In celebration of the International Day of Disability, the Qatar Social and Cultural Center for the Blind organized a technical meeting to talk about 5G technology to support persons with disabilities through technology, during which Dr. Dina Al-Thani, Assistant Professor at the College of Science and Engineering – Hamad Bin Khalifa University, via the Zoom program for remote meetings.
The lecture highlighted several areas, including definitions, conventions and State efforts in the areas of various disabilities, especially technical ones, the dissemination of various disabilities, and the opportunities, norms, principles and guidelines of the 5G network. Persons with disabilities are defined as having long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory disabilities, which may impede their full and effective participation in society and negatively affect their interaction.
Referring to the efforts and initiatives of the State of Qatar with regard to digital inclusion, Qatar was one of the first States to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to adopt a law on persons with disabilities covering all the rights contained in the Convention, to enact the National Electronic Access Policy, which aims to increase accessibility across all digital platforms. Referring to the efforts and initiatives of the State of Qatar with regard to digital inclusion, Qatar was one of the first States to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted a law on persons with disabilities covering all the rights contained in the Convention, and promulgated the National Electronic Access Policy, which aims to increase access across all digital platforms. It also sought to redefine the stereotypical understanding of disability to reduce discrimination and misconceptions about people with disabilities.
The fifth generation 5G technology was defined as a mobile technology capable of development and taking on new functions, and was created to meet the enormous demands for communication and maintenance of new applications thanks to a very high flow of data, high interaction and high reliability. She stressed the importance of assisted techniques for persons with disabilities, which made it difficult for them to read currencies, spatial guidance, internal research, reading printed texts, and to review an enormous amount of information. She highlighted several techniques and programs that may help people with disabilities with different disabilities such as hearing impairment, autism, and physical disabilities. The global design principles of the 5 G network, which do not exclude anyone through design choices, show that equitable use is useful and marketable for people with diverse capabilities, flexibility of use, simplicity and ease of understanding, concrete information so that the necessary information is effectively transmitted to the user, and the fifth principle is that error can be modified.