Legislação
Legislação
The Green Paper on the Information Society in Portugal recognises social responsibility for those citizens who require special consideration. Approved by the Government in April 1997, the paper states that 'there is great potential in information technologies for citizens with physical and mental disabilities to achieve a higher degree of integration in the society. However, as the technology is inadequately adapted for certain groups of people with disabilities, effort needs to be made to combat this situation'. The document also establishes the need to give priority to programmes that help to integrate disabled citizens into the information society.
This is the situation that has given rise to the National Initiative for People with Special Needs in the Information Society. The purpose of this initiative is to make an effective contribution to the attainment of the objectives laid down in the Green Paper that pertain to people with special needs. The principal goals are to ensure that those citizens who require special consideration do not find themselves excluded from the benefits of the information society and, furthermore, to establish the conditions in which its development can contribute unequivocally to improving the welfare of people with special needs and the circumstances in which they live.
Since the role of the information society in the lives of people with special needs is being discussed, it is in order to reflect briefly on how, through time, the conceptualisation of disability and those it affects has been converted into language terms and a set of collective values.
Terms like 'the handicapped', by which individuals are described with a word that only refers to their limitations and disability, have for centuries stigmatised or de-valued those who for one reason or another have not seemed the same as the socially accepted majorities.
It was only in the twentieth century, and especially in the eighties, that disability was expressed with an adjective combined with the concept of 'person' - a disabled person. Although linguistic in nature, this association represented an important stage in the history of disability and rehabilitation. From then on there was a push for the recognition of rights and participation. In place of individual isolation, there was an acceptance of collective responsibility.
In this terminology, disability is now just a characteristic. A 'person' does not derive his or her value from a capacity for self-sufficiency or for being able to interact. Today, having a disability or being a 'person with a disability' means, first and foremost, being a 'person' in the full sense. Moreover, social responsibility is recognised in the obligation to find suitable responses to the individual's special needs.
A disability rate of 9.16% for the population of Portugal represents a need to act that cannot be ignored. The situation gives cause for concern, as indeed the distribution, diversity and dissimilarity of disabilities/incapacity show (sight, hearing, speech, movement and many others).
To this effect, it is necessary to define, with some urgency, methods of intervention and programmes of action, with a view to facilitating access to information and communication technologies for people with special needs. It is also necessary to create the ability actually to use these technologies and take advantage of their benefits to gain access to knowledge, to learn more, to make the most of free time, to develop intellectual capacities, and to contact groups with or indeed without particularly common interests, independently of their geographical position in the world. The purpose of this would be not only to prevent the exclusion of the citizens in question but, on the contrary, to contribute to their complete integration into society.
The World Program of Action concerning Disabled Persons, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 3 December 1982 states that 'member states should develop a full program to inform the public of the rights, contribution and unmet needs of people with disabilities'. 'The authorities are responsible for providing suitable information in such a way that it reaches the whole population, including the disabled'. It also upholds the need for the authorities to develop special information material designed for disabled people and their families and presented in such a way that blind or deaf people or those with other limitations in communication will be able to use them'.
'A Coherent Policy on Rehabilitating Disabled People', Resolution AP (84) 3 of the Council of Europe, adopted by the Council of Ministers on 17 September 1984, also stresses the role of information throughout the whole process of rehabilitation.
This question is picked up again in the revision of this resolution, Recommendation R (92) 6 of the Committee of Ministers to the Member States, regarding a coherent policy for people with disabilities: 'Information programs are necessary on account of the complexity of the problems that people with disabilities have to face and the large number of services and organisations that are involved in the different aspects of these problems. They must take into account the need to change the attitudes of all the social partners by means of a continuous and consistent information process.'
Resolution No. 48/96, 'Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities', adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at the 85th Plenary Session on 20 December 1993 cites access to information and communication as a fundamental area for equality of participation.
In the report presented by the Forum for the Information Society, 'Networks for People and their Communities. Deriving the maximum benefit from the information society in the European Union', the European Commission's attention is drawn, in the form of a recommendation, to the need to 'determine the best way of guaranteeing that disabled people have equality of access to the information society'.
The speed of change is so great that people will only be able to adapt to the information society if a continuous learning process is developed. Combined with this principle, the statement before it finds an optimistic response in the hope that teaching and progressively more user-friendly equipment and content will allow most people to exploit new technologies. It also forcefully stated that 'the needs of some disabled people need to be particularly studied and met'.
The Green Paper 'Living and Working in the Information Society: Priority for the Human Dimension' refers to the Handynet system and the TIDE programme as examples of the innumerable possibilities that information and communication technologies hold for furthering the integration of people with disabilities. It should be added that the Fifth Framework Program of Support for Technological Research and Development will consider ways of continuing and developing these aspects.
With regard to the elderly, the United Nations General Assembly has decided to proclaim 1999 the International Year for Older Persons, 'keeping in mind the present demographic development and recognising the contribution the elderly can make to the implementation of tried and tested measures and other opportunities for social development and world peace in the next century' (Resolution No. 47/5 of the United Nations General Assembly - the Declaration on Ageing).
The Constitution of the Portuguese Republic stipulates in article 71 ('Citizens with Disabilities') that 'citizens with physical or mental disabilities enjoy full rights and are subject to the obligations laid down in the Constitution, excepting the exercise and accomplishment of those for which they are incapacitated'. 'The state is obliged to carry out a national policy that covers prevention as well as treatment, rehabilitation and integration for citizens with disabilities, and support for their families. It must devise a means of instruction that sensitises the society to its duty of respect for, and solidarity with, these citizens and accept responsibility for the effective exercise of their rights, without prejudice to their parents' or guardians' rights and duties'. Furthermore, 'the state supports organisations set up by and for disabled citizens'.
Article 72 ('The Third Age') sets out that 'elderly people have the right to economic security, living conditions and a family and community life which respect their personal autonomy and also avoid and overcome isolation or marginalisation in the society'. It is further stipulated that 'third-age policy includes economic, social and cultural measures, with a view to offering elderly people opportunities to fulfil themselves by participating actively in community life'.
The Green Paper sets out the general principle that the information society must be a society for all, one that is more egalitarian and accessible, independently of socio-economic circumstances. This raises the need to consider its impact on socially disadvantaged groups. The democratisation of future society will count on the great majority of the population having access to information technologies and on having the real capacity to use them. If not, such technologies will become a powerful factor of social exclusion.
In fact, one of the measures proposed in the Green Paper involves promoting programs for integrating citizens with physical, visual, auditory or mental disabilities into the information society. These should be such that each of these groups of citizens requiring special consideration can benefit from the advantages that the information society offers for their full integration into the community.
One of the greatest challenges for present-day society is to improve the quality of life and increase autonomy for both the elderly and citizens with disabilities. The tendency is for information and communication technologies to play an increasingly relevant role in responding to the challenges of future society and, in particular, in improving the quality of active and independent life for people with special needs.
It is of fundamental importance to provide encouragement for non-governmental organisations that are trying to develop integration programmes for people with special needs. The same applies for universities and scientific institutions carrying out research to find appropriate responses for these particular groups in the population.
The information society should, therefore, represent a new opportunity with regard to citizenship and the quality of life. The task of humanising it, given its very nature, will never be complete, interacting as it does with unavoidable changes in citizens' needs, expectations and interests, particularly elderly, sick and disabled citizens.
The National Initiative for Citizens with Special needs is based on a set of principles that should provide a framework for the measures and initiatives that guarantee people with special needs their rights as citizens.The principles are as follows:
The Green Paper sets out that access to the benefits of the information society should be guaranteed without any form of discrimination. Social responsibility should be assumed for citizens who, for many different reasons, require special consideration if they are not to be excluded from the benefits that the information society can offer. The information society should make an unambiguous contribution to improving the welfare and quality of life for all citizens. Particular consideration for people with special needs is not just a question of social cohesion. It represents a strategic aspect of the development towards a society in which all should take part according to their personal characteristics.
Equality of opportunities for people with special needs can only come with social integration and autonomy, educational integration, functional rehabilitation and economic integration.
The information society should be one that can fully recognise physiological, psychological, socio-economic and cultural differences, that can find solutions for the different problems of each group and each individual and that can be creative and adapt itself to people's needs and aspirations.
Information and communication technologies (IT) are playing a more and more important role in the search for solutions that will improve the quality of life, welfare and independence of people with special needs.PRINCÍPIO 2 - Dar prioridade ao desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços para os cidadãos com necessidades especiais, em condições economicamente acessíveis.
Technologies are often considered potential factors of exclusion, whereas they can also possess an enormous potential to include people in their environment. Technologies are, by definition, an extension of the individual in his or her relationship with physical and social surroundings and the success of this relationship is the principle factor that spurs on technological discovery.
IT should be thought out and put into practice within the context of citizens' real needs, in accordance with their economic, cultural and social conditions, as well as age, sickness or disability. Yet however innovative it may be, technology is only effective, in fact, when it becomes an integral part of a society and culture. This only happens when it can interact sympathetically with people, as an integral part of their environment and not as something that is intrusive or threatening.
In this context, with significant frequency, IT has a role to play as the privileged intermediary between individuals with special needs and the society or between them and other individuals. There are certainly a great number of notable potential developments in IT connected with the transfer of powers and capacities to people with special needs. These can also be seen as a way of removing barriers to the opportunities being offered. Within the information society, different kinds of needs demand different kinds of solutions.
From the production and cost rationalisation point of view, it is imperative that systems and services for taking care of people with special needs be developed along with the design and mass production of products and services for the majority of the population. This is a way of extending the integration and participation of people with special needs in society.
A whole potential market is being created for products and services designed in response to the specific, varied and exacting requirements of this group of citizens. That market is far from negligible and has its own characteristics and demands, particularly in terms of design, quality and technical excellence. This dynamic economic progress takes different forms like the development or transfer of new technologies, the development of innovative products and services using existing technologies, the discovery of new applications, the adaptation of existing products and services or even innovation through the integration of different technologies.
It cannot be denied that the elderly and people with disabilities often receive low incomes. For this reason financial support to acquire products is decisive, if the lack of resources is not going to be itself a factor that excludes those who can benefit most from these technologies.
The notion of a 'universal design' or 'one design for all' is based on the idea of designing and developing products and technological environments which can be used by all, or the greatest possible number of citizens, without their needing to be adapted to specific situations.
The goal is to simplify people's daily life by inventing equipment, products, services, communications and environments that are user-friendlier for a greater number of people and carry lower marginal costs. The notion of 'universal design' should affect all people of all ages and all abilities.
This change of emphasis from the individual to the social represented a crucial step towards integrated solutions that could allow principles like 'total participation and equality' or 'equality of opportunity' to be put into practice.
As a rule, the development of specific products should give way to the manufacture of universal products. The situations where specific products are envisaged should be limited to cases that manifestly do not lend themselves to the notion of standard products for the use of all.
The issue of accessibility for people with special needs should be an ever-present concern, in every phase of the creative process, for those who design and develop IT products and services. This goal can be reached through close co-operation between users, manufacturers and service providers.
The knowledge accumulated over the years with regard to the needs of groups of people with special needs should be fully applied to the production of universal products.
It is to be noted, however, that the starting point for the great majority of existing solutions for promoting integration has been the observation and knowledge of technical staff and researchers. People with special needs themselves had no opportunity to intervene at any stage in the development of solutions, unless it was at the moment they were applied.
It is important to develop a great fund of knowledge and establish effective collaboration between the different scientific R&D communities, user-groups and civic organisations. Only this way will it be possible to meet the challenge of developing new equipment, services and information systems capable of channelling and accommodating the functional specificity of people with special requirements.
To establish a policy favouring an information society for all, investment in R&D is crucial. This investment should be in research and development related to high quality IT solutions and products, such as voice synthesisers for the Portuguese language, orientation and navigation systems or info-kiosks.
In university or scientific research institutions, therefore, encouragement should be given to developing technologies aimed at integrating people with special needs, in particular linguistic engineering, in order to develop conversion techniques for spoken, written and symbolic language.
On the other hand, it is also important to co-ordinate R&D initiatives so that a base of knowledge and competence can be established in respect of IT developments and applications for elderly citizens and those with special needs.
The prime objective spurring on initiatives directed towards people with special needs is to improve the quality of their lives. This should be done by offering them greater independence, promoting their integration and participation in society, opening up better educational, training and employment opportunities and improving access to the forms of support and assistance they require.
Experience, however, shows that without the active interaction of the society, accessibility for people with special needs cannot be guaranteed.
Users with special needs are frequently confronted with the requirement that they themselves adapt to specific technological conditions, instead of seeing the technology adapt itself to the needs and requirements of its different users.
Duplication of effort should be avoided by creating synergy and co-operation between the participants in the different phases of research, planning, production, evaluation, marketing and use of the different products and services. Moreover, attention should be paid both to quality and to their suitability for the purpose for which they are intended. The positive effects of combining all efforts to combat market fragmentation will help to overcome one of the barriers to the development of that very market.
The closer we come to the twenty-first century, the more we realise how important communication is for our own lives and for the balanced development of society. Without communication there is no knowledge.
In the present day, the development of new information society technologies brings all citizens the chance to expand their knowledge and, as a result, their quality of life. If this is obvious to everybody, how much more is it to the elderly or those with disabilities for whom easy access to information and communication opens up perspectives that until recently were beyond imagining.
Strategies for raising awareness among the public not only suppose participation of the various institutions but also of a wide range of people, in particular the rehabilitation specialists. They should have suitable, up-to-the-minute training in their chosen speciality as well as in the fields of information technology and human sciences.
Preparing public opinion, in the present or future 'technological context', for the acceptance of people with disabilities should be based on a redefinition of the notion of disability and age in our culture. A high-profile role should be assigned to telecommunications, given that to a greater or lesser extent we are all dependent on such services.
It is important to promote the preparation of an awareness-raising campaign on the use of information technology to support people with special needs. It would be aimed at the general public and the social and economic agents who would potentially be involved. In addition, it is necessary to set up new ways for people with special needs to work in the various organisations and new models for their physical integration in them.
Caring for socially less favoured groups is not just a question of social cohesion but rather a strategic aspect of the development towards the information society, as we have already stated.
Having access to technology and using it successfully are determining factors in the quality of life for the next century. Of course, this also applies to people with special needs.
The proper inclusion of these citizens within the information society will contribute significantly to reducing the phenomenon of info-exclusion. It is absolutely vital to make them themselves and public opinion aware of the potential inherent in information and communication technologies
For every citizen the development of these technologies opens up what were until recently undreamed-of opportunities to increase the extent of their knowledge, their performance in professional life, their integration into groups with common interests, their access to information for the citizen, their free time activities and, as a result, their quality of life.
It should be noted that, at a certain moment of any person's life, he or she may find themselves in a disadvantaged position. This can be defined as the difference between a citizen's capacities and the resources that exist in a community. What incapacitates the person is the type of interaction that he or she establishes with certain elements in the environment. As such, incapacity depends on existing factors in the environment the person is a part of.
On the other hand, 'normalising' the life of people with special needs assumes the need for a 'care system' that favours integration and at the same time responds to their specific needs on the basis of the highest quality possible. The information society can play a fundamental role in this 'care system', making it more efficient and more effective.
Information and communication technologies can directly foster an improvement in the quality of life for people with special needs. They also help to make the services for these members of the population more efficient.
The intention, then, is to motivate non-governmental organisations to develop integration programmes for this group of citizens and to enlist university or scientific research institutions in the search for appropriate responses to their needs.
Raising the awareness of the general public involves the participation of these institutions as well as a wide spectrum of other relevant parties, particularly the associations active in the fields of disability and rehabilitation, private charities, church charities and rehabilitation professionals, amongst others.
Rehabilitation specialists should have suitable, up-to-the-minute training. Nonetheless, this training should be aimed at the general public as well as the professionals in order that the group of citizens in question may enjoy a wide range of good quality services.
Measure 1.1 - To support the preparation and launch of awareness- and consciousness-raising campaigns on the potential of information technologies to lend support to people with special needs, to their integration in society and to improvement in their quality of life;
Measure 1.2 - To stimulate access to information and communication technologies for people with special needs;
Measure 1.3 - To promote the launch of pilot projects for integrating people with special needs, with the specific aim of allowing conclusions to be drawn on the potential for using the Internet and the World Wide Web as technology-based platforms to support the citizens in question;
Measure 1.4 - To support and promote initiatives in Portugal, such as conferences, seminars and workshops, that bring together specialists, private charities and national and international bodies in order to discuss and exchange experiences on the use of information and communication technologies to support people with special needs;
Measure 1.5 - To promote the production of statistical indicators on the penetration and use of information society instruments among citizens with special needs.
The development of the information society presupposes the need for the proper inclusion of people with special needs, minorities and citizens who suffer social exclusion.
Access for all to products and services demands the identification and application of creative measures that are directed towards people with special needs, without distorting the rules of the market. Their aim must be to create conditions that promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of life in society.
Measure 2.1 - To promote accessibility to information and Public Administration services in appropriate forms for people with special needs;
Measure 2.2 - To develop a regulatory and standardised framework for information society instruments that is specially directed towards people with special needs, with a view to creating conditions that promote equal opportunities in all sectors of life in society;
Measure 2.3 - To regulate the provision of telecommunications services so as to cover the requirements of people with special needs.
The developments in computer technologies, on both the hardware and software fronts, have contributed to the creation of ever more complex systems. Computers can execute more complicated algorithms with increasing speed. On the other hand, access and exit devices are more and more diversified and powerful.
New technologies allow human beings to be substituted or complemented in many activities. A few years ago certain tasks required operations that were dangerous, physically demanding, repetitive and tiring or harmful to the health. Nowadays they can be carried out with the help of automated systems in which the element of human intervention is intellectual rather than physical. We should be making capital out of these developments, to the advantage of people with special needs, who have limitations of many different kinds.
The rise in life expectancy has meant an increase in the number of citizens over sixty-five, the time of life when in various ways they start to have difficulty seeing, hearing and moving about. As the United
Nations General Assembly has declared 1999 the International Year for Older Persons, recognising the increasing importance that should be accorded to such citizens, this is an excellent opportunity to associate this celebration with the activities of the National Initiative for Citizens with Special Needs. For this to be reality, initiatives should be promoted to define and combat the exclusion of the elderly, by means of interfaces designed to make up for their limitations.
For citizens with visual limitations or difficulties, techniques have been developed which help to overcome certain types of problems. Among the new systems we draw attention to:
Computers have been developed with a philosophy that sees the keyboard and the mouse as the principal peripherals for control or entering data. The proper use of these peripherals demands a certain amount of practice and skill. Individuals with little practice in using them or with motor difficulties in their upper limbs are faced with various difficulties when using computers. This, then, is a factor of exclusion in the use of information society resources. To overcome these obstacles new peripherals should be developed or existing ones adapted, and also the wider use of speech encouraged for interaction with computers.
Measure 3.1 - To encourage the development and availability of interface systems adapted for the use of citizens with special needs;
Measure 3.2 - To promote the application of the 'universal design' concept to information society products and services;
Measure 3.3 - To launch initiatives and programmes that contribute to the development of speech synthesis systems originating from text and from voice recognition systems in Portuguese;
Measure 3.4 - To develop interfaces adapted to citizens with motor difficulties, promoting the development and dissemination of access interfaces, like special types of keyboard or mouse, and also the preparation of 'good practice' manuals adapted for citizens who have difficulty manipulating these peripherals;
Measure 3.5 - To motivate television companies to offer people with impaired hearing the ability to select programme subtitling in Portuguese.
The use of new technologies opens up new perspectives for the training and social integration of people with special needs.
In effect, technological advances in the area of computational systems and their interfaces make new ways of interaction possible between the machine and the world that surrounds it. These ways can be adapted to users with different, though specific, characteristics in using them.
However, the use of these new technologies should be permanently monitored, to avoid their becoming yet another element of segregation. In effect, if the rapid appearance of new technological solutions does not go hand in hand with the adaptation of these solutions to the specific requirements of people with special needs, this can only become yet another innovation that remains out of bounds to them.
On the one hand, as we have seen, information technologies permit the creation of peripherals and applications that, in an effective way, can help citizens with physical or mental limitations. However, on the other hand, if mechanisms giving those citizens access to the technologies are not invented, new factors of exclusion will be automatically generated. For example, when automatic systems for attending to the public are installed, if they are not designed to take account of some citizens' limitations, instead of making their life easier, they can in fact contribute to erecting new barriers to full integration into the society.
With information technologies the place where many tasks are carried out can be changed. The need to be physically present in a given workplace can now be done away with in many cases, by using telecommunications and telework. It is yet another area where people with special needs can make important gains if their particular circumstances are taken into consideration. If telework centres are created, where people with special needs have a space in which their specific characteristics are given the proper attention, this will certainly prove to be an important vehicle in the struggle against social exclusion.
Another challenge of the information society lies in the need to have the means of classifying and cataloguing information. These means, moreover, should be duly adapted to individual needs. In the particular case of people with special needs, as a result of constant technological innovation, new products and solutions have emerged. However it is now necessary to build up an inventory and publicise them, in a systematic manner. Of course, the means the information society puts at our disposal, in particular Internet pages, are a specially effective way of making this information known. For this reason the net should be given special attention.
Measure 4.1 - To promote the adoption of mechanisms that encourage the acquisition of equipment specifically designed for people with special needs, thus contributing actively to their gaining access to this equipment;
Measure 4.2 - To set up resource centres for people with special needs and promote the establishment of telework centres directed towards them;
Measure 4.3 - To inform people with special needs of the resources that are available, promoting Internet sites aimed at providing information on equipment, best practice for use and other specific and appropriate resources.
One of the fundamental pillars of the information society is the equality of access to an appropriate education.
For this to happen, however, very clear steps must be taken. This means endowing the educational system in all its different aspects with the human and material resources necessary to exploit emerging technologies properly.
Among these, multimedia should be highlighted on the one hand; on the other, access to national and global information networks.
As communication technologies have developed, along with falling prices for terminal equipment and the expansion of the Internet, this has allowed technologically advanced educational systems to come into being.
In this way, in their own home or, for example, in a hospital environment, the young people who are unable attend school can follow the lessons taking place there. With the use of telematic methods they can also interact with their teachers and classmates and thus markedly reduce the difficulties their situation causes them.
Using new technologies efficiently to teach young people with special needs means that the staff involved in this system of education should be properly prepared, by means of appropriate training programmes.
Measure 5.1 - To promote the use of computers by children and young people with special needs who are integrated into mainstream teaching; to create specific curricular areas for children and young people with disabilities of a milder nature; and to make teleschool a reality for children and young people who are unable to attend regular school;
Measure 5.2 - To adapt the teaching of new technologies to children with special needs, providing schools with the necessary equipment and promoting the adaptation of curricula to the new functional capacities that this equipment offers;
Measure 5.3 - To promote the establishment of a training programme on the use of information technologies to care for people with special needs. This would be particularly aimed at doctors, therapists, teachers and other personnel involved in adapting technology to the citizens' needs.
Information and communication technologies can directly enhance the quality of life for people with special needs by helping them achieve a fuller, more independent life. The benefits are obvious, both in terms of the society as a whole and on an individual level.
This requires new forms of work being stimulated, e.g. telework, as we stated above.
One of the factors that completed studies on telework show most clearly is that it allows individuals with special needs to be included in the labour market. This potential inclusion stems from the fact that the need to travel in person to one's place of work is eliminated or at least reduced. For citizens with disabilities, the adoption of telework models represents the chance of being included in the labour market or maintaining an active life.
Measure 6.1 - To encourage recourse to information technology as a means of helping citizens with special needs find a place on the labour market;
Measure 6.2 - To apply the means that the information society has at its disposal to promote employment, by launching programmes that specifically facilitate access to telework for citizens with limited mobility.
In the area of people with special needs, as is natural and desirable, there have been various studies and initiatives both at the level of international organisations and, in various countries, at a national one. In the former case, the work carried out in different programmes at European Union level stands out. It is to be noted that the 5th Framework Programme maintains that priority should be given to activity in this area. At the level of national initiatives, most notable are the activities in certain European countries, like Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and further afield, those in the United States.
It is important to monitor the experiments, pilot-projects and technological developments that are taking place in these countries, then to analyse them and assess their interest and applicability to Portuguese circumstances.
Measure 7.1 - To participate actively in international programmes, particularly those of the European Union, the United Nations and other international organisations that are active in the sphere of people with special needs;
Measure 7.2 - To monitor and promote the development of standards and norms in areas of concern to people with special needs and also to monitor how the integration of people with special needs into Portuguese society is progressing.
Última actualização: 26 de Agosto de 1999.
Programa ACESSO da UMIC - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento, I.P.
