Access Israel’s CEO, Michal Rimon, Adv., was invited to participate in a panel discussion regarding the inclusion of people with disabilities in legal procedures and in elections, within the framework of the ENABLE conference that took place in the UN headquarters in New-York, on June 14 2018.
In addition, Ms. Rimon attended a panel discussion at the international M-Enabling conference that took place from the 11 and 13 of June in Washington DC.
The Enable Conference in the UN Headquarters in New York
Michal Rimon participated in the panel discussion regarding the inclusion of people with disabilities in legal procedures and elections and shared her views alongside representatives from Africa, the US, the ambassadors to the UN of Austria and Ecuador as well as Martin Essl from the Zero Project.
In her speech, Ms. Rimon shared news and challenges that the Israeli legal system faces concerning the issue of people with disabilities. She also talked about the international recognition that Access Israel received on matters of education and the creation of a “Human Ramp” to promote accessibility and inclusion.
Further, she elaborated on a project done by the Israeli non-profit organization ‘Bizchut’, which deals with true and rightful inclusion of people with cognitive and mental disabilities in legal procedures.
The responses to these updates were very positive and several representatives requested to learn more about Israeli developments in the legal field and about the accessibility consulting.
The M-Enabling Conference in Washington
The panel participants discussed the importance of teaching students about accessibility, as early education is an effective and important tool in creating a social change.
The representative of Oath shared that they give grants to professors around the world to encourage to teach accessibility in the technology courses.
Jenny, the representative of Microsoft said that today accessibility is a very trendy field and shared that when she organized an internal conference on accessibility eight years ago, barely 80 participated and today almost 1200 people participated in the conference. Further, she mentioned that today “Spell Checker” switches the word “handicapped” automatically to “people with disabilities”.
Michal Rimon asked for the possibility to examine the possibility to make this switch also in the Hebrew version, Jenny promised to examine this possibility, and we stay optimistic!
When the main panel exceeded from the allotted time, an impressive robot came up to the platform and interrupted them and announced that they had exceeded the time and that it was his time. The robot was greeted with cheers and smiles.
The robot that has been pre-designed to be accessible and be of service for people with disabilities and is therefore a solution for elderly people, children with disabilities, children and adults with autism. Surprisingly, it costs only $ 2,500 compared to other robots that are much more expensive.
During her stay in Washington, Ms. Rimon met with Bill Trenton, the founder of Ashoka, an international organization that promotes social entrepreneurship. Ms. Rimon presented Access Israel and its activities of the last two decades regarding accessibility and inclusion, both locally and globally, and its close relationship with the Zero Project.
Another successful meeting dealt with the appointment of Access Israel as the official representative of the IAAP in Israel. The IAAP (International Association of Accessibility Professionals) is a division of the G3ict, and is an organization that gathers accessibility professionals to promote accessibility through networking, education and certification.
The visit of Access Israel to New York and Washington was very successful and contributed to the global sharing of knowledge and tools in the field of accessibility and inclusion.
