Draft ECOWAS ICT Accessibility Policy (2018) v1 post Burkina Faso and Gambia Workshops 7.7.1 Context The ECOWAS supports the development of rules that apply to all public access to electronic communications. Public access is critical in providing services to the general public and specifically to persons who do not have individual access to electronic communication services due to lack of affordability or availability of ICT services, Given the link between disability and poverty in West Africa, it is likely that many PWD rely on public access to ICTs – and yet said access poses a barrier to them. This may be due to physical inaccessibility of a telecentre, or the placement of a public payphone in a manner that is not accessible for users in a wheelchair, lack of access to assistive technologies, or rates and charges that are not affordable, amongst others. Service providers providing public telephones and public community internet access points should therefore be encouraged to ensure that phones and computers and the facilities that house them are accessible and available on an equal basis to PwD, and that they are responsive to their needs. The scope of the public access priority areas extends to fixed and wireless public access: (a) Funded privately ad provided by service providers and operators or unlicensed third parties (b) Funded publically or through private public partnerships (c) Provided on a stand-alone basis (i.e. public payphones) (d) Provided in shared spaces such as kiosks, phone shops, telecentres, multipurpose community centres and similar ICT facilities 7.7.2 Principles The key principle of this policy priority area is non-discrimination. Providers of public access communications services have a duty to avoid discriminating, even inadvertently, against PwD due to a lack of accessibility of their facilities, products and services. This can be achieved by applying universal design principles to their organization, by running accessible outreach programmes and advertisements about available services and equipment options for PwD and by ensuring that accessibility is systematically factored in their public access locations, services and product offerings from inception. 7.7.3 Objectives and Measures The ECOWAS seeks to provide an enabling framework to support the development of a culture and practice of ICT accessibility, in particular accessible public access, through: 23