1 GDRL Program Manager Andrea Shettle

USICD’s Work Bridging Americans with disabilities and the world disability community CRPD Education & Advocacy Global Disability Rights Library (GDRL) Disabled Peoples’ International Rehabilitation International Exchange and Technical Assistance Consultative Status at the United Nations

CRPD General Principles Poster 3

Global Disability Rights Library: Enabling Knowledge Dissemination in Disability Civil Society

Need for Knowledge in Disability Civil Society  Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)  People with disabilities (PWDs) need factual information on HIV/AIDS delivered in accessible formats  Medical personnel and educators need information on how to make their services and programs disability inclusive

Barriers to Knowledge Access  Two-thirds of world population has no Internet access  In developing countries, Internet is often:  Slow  Expensive  Unreliable

Disparities in Internet access are related to income group. In all countries, internet growth has followed the same basic pattern and has taken years to develop. Internet Use by Country Income Group Percent of Population Year High Middle Low 7

GDRL Project Partners  Global Disability Rights Library (GDRL) Project is a joint initiative of:  The U.S. International Council on Disabilities (USICD)  The WiderNet Project at University of Iowa  The support of the American people via seed funding from USAID

GDRL Project Partners USICD provides disability rights knowledge and strong network of contacts among Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs) around the world WiderNet Project provides the technology that makes it possible to deliver knowledge to places that the Internet cannot reach Its technology = eGranary Digital Library

Delivering Knowledge Beyond the Internet  WiderNet Project has produced eGranary Digital Library for more than 11 years (nine years before GDRL project began)  500+ eGranaries have been installed at organizations around the world.  The most 100+ eGranaries now include the full collection of GDRL resources (2.5 million documents)

Delivering Knowledge Beyond the Internet  An eGranary Digital Library is …  The “Internet in a box”  A hard drive or server  Contains 30 million web pages, Word files, videos, and other electronic documents (including the GDRL collection)  Contains an interface that looks and behaves like the web but without requiring internet connectivity

A GDRL user in Bangladesh. Note the hard drive to the left with the eGranary logo on it. This is the 4 Terabyte version of the eGranary Digital Library. The computer screen below shows the interface that eGranary users see when they install their eGranary and launch their eGranary browser.

Delivering Knowledge Beyond the Internet  An eGranary Digital Library brings a slice of the internet to people who have difficulty obtaining information via the web due to poor Internet connectivity  After WiderNet ships the eGranary to the recipient organization, it can then be installed into an individual computer or into a local area network (LAN). A LAN allows the eGranary to serve many users simultaneously

A sighted woman and a blind man at the Adaptive Technology Center for the Blind (ATCB) in Ethiopia begin to explore the Global Disability Rights Library for the first time during a training session. Adaptive “screen reading” software converts text from the screen into a synthesized voice to accommodate blind users. Two more people behind them are also using the GDRL for the first time.

The eGranary and the GDRL  USICD and WiderNet Project partnership obtained GDRL seed funding for Oct to Oct 2012 (three years)  On-line version of nine information portals created for GDRL available at  GDRL has been disseminated (via eGranaries) to 60 organizations in 12 countries, some in late 2011 and some in April/May/June 2012

GDRL has been deployed here:

GDRL Deployment Sites  Deployment sites …  Include Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs), universities, schools, government agencies, and one public library  Will share use of library and its contents with local communities, disability civil society, grassroots advocates, policy makers, families, educators, etc.

Stories from the Field … One deaf woman in Tanzania … – Tried to ask parents and teachers about her sexual health, but they refused – She came to an organization with an eGranary and used it to teach herself – Now she understands what HIV/AIDS is and how to protect herself

Stories from the Field… The Ethiopian Centre on Disability and Development is using GDRL content to improve their own disability rights training guide and as references in implementing its projects Eg, a local construction company wasn’t sure how to comply with new government regulations regarding disability access—ECDD provided them with training using info from the GDRL

Next Steps: Deployment Sites  Deployment sites will …  Use existing digital knowledge in the eGranary (thousands of web pages, e-publications, etc.)  Create and collect local digital resources, add to their own copy of eGranary  Use knowledge to strengthen disability civil society and the effectiveness of its activities

People at the Zambia Deaf Youth and Women organization practice creating their own content using the Community Information Platform (CIP) in the eGranary Digital Library during training in November The CIP allows organizations to create their own content for the use of people accessing their own eGranary.

Future Dreams…  GDRL in other languages  Spanish, French, Swahili, Russian, International Sign, indigenous languages, and more…  More “easy read” content, audio files, and sign videos for adults who have difficulty reading text  Strengthening library collection within certain specialized topics—for example, disability and AIDS; making medical services disability inclusive; etc  Partnerships with organizations sharing mutual interests

Potential for Use in HIV/AIDS Work People with Disabilities (PWDs) can use eGranary to educate themselves on AIDS Clinics, program managers, etc. can use content on accessibility guidelines and disability inclusion to ensure their activities reach PWDs Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs) can use content on advocacy and lobbying to heighten awareness about disability inclusion

Questions?? Comments??

What Else? Further thoughts and ideas how eGranary could be used as a tool … – In HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment programs in a low-resource content – For/by health care personnel, health educators, etc. – For/by program managers – For/by advocates, including PWDs

USICD Resources   Under “Initiatives” click on “Global Disability Rights Library” for more information on the GDRL project and how it is bringing disability rights knowledge beyond the reach of the Internet  Under “Initiatives” click on “CRPD Education and Advocacy” for more information on USICD’s CRPD- related activities.  Explore related news, educational materials and toolkits!

More USICD Resources USICD usicd.wordpress.com GDRL Review some of the GDRL resources available in the eGranary Digital Library at:

28 GDRL Program Manager Andrea Shettle