At the Launching Ceremony of CyberAble.net cum Seminar on "IT Opportunities for People with Disabilities" today (December 6, 2002), the Director of Social Welfare, Mrs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, said that with the growing popularity of information technology (IT), people with disabilities are now having more and more opportunity to come across IT.
The Social Welfare Department (SWD) has thus launched several initiatives to assist them in using computer and the Internet in their daily life, Mrs Lam added.
One of the initiatives is the setting up of the CyberAble.net which is a barrier-free portal website for different groups of people with disabilities.
It aims at providing people with disabilities a user friendly website for browsing and obtaining useful one-stop information, arousing public awareness on the training and employment opportunities that IT may bring about to people with disabilities, and providing professionals working in rehabilitation field with update information.
The CyberAble.net is part of the three-year project "Promoting Access and Training in IT for People with Disabilities" (the Project) launched by the SWD in mid-2001. The Project is funded by the Lotteries Fund with an allocation of about $30 million.
Under the Project, more than 690 personal computers with Internet facilities were installed in all rehabilitation service units. A total of 15,000 training places and 600 trainers' places would be provided in three years. At present, about 4,700 training places had been offered by non-governmental organizations and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU) to people with disabilities and 65 trainers were trained.
Also present at the Launching Ceremony held at HKPU were Legislative Councillor (Social Welfare), Mr Law Chi-kwong; Chair of Rehabilitation Sciences and Head of Department, the HKPU, Professor Christina Hui-Chan; and the Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, University of Hong Kong, Dr Tse Tsun-him.
After the ceremony, a seminar was held to let professionals in the rehabilitation field and people with disabilities share their experience in using the net.
Speakers of the seminar included Dr Tse Tsun-him who spoke on "Issues on IT Accessibility"; while Mr Kenneth Lau of the Interactive Communication Online Networks Ltd explored "From Disabled to Abled Web - Today and Tomorrow's Solution"; Dr Cecilia Li of the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, the HKPU, discussed "IT Training for People with Mental Handicap: Linking Research into Clinical Services"; Mr Lo Tak-kwan, beneficiary of the SWD's Central Fund for Personal Computer, presented "Employment Opportunities Brought by IT to People with Disabilities"; and Ms Winly Sham, parent of a mentally handicapped child, shared the benefits that her child gained in using IT to the audiences.
Album of the Launching Ceremony Seminar