland 

38,626,349

Peru

27,544,305

Venezuela, RB 

25,017,387

Malaysia 

23,522,482

Chile 

15,823,957

Czech Republic 

10,246,178

Totals:

3,644,885,674

 

 

Table 4 [top]
Characteristics of the Civilian Non-institutionalized Population by Age, Disability Status, and Type of Disability: 2000

Characteristic

Totals

 

Number

Percent

Population 5 and older

257,167,527

100.00%

With any disability

49,746,248

19.34%

Population 5 to 15

45,133,667

100.00%

With any disability

2,614,919

5.79%

Sensory

442,894

0.98%

Physical

455,461

1.01%

Mental

2,078,502

4.61%

Self-care

419,018

0.93%

Population 16 to 64

178,687,234

100.00%

With any disability

33,153,211

18.55%

Sensory

4,123,902

2.31%

Physical

11,150,365

6.24%

Mental

6,764,439

3.79%

Self-care

3,149,875

1.76%

Difficulty going outside the home

11,414,508

6.39%

Employment disability

21,287,570

11.91%

Population 65 and older

33,346,626

100.00%

With any disability

13,978,118

41.92%

Sensory

4,738,479

14.21%

Physical

9,545,680

28.63%

Mental

3,592,912

10.77%

Self-care

3,183,840

9.55%

Difficulty going outside the home

6,795,517

20.38%

 

 

Table 5 [top]
High-Density Populations

Country

Population
(July 2004 est.) 

People per Sq. Km.8 and 9

Korea, Dem Rep.

48,598,175

495

India

1,065,070,607

358

Philippines

86,241,697

289

China

1,298,847,624

139

Czech Republic 

10,246,178

133

Indonesia

238,452,952

131

Thailand

64,865,523

127

Poland 

38,626,349

127

Turkey

68,893,918

89

Egypt, Arab Rep.

76,117,421

76

Malaysia 

23,522,482

72

 Sub-Total:

3,019,482,926

 

Mexico 

104,959,594

55

Colombia

42,310,775

41

South Africa

42,718,530

35

Venezuela, RB 

25,017,387

28

Brazil

184,101,109

22

Peru

27,544,305

22

Chile 

15,823,957

21

Argentina 

39,144,753

14

Russian Federation

143,782,338

8

 

 

Table 6 [top]

School Enrollment Primary (% net)

Countries 

2000

Russian Federation 

.. 

Turkey 

.. 

Korea, Dem. Rep. 

..

Argentina 

100

Peru 

100

Mexico 

99

Poland 

98

Malaysia 

97

Brazil 

95

China 

93

Philippines 

93

Indonesia 

92

Czech Republic 

90

Egypt, Arab Rep. 

90

South Africa 

90

Chile 

89

Colombia 

89

Venezuela, RB 

88

Thailand 

87

India 

83

Average across the 17 countries with data:

92.5

Source: World Development Indicators database

 

 

Table 7 [top]
School Enrollment Secondary (% net)

Country

2000

India

..

Indonesia

..

Peru

..

Turkey

..

China

..

Korea, Dem. Rep.

..

Russian Federation

..

Thailand

..

Poland

91.0

Czech Republic

88.0

Argentina

79.0

Egypt, Arab Rep.

78.0

Chile

75.0

Brazil

69.0

Malaysia

69.0

South Africa

62.0

Mexico

58.0

Colombia

57.0

Venezuela, RB

55.0

Philippines

53.0

Average across 12 countries with data:

69.5

Source: World Development Indicators database

 

 

Table 8 [top]
Approximate Number of People who Never Learned to Read

Country

Approximate Number of People who Never Learned to Read10

India

431,353,596

China

181,838,667

Egypt, Arab Rep.

32,197,669

Indonesia

27,422,089

Brazil

25,037,751

Turkey

9,300,679

Mexico 

8,186,848

South Africa

5,809,720

Philippines

3,535,910

Colombia

3,173,308

Malaysia 

2,610,996

Thailand

2,594,621

Peru

2,506,532

Venezuela, RB 

1,651,148

Argentina 

1,135,198

Korea, Dem Rep.

923,365

Chile 

601,310

Russian Federation

575,129

Poland 

77,253

Czech Republic 

10,246

Total:

740,542,035

 

 

Table 9 [top]
Number of Languages Spoken by 500,000+ Consumers15

Country

Languages Spoken by 500K+ People

Mexico

2

Poland

2

China

34

Hong Kong

34

India

70

Total Top 5:

142

 

 

Table 10 [top]
Main Telephone Lines vs. Cellular Subscribers

Country

Population (July 2004 est.) 

Main Telephone Lines (2003)11

Cellular Subscribers (2003)12

Percentage of Cellular vs. Wireline Telephones

Philippines

86,241,697

3.31

15.20

459.21%

South Africa

42,718,530

4.85

16.87

347.84%

Czech Republic 

10,246,178

3.63

9.71

267.49%

Thailand

64,865,523

6.60

16.12

244.24%

Malaysia 

23,522,482

4.57

11.12

243.33%

Venezuela, RB 

25,017,387

2.84

6.46

227.46%

Chile 

15,823,957

3.47

6.45

185.88%

Mexico 

104,959,594

14.91

25.93

173.91%

Peru

27,544,305

1.84

2.91

158.15%

Indonesia

238,452,952

7.75

11.70

150.97%

Turkey

68,893,918

18.92

27.89

147.41%

Korea, Dem Rep.

48,598,175

22.88

33.59

146.81%

Poland 

38,626,349

12.30

17.40

141.46%

Brazil

184,101,109

38.81

46.37

119.48%

China

1,298,847,624

263.00

269.00

102.28%

Sub-Total

2,278,459,780

 

 

 

Argentina 

39,144,753

8.01

6.50

81.15%

Colombia

42,310,775

8.77

6.19

70.58%

Egypt, Arab Rep.

76,117,421

8.74

5.80

66.36%

India

1,065,070,607

48.92

26.15

53.45%

Russian Federation

143,782,338

35.50

17.61

49.61%

United States

 

181.60

158.72

87.40%

 

 

Table 11 [top]
Overview of International Bandwidth

Country

International Bandwidth per 100 Inhabitants (Mbps)13

Population (2004 est.)8

Population of Countries with Less Bandwidth

Percentage of U.S. Bandwidth

Czech Republic 

2,189.0

10,246,178

 

 

United States

1,323.60

293,027,571

 

 

Korea, Dem Rep.

361.5

48,598,175

48,598,175

27.3%

Poland 

163.6

38,626,349

38,626,349

12.4%

Argentina 

149.6

39,144,753

39,144,753

11.3%

Chile 

131.6

15,823,957

15,823,957

9.9%

Thailand

87.2

64,865,523

64,865,523

6.6%

Russian Federation

61.2

143,782,338

143,782,338

4.6%

Mexico 

56.9

104,959,594

104,959,594

4.3%

Malaysia 

53.8

23,522,482

23,522,482

4.1%

Brazil

53.7

184,101,109

184,101,109

4.1%

Peru

45.6

27,544,305

27,544,305

3.4%

Venezuela, RB 

27.3

25,017,387

25,017,387

2.1%

Colombia

12.7

42,310,775

42,310,775

1.0%

South Africa

12.4

42,718,530

42,718,530

0.9%

Philippines

11.2

86,241,697

86,241,697

0.8%

Egypt, Arab Rep.

10.9

76,117,421

76,117,421

0.8%

Turkey

10.6

68,893,918

68,893,918

0.8%

China

7.3

1,298,847,624

1,298,847,624

0.6%

Indonesia

2.7

238,452,952

238,452,952

0.2%

India

1.6

1,065,070,607

1,065,070,607

0.1%

 

 

 

3,634,639,496

 

 

 

Table 12 [top]
65+ Years of Age Population

Country

65+ Years of Age Population14

China

97,413,572

India

51,123,389

Russian Federation

19,698,180

Indonesia

12,161,101

Brazil

10,677,864

Mexico 

5,772,778

Poland 

4,982,799

Thailand

4,735,183

Turkey

4,546,999

Argentina 

4,110,199

Korea, Dem Rep.

3,985,050

Philippines

3,363,426

Egypt, Arab Rep.

3,273,049

South Africa

2,221,364

Colombia

2,115,539

Czech Republic 

1,444,711

Peru

1,404,760

Venezuela, RB 

1,250,869

Chile 

1,234,269

Malaysia 

1,058,512

Total:

236,573,613

 

References [Top]

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[2]    Voice of America. (2004). Future of English. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
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[3]    GlobalEDGE. (2003). Michigan State University, Center for International Business Education and Research. Market Potential Indicators for Emerging Markets. Ranked by Market Size. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
http://globaledge.msu.edu/ibrd/marketpot.asp

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[5]    World Bank. (2004). Lower-Middle-Income (LMI) Economies. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.worldbank.org/data/countryclass/classgroups.htm#Lower_middle_income

[6]    World Bank. (2004). Upper-Middle-Income (UMI) Economies. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.worldbank.org/data/countryclass/classgroups.htm#Upper_middle_income

[7]    World Bank. (2004). High-Income (HI) Economies. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.worldbank.org/data/countryclass/classgroups.htm#Upper_middle_income

[8]    Population Structure. (2004). Demographic Data. Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook 2004. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2119.html

[9]    Land Area. (2004). Demographic Data. Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook 2003. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2147.html

[10]  Literacy Demographic Data. (2004). Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook 2004. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
ttp://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2103.html

[11]  Main Telephone Lines. (2004). International Telecommunications Union. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/at_glance/main03.pdf

[12]    Cellular Subscribers. (2004). International Telecommunications Union. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/at_glance/cellular03.pdf

[13]  International Telecommunications Union. (2004). Digital Access Index (DAI). Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
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Upper: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/dai/upper.html;
Medium: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/dai/medium.html;
Low:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/dai/low.html

[14]  Age Structure. (2004). Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook 2003. Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2010.html

[15Ethnologue. (2003). Languages of the World Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.ethnologue.com

[16]  National Council on Disability. (1998). International Update.  Retrieved in November, 2004 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/bulletins/1998/b1298.htm

 

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