The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: So, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon in Saudi Arabia and those in person, and good meeting of the day to those who are online. Thank you very much for joining the annual meeting of the IGF Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability. For the record, I am Dr. Muhammad Shabbir, the Coordinator of the Dynamic Coalition of Accessibility and Disability. DACD, and before we move on to the agenda, let's have a quick introduction. How about we go on the left side.
>> Okay. Hello, everyone. Good afternoon, I'm Dr. Muhammad the Acting Director of Digital Accessibility Services. Nice to meet you.
>> JUDITH: I'm Judith H. and I'm the Coordinator of the Dynamic Coalition of Accessibility and Disability. I'm glad to have everyone here, so welcome to the meeting, and I know we also have people online. So let me pass it over to here.
(audio froze).
>> JOLY: Do you want an introduction? This is Joly, I'm the Secretariat of DCAD, part of the accessibility.
>> Joly? I think we'll go down online once we're done with the physical introductions. I'm sorry to cut you.
>> Okay.
>> My name is ‑‑
>> My name is j Josef, and I work in digital communications and part of communication in Nigeria.
>> My name is ‑‑ I'm also network as officer in digital accessibility.
>> My name is Josefani, a fellow from Cameroon, an ‑‑ (audio froze). I'm also journalist. I work with persons with disabilities in Cameroon.
>> Hello. My name is Itsel from Mexico City and ‑‑ I work as the Accessibility Lab a company where we do accessible content for people with disabilities, and I'm also a teacher of children with disabilities, and special needs teacher, and I ‑‑ what else can I say? I'm a woman ‑‑
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Yes. Thank you very much for this introduction. So, do we have online we will start with Joly and then we will take the introduction of other online participants. Joly, please go ahead now.
>> JOLY: The Administrator of IGF DCAD half of the accessibility group of the Internet Society New York chapter.
>> Yes? Judith, can you give the cue?
>> JUDITH: We don't have anyone else in the chat.
>> SYLVAIN: Hi. Everyone my name is Sylvain Obedi from Democratic Republic of Congo, executive director of able, organization, an organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thank you.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Thank you. So, if we are done with the introductions, I think let's move forward with the agenda. And the first thing that we want to do on the ‑‑ on this meeting, and the meeting of the DCAD, so to give you an update of what DCAD has been doing in 2024. So, I would request my co‑partner, Judith to present the annual business. Over to you.
>> JUDITH: Thank you so much. So, during this year, we had people on finalizing the governance document for DCAD. And then we've also contributed to several different intersessional events, win was our panel, another was the MAG inter‑sessional activity, and as well as certain other ones, and Shabbir also has done some training. We worked also with the SS (?) standing group on the new learning platform for ‑‑ for the ISOC, and lastly, we've also done ‑‑ we've also participated and Dr. Shabbir is speaking in the DCCG main session, and one other thing is that we are now an organizational member on the Policy Network on Meaningful Access, so DCAD contributed some best practices to that. And the last thing is to that ‑‑ to the repository which will be up on the web, and that can be found if you look at the IGF website under intersessional activities, then you go to Policy Networks, and the Policy Network on meaningful access, and you can see the repository and the report that's going to be there.
Lastly, I didn't bring it, but we have the annual report, and in the annual report we have our accessibility guidelines. We looked to update them. For this year they haven't been updated in several years. We had a committee, Nico D was on the committee along with some other players ‑‑ or people on there, and Andy Best ‑‑ I lido Best, Andrea Saks, Peter Crosby and some others and Angela and others and so we worked on updating them they're up on our website, IGF.DCAD, and Joly will put the link in the chat for people.
And also, if you stop by our booth, you can pick up a flyer with information on that, as well as Dr. Shabbir has several copies in English Braille if you want to find out, if you want to look at that now, or if you think for your country, it would be useful to have them. We have a couple in English Braille, and Dr. Shabbir ‑‑ do you have any with you here? Yes. He has one, so he could give some to others who want for their countries to have them. And then we could also send you the electronic copy he used to print the Braille. But it's ‑‑ Dr. Shabbir, you may want to ‑‑ I understand it's two different types of Braille in there so you may want to call people's attention to that.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Let me talk about the guidelines so keep going with that.
>> JUDITH: That's the end of the report.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Thank you very much. I think there are a couple that I would like to add to the end of the report. One is that we also participated with the Dynamic Coalition on financial inclusion ‑‑ we were invited by them to speak about the banking accessibility. We also connected the next round of our fellowship program. This year, thanks to the Selection Committee we have our full federal support, and we are happy that we are able to increase the diversity of IGF to some extent in terms of participation of persons with disabilities.
The next item on the agenda, I think, we are also expecting Vint Cerf, the Main Sponsor of this Fellowship Program. So, we'll talk more about it when we have Vint Cerf online, but if we ‑‑ if you allow me to shift the agenda a little bit, so I would now like to talk about the accessibility of IGF events. When I say IGF event, I mean the current event. The online accessibility, the physical accessibility, and any accessibility barriers or any accessibility issues that you may have faced while coming to IGF, in going to the IGF events or services, so this is the time to raise those issues.
So, we will first start. Anyone who wants to take the floor? Yes, please go ahead.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yesterday we were having a talk ‑‑
>> Speak up.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: About accessibility. We think that this was not ‑‑ the organization didn't think about people with disabilities. I think there are a lot of inaccessible things on this event, you know, like the instructions. There were no ‑‑ the guides for blind people, there is not a program, you know, like a big program. You have to access through the phone to get the program, and I think that's not accessible.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: I think for the blind people, I will talk about. So, if you have other issues like psychosocial.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes. I want to talk about the physical mobility. Moving from the gate, okay, when you enter the hall, the halls are very, very far. Moving they are a bit slippery, so it's a bit challenging to move around the environment. Then the boots, you have to climb, the boots you have to climb, they are not accessible with crunches, the floor is challenging. And then also when you are moving from a hall to where to have lunch, it's also challenging because you have to move a distance with no assistance.
>> JUDITH: Fine. So, we're going to ask people to write up a form, because here you have the distances, and it's also especially true as the Chairperson of the MAG also has complained about that, but now they assigned her a Go Kart so she can get to different places, so I think that we have to work on sort of the layout beforehand. Some of our changes that we had asked for last time have been implemented, like they are going ‑‑ gradually they've gotten a whole bunch of over‑the‑neck loops for the hearing because we complained about that last time. So now they're working ‑‑ they're getting some of those and here hoping to get more of those in.
So, the problem is we've tried to do that earlier, but they don't ‑‑ what we need to do is put them more in the host agreements because the host doesn't necessarily after that is signed, the host doesn't have enough to procure them or enough of them. Those are one of the challenges, so we prepared the list last year. But I think the Go Karts and maybe assigning someone, like if the distances are far, they can use Go Karts to bring people so they can bring you from the entrance to the lunch.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: The bathroom is a problem. The bathroom is a problem for everyone.
>> JUDITH: The bathroom is a known, the IGF Secretariat is very much aware of that. There is nothing they can do for now.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: But the thing is, the thing is that the problem is ‑‑ I would say that I have been fortunate enough whenever I needed to use it, people there at the washrooms, they were giving me the opportunity first. Well, that's the generosity of the people. But why they are they aren't making arrangements. As a person with disabilities, yes, there are cues, I know that. And the Secretariat would know it better. But as a person with a disability, if you do not have this generosity of the people, there would be ‑‑ this issue could be problem to people with disabilities. We know it wasn't intended. But I know ‑‑ I understood that there were separate washrooms or bathroom, which would be accessible for people with disabilities as is usually the case, but this time the bathrooms itself that they are using, they are accessible. Which is a good thing. But having them in less number is a bad thing, so that requires that people with disabilities should have those facilities separately so that they can easily use those whenever ‑‑ and if there are any cues, those would be of people with be disabilities ‑‑ and this would give us advantage in terms of IGF, which is less people with be disabilities, so there wouldn't be any cues ‑‑
>> JUDITH: And one thing that we could suggest, is that when we do registration, we ask do you have a disability ‑‑ we then could get them to have a special tag on them because the security people won't let them into the VIP area where the line, and could have the accessible bathroom, so maybe we could get a different category, not to eat the food, but to be able to enter into the secure areas to use the quiet rooms, to use the bathroom facilities so that they won't have to depend on the generosity of the people in the line.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: I also want to add that like where we're going to get the badges, I think persons with disabilities should have that advantage of giving a precise location that is not very far where everybody is going to get.
>> JUDITH: The problem is ‑‑ that location was chosen for the courtyard. It's not in the venue.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: That's again, I agree with Rosemary and why I do so is these are the arrangements, and the purpose of DCAD is to make the life easier on people with disabilities, and as a person with a disability, I know if it would be easier for me if I were to come here and you see my badge, instead of going to the courtyard. I have my assistant with me, so I could go there, but it's a burden.
>> JUDITH: I understand that. But the problem they have is the security and video and equipment, and they didn't have a place here to do it.
>> The buses, once you wait for the bus it's not accessible.
>> JUDITH: Right. We're going to put down a whole list of that. I did find out in the courtyard, but when people come into the thing, you can go in right there. You could ‑‑ there was a ramp instead of the stairs of people instructing you, and there was an entrance area. So, I did discuss that, I did make sure that that was accessible.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: On the topic of ramps, while I am not expert, so I would ‑‑ I will make my comment and then I would refer to Rosemary, and I hope you don't mind if I call that Rosemary.
>> Just say Rose.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Okay, so I will refer to Rose for her expertise. So, there are ramps that are built in the infrastructure of this building. But then when we move into the exhibit area, the hall, there are certain ‑‑ certain places where we feel though they are carpeted, but we feel these are not ramp, but they are make‑shift ramps by placing some boards on to some stairs.
Yesterday, I felt that there was one, which if not placed correctly could cause some accidents. I understand that in some buildings where you don't have ramps prepared, you have to do certain temporary arrange the, but those temporary arrangements should be done in a way where the security and safety of people should be kept in mind.
I observed this. I'm not sure whether anyone else did or not.
>> I noticed something near the entrance. There is a block there that is not very stable. I put my crunch there and I almost tripped yesterday. I did notice that.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Thank you very much for performing that. Do you have anything to add?
>> Yes. Thank you. From my end, the first is the signage, or the identification of specific areas, like the area of the IGF Village, you enter so you wouldn't able to be sure which direction you're taking or which room you're going. That one also comes along with identification of the volunteers around. Actually for me, it has been a problem picking out who, even for direction was the workshops. So, I think like if we are not following the guidelines, we should be able to identify volunteers by type of clothing or but there is badges but to have someone to add to badges they are volunteers, so I think maybe if they had something like noting that would help with the or colored clothing that would help with identification.
I noticed at the entrance there is another hall in between there, there is a big screen. I hope it was for like guidelines for the table, but it's not functional. So, I felt like if it was meant the to help with moving in the area, it's not signage that works well as indicated.
I don't know if this is formal about accessibility, but I also the other, the (?), they are referencing accessing the Internet and it's outside of the region and ‑‑ if you see it brought back for a long time and the Internet access was also a big challenge.
>> JUDITH: We have Dr. Vint Cerf online here, and Vint, what we were discussing right now is some of the accessibility challenges that people are having coming to this facility. I know they were very pleased to see that there is captioning on all of the main sessions and Plenary rooms and I know that was a big effort and expense, but I just wanted to ‑‑ yeah, so the fellows are going to move down a little bit so that you can see them in the photos, because we can't adjust this camera.
So, one of the accessibility challenges they were having, which could be easily solved, is getting the people who register online, if they say they have a disability, that they could get a special code for their badge so that they could be ‑‑ so that they could have access to the quiet rooms that are reserved only for VIPs, or access to special bathrooms or facilities. I think that could be solved here by adding another code, so you're not giving access to the special lunch food or other food, and you're just having access to quiet rooms and to other facilities that are around.
But I will let Dr. Cerf talk, and we'll do the introductions. We are missing ‑‑ oh, Aaron Brown is not here.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Vint, welcome. Thank you for joining us. I understand that this is quite an unlikely hour in the USA, so thank you very much for joining us in this meeting. Before you join in, we were talking about accessibility issues, and I've come to four or five of our accessibility fellows, DCAD fellows, and just a couple of points. Yes, there are quiet rooms available, and Judith has talked about that. I personally faced this issue where I was a little bit surprised to know that a facility is made available, but then that has been VIP or VVIP sort of protocol. It is interesting to note that many of the other accessibility recommendations that IGF DCAD has been suggesting, this time they have been made available.
Personally, the online event, the event ad that we use to making and scheduling the IGF sessions, it is behaving with me a little bit differently as I use with a screen reader. So, when I use this app to select sessions, it gives me the sessions fine. I can select the sessions. But when I go to my personal schedule, it shows me some other sessions. While on the screen, there are different sessions, there is the voiceover that reads the session is for me, they are different. I planned to a short video, making it as an example because I understand this is a new sort of bug or issue that I, at least, just discovered with the IGF scheduling error. And I think it would not be easily understood, and it will have to have a practical demonstration by a visually impaired person and a screen reader user to have this understandable from a developing perspective that where and what went wrong.
Before I move to the next agenda item, are there any other accessibility issues that someone wants to flag.
>> Yes, please.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: If you may introduce yourself once again.
>> This is Dr. Muhammad. Dr. Muhammad, I'm from Qatar assistive technology center, the active director of digital accessibility services. So, adding to the remarks provided by Dr. Muhammad, I also noticed some digital accessibility issues in the website. While the main website event or in Riyadh, the website there are many visibility errors related to contrast errors, structural elements, alerts. It's sometimes quite difficult to, you know, navigate through the website. And also, for the app as well, that sometimes you need to find a way to reference data, OLS the program is not updated. So, in the time, you need to go to the functionality, reference data, and make it refreshed so that it will be with the server.
I've also noticed the absence of an accessible customer service. An accessible customer service is very important in this event because it's providing service with the understanding that each attendee, each participant, may need a slightly different type of accommodation. Whether a participant with visual impairment or whatever the disability.
Maybe I can suggest the use of wayfinding software to make the journey easier for a person with a visual impairment. For the sign language, I don't know if it is out, the sign language.
>> It is international.
>> It is international.
>> It is specific for our session.
>> JUDITH: No, the main session had international sign and all of that. I believe, but Vint can correct me, that they hired international sign for that ‑‑ for that. But Vint, maybe you know best on that, for the many sessions in the Plenary Room.
>> And then I will add something ‑‑
>> JUDITH: One minute.
>> VINT CERF: It's Vint. I don't know the details for the choice of signing. I did notice there was signing and I didn't know whether it was international or not. I don't sign, so I'm not the Judge. I didn't notice there was not enough screens to have all five or six languages sign, so I presume they may have chosen international signing as an alternative.
Unfortunately, not everyone who signs, knows international sign language. So, I'm not quite sure the best way to solve that problem.
But we should be ‑‑ I noticed that Joly put into the chat a reference to the Accessibility Guidelines. This discussion should inform those guidelines if there are new things that are not already there, and we should relay that to the Norwegian team that's convening the next IGF. We want to get that to them as soon as we can so that they can prepare better, let's say, than our Saudi colleagues have.
It sounds to me that the Saudi's had tried to do some preparation with accessibility, but your list of concerns should be drawn to their attention as well. I don't know to what extent they'll be able to correct the situation that you're finding on the spot, but some of the suggestions seem to me very actionable, and in particular the IGF colored badge that indicates a person that needs some assistance or special accessibility provisions.
So, all of these suggestions should definitely come to not only our Saudi hosts but as to the Norwegians, and it should become part of the normal IGF preparation.
So let me stop there. Except to thank you very much for taking time to have this session. The feedback is very important, and we want over the course of multiple IGFs to increase our understanding of actions that will make the meetings more accessible for everyone.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Yes. Thank you very much, Vint, for these comments. Definitely, we intend to update these guidelines before the next event is ready and prepared. The Norwegian event can take this one or taking hints from this meeting, we can update our guidelines and send the Norwegian friends the updated guidelines.
One thing that we want to appreciate while we are criticizing the Saudis, one thing I would want to appreciate, and that is something that I think if IGF future hosts would learn that would be a wonderful thing. With regards to visas, and I understand not everyone ‑‑ not every country needs visas, but for those who need those visas, Saudis, when the Secretariat found out that the website for visa application was not accessible, they talked to them and there was a system where you would email a very small form, very essential questions about passport and information, like 10 or 12 questions. You send them around with your passport and the IGF registration card and the picture and Saudi government will send you a visa. There you go. And that was really facilitating because I have ‑‑ this is my fourth IGF in person, in Geneva, Japan, Germany and now Saudi Arabia. This is the easiest visa service that I received. This is something to be appreciated.
>> JUDITH: It wasn't just persons with disabilities, it was many in the NRI community who had trouble getting visas, and also had to pay for health insurance and others. Those of us who applied early had to pay a fee, but the most people, they made it free for visas.
But my question for you, Vint, and Shengtai was mentioning that in his opening remarks to the newcomers is that they're trying to make this into the host country agreement to make things accessible. So, if we could get these type of things in the host country agreement, it would go a long way because, as I before you came in, I was complementing them, they said they worked to get over‑the neck loops, the hearing loops so people like yourself and others who have cochlear implants don't have to put the things over their head. They can go around the neck, so he's trying to get more. But we need ‑‑ we've identified a couple of items and they tried this year to have them. And hopefully we'll have more of these, but I think ‑‑ I think it will go a long way if they ‑‑ if they get ‑‑ if they assign a person who sees is a badge with a special color that they could then provide someone to help them or show them where the special facility ‑‑ where the accessible bathrooms or other things are, and then that way it will go a long way because there is a lot of people walking around as if they don't know who ‑‑ they don't know who to be assisting.
>> I also have an observation ‑‑
>> JUDITH: Just wait a minute. Vint, I know we only have 15 minutes of your time left, and maybe do you want to introduce the fellows to you first? And then you could give a little talk to them?
>> Maybe just ‑‑ Vint. So, once I will introduce myself. ‑‑ this so good to see you, Vint. First, I will comment that yes there is a process that was smooth, and for me particularly, I'll say this was for persons with disability, given that I come from Kenya, but in plain form for people with disabilities, you have to go extra layers other than the non‑disabled individuals. For example, in last year's event, I had to go another layer of very fine ‑‑ I had to go another area of issuing financial, and also my capability of finding myself the way back in case the initial one failed, so those are extra layers which were not in this case show and it was a good move. Yeah. Thank you. The next.
>> I'm Joleca from Cameroon, thank you for the opportunity, and I wish to say that ‑‑ the issue of language barrier still remains a challenge. A challenge more for persons with disabilities. For instance, we are here and most of the people here, when you need somebody to access something, no, no, no English. No English. It's really challenging. Now we're moving to another country by Switzerland and also, they have a language, so also when you look for people to assist, maybe you look for persons to be a language that is more convenient for everybody.
>> My name is Arila a fellow from Mexico. I just wanted to say that yesterday I had a lot of pain in one of my arms, and it was very difficult to find the medical service because it's very hidden in a room and I asked like three persons and nobody could tell me where it was. I think that's something that should be more accessible. And I noted that the doctor. She didn't speak a lot of English. So, it was very difficult for me to explain what was happening. And they had a couple of features hidden in the room, and I think that should be available in the main room in the entrance so people who need it can ‑‑ so I think, and also there is a VIP area, and the medical services is inside the VIP area. So, I was there and they say you cannot go in. I say well I need the medical assistance. So, I think that's also an accessibility challenge.
And the language is definitely, because they say I speak English, but when you try to explain, they don't understand you. Vint?
>> VINT CERF: Well, first of all, I want to thank the fellows for all of their efforts to participate in the IGF, and also for your constructive suggestions for improving conditions in accessibility and accommodation.
I want to make sure that you capture as much as possible of all of these observations so that we can feed them back, not only to our Saudi hosts, but as to future IGF hosts because we want to learn after each one of these meetings what we can do to improve accommodation.
It occurs to me that some technologies are getting very close to utility. In particular, language translation, my wife and I make heavy use of an application called Live Transcribe that was developed by one of our Deaf Russian engineers. It doesn't translate yet, but what it does do is provide printed versions of what's being spoken, and it does this in something like 200 languages.
So that's an important start, although what we need to deal with the problem you were describing is translation as well, but it feels to me like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and large language model tools are close to being useful in realtime for that purpose.
So, I think the important thing here is that we think of various ways to manage the accommodation problem. It occurs to me that some of the technologies ‑‑ some of the technologies might be useful on the site itself. Let me give you an example. There are times when I have gone to face‑to‑face meetings, but the audio has been difficult in the room, and I end up going to another room and joining the group remotely, effectively, like the Zoom call because it works better for me. So, it might very well be that we could imagine participation even if you're physically there, you might imagine participating in some of the events using the Zoom technology or Google Meet or Teams or any of the other conferencing.
I'm just suggesting that as an example of trying to find different ways of accommodating difficulties. That doesn't diminish a long list of specific recommendations for accommodations at future IGF meetings.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Yes. Thank you very much, Vint. While you were talking about these technologies, I'm remembering one of the wonderful app that I am using more and more, and this could also be a feature when Dr. Muhammad was talking about mapping the IGF. So Blind Square I use, it is an app for persons with visual impairment. It's an app that puts you in the middle and gives you directions and distances in terms of plot of which thing is fair in terms of clock, 8:00, 10:00, 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00. And this Blind Square app is being used in many other countries to map the buildings, the big buildings, like so for instance we have IGF and there are a number of places like workshops and Plenary rooms and lightning talk, et cetera, so all of these can be mapped with small beacons and the (?) ‑‑ and the person, it would not just be useful for persons with disabilities, but as for people who are coming to IGF, they would be connected with the Internet, and they could just get directions from the mobile app, it would be accessible, and they could find where to go and how to find their location.
So technology, yes, as you say is becoming more and more useful for us.
>> VINT CERF: I'm glad to hear that. I know several of us have been looking at indoor navigation. We're discovering that there are properties of the most recent WiFi implementations that will also assist us in creating tools for navigation inside buildings.
I have another idea I'd like to try on you. I don't know if we've done this before, but maybe we should assemble an accommodation's team of people, experts regarding the accommodations that are needed for accessibility and have a team go to the host site and work with the host in order to anticipate some of the problems that we've already encountered, and for which we have recommended solutions.
I don't know if there is a planning ‑‑ an advanced planning team that's focused specifically on accommodation and accessibility. If there isn't, we ought to create one.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: That's a fantastic idea. I would know for sure that our Secretariat has certain people in the venue looking after the arrangement, and if we can have a person or two, an expert on accessibility traveling with them and see what are arrangements and how can persons with disabilities with facilitated, I think that would be a wonderful idea. I think that's throw it on the Secretariat and see how they respond.
>> Physical and ‑‑
>> Both.
>> And also I think to reduce costs, maybe we could ‑‑ if they could ask the host country to provide a disability expert to do that, we won't ‑‑ the UN won't have to pay the cost to fly someone out there with that, that maybe the host country could provide a person on the team who could do that because we don't want to ‑‑ try to not impose a expense on the Secretariat that they don't have the money for.
>> But I think it should also be an expert that knows as an expert but someone with a disability who knows the challenges.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: A person who knows what are the problems in the meetings at the IGF, the big meetings.
>> Yes.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: I think that's an idea that I would certainly think about and I would try to draw up a proposal about. I think that DCAD can get there, so perhaps we can try for next year. There are five minutes left, and I just want to talk about the accessibility guidelines that we have here.
And these are available online and Joly Macfie, I think has sent a link in the chat. If you go on the IGF‑DCAD, on the front page you see accessibility guidelines for 2024. So I have here a copy. We certainly have a few more in Braille to be given to anyone who wants to take it back it their country or who understands English Braille.
Remember, this is the protected of English Braille which also called 2 Braille, and those who understand would know what I'm talking about. So, anyone wanting this can come to our DC rooms and can take it from there or you can go online and get the HTML, Word or PDF, whatever you need.
These guidelines were prepared ‑‑ they were prepared earlier by the DCAD teams, last updated in 2015. This year, thanks to the team who worked with me on this, Dimas, Andrea Saks, Lydia Best and others, where they're happy working to advise these guidelines, and update them here. This meeting also informs some of the suggestions that would go into these guidelines, and if I give myself a timeline, by end of January or mid-February, we will send the revised guidelines that will be called 2025 to our friends from Norway, who will then be able to implement those guidelines in their own IGF accommodations.
Before I say thank you, does anyone have anything to add to this discussion?
>> I have a suggestion.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Yes, please.
>> Can we have the accessibility guidelines in Spanish as well? Translate them.
>> Can you translate them?
>> Yes. I can do that. I think because Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the world, so probably for the next edition, we can have ‑‑ Spanish I can do that job, so.
>> So, a Word document on the website, and then you could translate that.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: I'm sorry to cut you short ‑‑ Joly, please go ahead.
>> JOLY: I would just like to offer a thanks for everyone for their leadership over the past year. They're doing a great job.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Thank you very much. And on the thought of consideration, I already have a suggestion for our Saudi friends to translate these guidelines in Arabic. And Isel is asking to translate in Spanish, and she will, so wonderful, thank you very much.
>> VINT CERF: If I could just suggest that you might try using Google Translate. You may need to correct some mistakes it might make, but it might be a way of getting the guidelines translated into a variety of different languages. The most important ones, of course, would be the ones for the target country, for the host country.
The thing I want to emphasize, though, is that just writing down the guidelines, though, is not going to be enough. We actually have to have people who understand how to implement the accommodations to meet those guidelines, and that's why I think we need one or more people to actually go on site where the meetings are intended to be held to discuss the accommodations with the host country.
Since the meeting that's coming up is going to be in June, that's very few months from now, unlike the usual 12 months, it's very important that we get this process going sooner rather than later. So, I really do believe that you have to have people who understand the guidelines on the site helping the host country to accommodate the requirements of people with disabilities.
So, I'm going to pursue that through the Secretariat and make a recommendation to the Norwegian Host Country that they make that a priority.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Yes. Thank you very much, Vint. I think I would ‑‑ I would have ‑‑ I will take a note of this suggestion, and I will certainly be sending you a proposal, and we'll see what we can do. Of course, 2025 IGF is a little bit different in terms of time, instead of one year of preparation, we just have six months, so we'll have to do a number of things in those six months.
Well, I think the last thing that needs to be done by me is to thank you all for coming into this session. Thank you to the fellows, Dr. Amar and the captioners and sign language interpreters, to all of you who made this meeting a success for cooperating with myself and Judith.
>> JUDITH: And thank you to our fellows from Nigeria who were here earlier but had to leave for another meeting. Thanking them for stopping by, and also the spreading of other languages.
>> MUHAMMAD SHABBIR: Yes, thank you.
>> JUDITH: We're closing the meeting.
>> VINT CERF: Thank you all for letting me join you.
>> Thank you.
>> Bye‑bye.