For more than half a billion people in the world, accessibility can mean an education, a job and a community that would otherwise be denied them.
Accessibility is a prerequisite for disabled people to enjoy equal opportunities.
It is a key to the exercise of their civil, politicial, social and cultural rights. This is a major concern of the United Nations, rooted in its founding principle of the equality of all human beings. As computer-based communications and learning become more and more widespread, special needs must be taken into account. If they are not, the technological revolution will be lost on many talented people, and their contributions will be lost to the rest of us. But we must not forget that 80 per cent of the world s disabled population lives in developing countries.