At the global level, around 15 percent of the world’s population, or 1 billion people, live with disabilities, and these are the world’s largest minority group. This figure continues to increase through population growth, medical advances and the ageing process, as stated by the World Health CALL FOR BUSSINESS PLAN PROPOSALS FOR THE UCC/UCUSAF GRANT FOR “ENHANCING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT, ICT ADAPTION, DIGITAL SKILLS AND ACCESS TO E- SERVICES FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Organization (WHO). Furthermore, the World Health Organization notes that 80% of persons with disabilities live in developing countries.

UCC notes that ICTs can significantly increase the socio-economic livelihoods of communities in Uganda, including Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). However, there is a growing outcry from the public and key stakeholders that the PWDs are increasingly becoming isolated from accessing and using ICTs despite the available evidence of the impact of ICTs. It is thus imperative that ICTs inclusiveness programs be implemented with key ecosystem partners to cater for the needs of the PWDs. It is against this background that UCC has over the years developed and implemented various initiatives aimed at ensuring universal access and usage of ICTs, not only in rural and underserved areas but also some ICT interventions targeting this special interest group development.

The overall objective of the project is;

“To promote digital inclusiveness for Persons with Disabilities through the use of ICT enabled technologies”.

The specific objectives of the project include;

1. To establish baseline of PWD digital inclusiveness in e-services access, technology, content, and information needs for various categories of PWD across the country.
2. To develop and operationalize a National digital observatory (database) for PWD
3. To mobilize and create awareness of ICT access and potential among various categories of PWD.

Outputs and Outcomes of the Project

1. A National report on the state of ICT usage and capacity among PWDs will be published. The report will detail the status of ICT services access and usage among PWDs, highlight existing technological human capacity policy and structural constraints that are limiting PWDs to fully utilize ICTs. Furthermore, the report will document existing initiatives to address the constraints and highlight some of the emerging best practices of digital inclusiveness targeting PWDs. The report will provide a national reference on baseline indicators on PWDs usage and access to ICTs.
2. An operational National PWD Digital Observatory System. The platform will provide among other services; profiling of PWDs (a national digital register housed by NUDIPU), peer collaboration and peer learning, PWD initiatives, PWD member organization database/register, data visualization engine, online counseling for PWDs and care givers among others.
3. A PWDs digital literacy skilling curriculum. The curriculum will detail the target PWDs, skills and knowledge outcomes.
4. PWD digital literacy skilling instruction guide (didactic hand book). This will detail the key knowledge and competence areas to be passed on to the participants, describe the training approaches and methodologies, and provide any reference training materials and tools.
5. 240 PWDs Trainers of Trainers (ToTs) in the five regions of the country trained. The digital literacy skills capacity of 240 PWDs ICT champions, this will enable NUDIPU and members to skill more PWDs.
6. 2000 PWDs (physically challenged and the deaf) trained in digital literacy directly and 4000 PWDs trained indirectly.
7. PWDs Digital literacy skills and program awareness Instructional Educational and Communication (IEC) materials designed.
8. Over 10,000 PWDs made aware about existing ICTs and how they can be used in their day-to-day life through the awareness campaigns.
9. At least 2 policy briefs published.
10. At least 2 scientific papers on PWDs use of ICT in Uganda will be published.
11. End of project report that details how the project has been implemented, the extent of meeting the project objectives, the immediate outcomes of the project actions, emerging lessons, and key recommendations to various actors.