Sunday 3rd of December was the United Nations International Day of Disabled Persons and the theme this year is E-Accessibility. As my contribution to the discussion I would like to quote from a sermon my friend Alex Cowan gave at a special Crystal Clear service at our synagogue. The service was specially designed to be as inclusive and accessible as possible.

Alex has lost the use of her legs and is a wheelchair user so her main concerns relate to physical access. However I realised whilst listening to her that people with other disabilities are feeling the same level of anger, sadness and frustration that she feels because they cannot easily access ICT solutions.

Ask yourself if you have developed a solution that is causing such misery. If so it obviously morally reprehensible but it is also financially and legally an issue.

"I found writing this speech incredibly difficult. I thought this was just because I am angry. And I am so angry about the level of exclusion that is still going on. But behind that anger was the incredible sadness and hurt and rejection about being excluded. And fear: fear that I might not get the level of assistance I need as has happened to disabled people I know. Having to fight almost every day to be able to use a toilet or to go on holiday or go to an event. I realised how much of my limited energy goes on fighting and dealing with these feelings of sadness and hurt and fear so that they don't overwhelm and consume me. Energy I'd rather be using to go out with my husband, family and friends, working on the projects and the work I love doing.

Most people don't think consciously to exclude people but do not think hard enough or proactively enough or broadly enough to include us all and that is our challenge as a community.

And it is not only the disabled person's responsibility to do something about this, it is everybody's responsibility, because when you exclude one part of the community, the whole of our community is being diminished. And I really believe that everybody can make a difference, no matter how small.

When we value and accept the difference in other people, we value and accept the difference in ourselves. And our community will grow all the more strong for it."

As an industry we have a duty to do better in the future and try and fix the mistakes we have made in the past.

To help us in that process the UN will be holding several events and publishing a report on web accessibility.

I will report on these in more detail in future articles.