What's New at GAATES: Feature Article
President's Report
September 2011
It is a pleasure to present the President's Report here in New York City, USA, while GAATES members are participating in the 4th Conference of the States Parties on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It is also my pleasure to thank everyone who has travelled to attend the meeting in New York. Our participants have come from Ottawa and Toronto in Canada, Saudi Arabia the US. Additional board members are on-line from Europe, Brazil, South Africa, Middle-East and Japan.
This is my first President's Annual Report for GAATES since I took office on January 2011. It has certainly been a year of transition and learning the ropes with the assistance of Past President Betty Dion.
GAATES continued the strong work initiated by our Past President Betty Dion, and has continued to be engaged in the International realm of promoting accessibility of the built environment, transportation and information and communications technologies.
Global Accessibility News
The Global Accessibility News has been under successful operation, under the guidance and management of board member, Aqeel Quershi, GAATES 2nd Vice President. This GAATES news service is distributed via email on a weekly basis, with the news and archives always available on the www.globalaccessibilitynews.com website. To date, we are proud to say that this is the first and only existing worldwide accessibility news service. The aim is to provide comprehensive news and information on accessibility to technologies and build environment to the world that will lead a positive action in the society.
GAATES Projects
Abu Dhabi Systems Information Centre (ADSIC)
I celebrate along with all GAATES members, the completion of our first large project, the Accessibility Enablement Project with the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (ADSIC).
GAATES managed and participated in the Accessibility Enablement project on behalf of ADSIC to address accessibility for 3 components of their customer service delivery: counter service, kiosk services and TTY communication. GAATES is incredibly grateful to Cynthia Waddell for her leadership in coordinating the winning proposal and acting as Project Coordinator for the duration of the project, while Betty and I acted as Project Managers.
Enabling Accessibility
An expression of appreciation to Bob Topping for his leadership in undertaking a project developing an Accessible Information and Communication Guide for Small Businesses is due. This project, promoting accessibility to architects and interior designers based in Ontario, can be used as a model for an International initiative.
The project is available on-line, and additional work will be undertaken on this project under Bob's continued leadership.
GAATES Conferences
GAATES Past President Betty Dion and myself were invited to participate in the UN-ECOSOC high level meetings in Geneva, Switzerland from July 4 to 8, 2011 in recognition of our paper on Education for All.
We were also fortunate to be part of the Inauguration Ceremony of Princess Nora Bint Abdul Rahman University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 15, 2011. This was attended by several members of the royal family including King Abdullah himself, high ranking Saudi officials and foreign diplomats including our very own Betty Dion and Soren Ginnerup and myself.
We at GAATES again were able to participate at the Gulf Disability Conference in Kuwait on April 5 to 7, 2011. Among those who were able to attend were myself, Cynthia Wadell and (Salman Derbas). In this forum, it was recommended the enforcement of laws pertinent to disabled persons in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members.
On December 13 to 14, 2010 GAATES organized a conference entitled the Right to Access for Persons with Disabilities to the Built Environment and Transportation, Design for All in Benghazi, Libya. This conference was well represented by GAATES Board members namely myself, Bob Toppings, Soren Ginnerup, Betty Dion, and Monika Klevonec were we made presentations to addressed issues concerning policies and practices for the inclusion of people with disabilities and design for all.
GAATES Committees
Unfortunately, many of the committees this year were inactive - partly because it was a busy year with GAATES projects, and because there was transition in Committee leadership. Nonetheless, we look forward to hearing the Committee reports and what their plans are for the upcoming year.
Certification of Accessibility Consultants
Under the leadership and hard work of Keith Bright, the GAATES Certification Committee has developed a full proposal for GAATES to initiate a program to provide International certification of accessibility consultants. Work continues to be underway to work on implementing Keith's proposal with work from Monika, Soren, Betty and Ivor. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all team members for their hard work and would ask to them to continue this virtue as this committee will now be headed by none other than Soren Ginnerup. Thank you for accepting this responsibility.
Country Representative Committee
As for this newly formed committee, I would like to first thank Mohammed Tarawneh for taking the responsibility of being its chairman. This committee aims to find country representatives in all areas of the world, to promote GAATES and develop projects that will further our mission. We have already received a number of applications and look forward to reviewing them.
Collaborative Agreements
GAATES continues to develop relationships and sign collaborative agreements. One of them is with the UAE Ministry. GAATES is also currently investigating signing a collaborative agreement with the Design for All Foundation, who shares similar goals to GAATES in pushing for the development of accessible environments.
Appreciation
I would most sincerely like to thank the Board for their support and hard work on behalf of GAATES. In particular, I would like to thank Betty Dion for assisting with the transition over this past year.
Before I end my report, there is still one more group to acknowledge. I would to call on Mr. Sha Zukang, Under Secretary General, to receive the GAATES 2011 Distinguished Award in behalf of United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).
Again, I would like to thank the Board for their unwavering support and hard work and everyone present here today along with the people following us in Skype. This would be impossible without all of you.
Thank you.
Mukhtar Al Shibani
September 8, 2011
Last updated: September 23, 2011