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This event took place on December 03, 2021

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00:15 [Junaid Ahmad]: Good morning, everyone. And welcome
00:17 to our annual celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. But before I begin,
00:24 I'd like to remind everyone that the international sign language interpretation
00:29 and closed caption services are available at the bottom of your screen. I hope you can see that.
00:35 [Junaid Ahmad]: My name is Junaid Ahmad,
00:37 and I am the World Bank Country Director for India. I'll be moderating today's event.
00:43 I'm a Bangladeshi of South Asian descent, light brown skin. I used to have a beautiful crop of
00:50 hair at one point, but working at the World Bank, I now am bald as bald can be. I wear glasses. And
00:56 I'm wearing an ethnic suit. It's called the Nehru jacket in India. It's called the Mujib
01:03 coat in Bangladesh. I hope you can visualize those jackets. They mean a lot for our region.
01:09 [Junaid Ahmad]:
01:10 Ladies and gentlemen, as climate change, COVID-19 and conflict continue to escalate globally,
01:18 building cohesive and resilient communities is more important than before. Therefore,
01:24 it is vital for us to reimagine what inclusive and sustainable recovery would look like for
01:31 populations across the world. Inclusive services for all is the objective. But regrettably,
01:38 persons with disabilities are often left out of conversations around these critical issues,
01:44 even though they're among the most of the affected groups that we face in development. Without
01:51 a disability-inclusive approach to recovery, persons with disabilities are at increased risk
01:58 of being further left behind and falling into poverty due to overlapping crises.
02:04 [Junaid Ahmad]: Over the next hour, we're bringing together
02:07 policy makers, practitioners, and disability champions to honor the resilience of persons
02:14 with disabilities and raise awareness of the challenges they face. We will also, and this
02:21 is very important, we will also be treated to a musical performance by an exciting artist,
02:27 known as Wawa, Warren Snipe. So, please stay till the end and you'll hear wonderful music.
02:34 [Junaid Ahmad]:
02:35 I also welcome you to follow the conversation online by using the hashtag IDPD2021
02:44 and Road2Inclusion, that's road, the number two, inclusion.
02:49 [Junaid Ahmad]: It is now my pleasure to welcome to the
02:52 conversation, Mari Pangestu, our managing director of development policy and partnerships at the
02:59 World Bank. Again, before I turn it over to Mari, I'd like to remind you all that close captioning
03:06 and international sign language are available at the bottom of your screen. Mari, over to you.
03:12 [Mari Pangestu]:
03:15 Good morning, everyone. I'm Mari Pangestu, managing director for development policy
03:20 and partnerships at the World Bank. I am from Indonesia. I have dark brown hair and
03:26 dark brown eyes. And today, I'm wearing a dark blue suit with a matching necklace.
03:32 [Mari Pangestu]: This week,
03:34 we join millions of people around the globe to celebrate the International Day of Persons
03:39 with Disabilities. It's a day to reflect on global diversity, to learn from the lived experiences
03:45 of persons with disabilities and to chart future actions to promote inclusive accessible societies.
03:52 The global theme this year is Leadership and Participation of Persons with Disabilities,
03:57 towards an inclusive, accessible, and sustainable post COVID-19 world. This gives us an opportunity
04:04 to renew our focus on the people who have been hit hardest by the ongoing pandemic.
04:09 [Mari Pangestu]: Including persons with
04:11 disabilities and expanding equitable opportunities are at the core of the World Bank's goals to end
04:18 extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. Persons with disabilities still struggle to
04:25 access adequate health, education, transportation, and other basic services. As we continue to work
04:32 towards an inclusive recovery from COVID 19, we need to design solutions that consider everybody.
04:38 It's part of our approach to green, resilient and inclusive development as we move forward.
04:44 [Mari Pangestu]: When something is built or designed
04:46 with accessibility in mind, it has powerful impacts on communities, not only for persons with
04:52 disabilities, but many other groups, including persons with temporary impairments, the elderly,
04:59 pregnant women and children. Designing accessible infrastructure, education programs and health
05:05 systems could change the entire trajectory in the life of a person with a disability.
05:11 [Mari Pangestu]: Addressing systemic inequalities
05:14 and improving accessibility for all are not easy things to do, but we are committed to staying the
05:23 course. We have been active in supporting persons with disabilities for close to two decades,
05:29 significantly ramping up our efforts in the last five years.
05:32 [Mari Pangestu]: The World Bank's fund for the
05:35 poorest countries also known as IDA recognizes disability inclusion as a theme that crosses a
05:41 number of sectors. IDA has enabled us to improve our disability inclusion work through stronger
05:47 engagement with persons with disabilities for our projects. Their voice and participation in
05:52 the design and delivery of development projects is crucial. Let me highlight a few examples.
05:58 [Mari Pangestu]: In Rwanda, we supported
06:00 the government with the design of disability inclusive infrastructure in schools. This resulted
06:06 in the expansion of over 20,000 classrooms and nearly 31,000 toilets, including new ramps that
06:13 provide easier access to classrooms, spacious restrooms that accommodate wheelchairs and
06:19 accessible blackboards for students and teachers with disabilities. The project will also provide
06:25 teacher training to support children with disabilities and accessible learning materials.
06:30 [Mari Pangestu]: In Nigeria, the Digital
06:32 Identification for Development Project ensured that persons with disabilities were involved
06:38 in the extensive consultation process, including two meetings that explored the challenges of
06:45 persons with disabilities, what they face in applying for and receiving unique identification.
06:55 The feedback from these consultations provides significant insight into the project design.
07:00 [Mari Pangestu]: Let me close by reiterating that
07:04 as this year's theme suggests, working towards an accessible future is everyone's responsibility. At
07:10 the time we must center the voices of persons with disabilities in our response and recovery efforts.
07:16 I'm delighted that we have an excellent panel today to share perspectives from the government,
07:22 private sector, civil society, including organizations of persons with disabilities
07:27 foundations and other partner organizations. I look forward to hearing from all of them today.
07:33 [Junaid Ahmad]:
07:36 Thank you Mari for clearly emphasizing the commitment of the World Bank in addressing the
07:41 challenge of disability as part of our development agenda. So once again, thank you very much.
07:46 [Junaid Ahmad]: Next, we turn to our panel
07:49 of four distinguished guests, who are joining us from across the globe to talk about approaches,
07:55 to designing accessibility for an inclusive recovery. We have with us, Elham Youssefian,
08:02 who is the inclusive humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction advisor at
08:09 the International Disability Alliance, also known as IDA. We also have Abimbola Akinajo,
08:17 who's the managing director at Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority. We have Ibiyemi
08:24 Ayeni, who's the initiative manager at Special Olympics in Nigeria. And finally, Rebecca Cokley,
08:30 who is the program officer working on the US Disability Rights Program at Ford Foundation.
08:36 [Junaid Ahmad]: Colleagues, you have beautiful names,
08:38 and I hope that in my Southern Asian accent, I have not done any disservice to those wonderful
08:44 names. It's a pleasure to have all of you join us today. So, welcome to all of you.
08:50 [Junaid Ahmad]: Elham, if I may begin with you.
08:53 This year's commemoration comes on the heels of COP 26. And we're still in the middle of COVID 19.
09:01 Climate change is real and a real threat to humanity. And COVID has had its real impact.
09:08 In your view, what measures must global leaders take to ensure that response to overlapping crisis
09:15 like climate change and COVID is inclusive of persons with disabilities. Elham?
09:21 [Elham Youssefian]: Thank you very much, Junaid. Hello,
09:24 everyone, wherever you are listening to me and seeing me. I just want to first say that
09:33 I am a mid-30s woman. I'm also blind. And I have medium color skin with dark brown
09:44 eyebrows and eyes and dark brown hair. I'm wearing a red shirt today.
09:48 [Elham Youssefian]: So global leaders,
09:51 of course, the list is very long, but if I have to just say one sentence to them, that would be,
09:59 no inclusion, no efficiency. So, if they want to be efficient, they need to be inclusive,
10:05 disability inclusive, and they need to be disability inclusive now.
10:09 [Elham Youssefian]: Let me use the example of
10:12 climate change, which is fresh in everyone's mind because of the Glasgow COP 26, which just ended.
10:20 We see that many of the climate adaptation and climate mitigation policies and programs
10:28 are being designed without considering impact on persons with disabilities,
10:33 and the role that persons with disabilities can play.
10:36 [Elham Youssefian]: For example, unfortunately, due to climate change,
10:40 heat waves are going to be a reality of many people's lives all over the world in the near
10:47 future. But we see that the adaptation policies that are being designed to address that are not
10:53 always disability inclusive. For example, they do not design the cooling centers in accessible way.
11:02 They do not design the information sharing and the messaging programs in a way that all people
11:10 with disabilities with different communication means that they use can access that information.
11:15 [Elham Youssefian]: Also, look at the climate mitigation. So,
11:19 we see that one of the policies that is being considered to mitigate the climate change
11:26 is to reduce carbon emission. But in many of these policies, they do not consider the impact on
11:33 persons with disabilities. For example, they raise the gas prices to encourage people to use public
11:40 transportation, but they do not pay attention to the fact that some people with disabilities cannot
11:47 use public transportation, simply because public transportation is not accessible.
11:52 [Elham Youssefian]: Interestingly, we, people with
11:56 disabilities have been advocating for climate friendly transportation policies way before
12:02 everyone else, because it's decades that we are advocating for accessible public transportation.
12:09 So, we have been climate advocates for many years without even noticing that.
12:14 [Elham Youssefian]: So,
12:17 transforming public transportation would be a great way to address climate change
12:25 and accessibility, disability inclusion at the same time. But without considering that,
12:33 increasing gas prices to reduce carbon emission would be discriminatory and excluding persons
12:40 with disabilities from community even more. So, that's what we mean when we ask global
12:46 leaders to consider impact of their policies and programs on persons with disabilities.
12:52 [Elham Youssefian]: Look at the COVID situation,
12:55 and now that we are recovering. COVID-19 proved that emergency setups, emergency response
13:06 systems and rules in many countries are designed in a very non-inclusive way for persons with
13:14 disabilities. So, now that all governments are more or less introducing recovery packages,
13:20 this is the best time to sit with persons with disabilities and their representative organization
13:26 and ask them, what should we do, so that for the next emergency, which unfortunately is inevitable,
13:35 sooner or later, we don't face this exclusion and discrimination that we did face in COVID-19?
13:43 [Elham Youssefian]: For example, look at the education.
13:48 Due to COVID-19, we had to transform students to remote education. That means
13:54 that many persons with disabilities could not access education and had to drop out because
14:01 the remote systems were not accessible for them. At the same time, it was an
14:06 opportunity for some groups of persons with disabilities who could not attend
14:12 education at school, that okay, they could use remote education.
14:19 [Elham Youssefian]: So, now that we are
14:20 considering education recovery policies and programs, it's a perfect timing to make sure that
14:26 those who were excluded from education because of COVID-19 restrictions can go back to school.
14:33 And those who could access to education due to introduction of remote learning systems
14:40 remain in the education cycle. These are just examples.
14:44 [Elham Youssefian]: And the main key that I think
14:49 all global leaders at country level, local level and regional and global can use is consultation.
15:00 Yes, it is important to listen to persons with disabilities. And listening to one person with
15:05 disability is not enough. You should talk to different groups of persons with disabilities,
15:10 because what I can share as a blind person is different from what a deaf colleague can share.
15:16 And what I can share from global perspective is different from what someone at local level can
15:21 share. Yes, it would take extra time because you need to take time to consult with persons
15:27 with disabilities and their representative organizations, but it worth it because
15:32 we are 15% of the population. And yes, you need to provide the information required
15:39 to understand the policy in accessible formats, in sign language, in braille or audio, in plain
15:45 language for those with intellectual disabilities. But that's the obligation that all governments
15:52 have under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
15:56 [Elham Youssefian]: So, the bottom line is that come to us,
16:00 talk to us and ask us, and we will be sharing
16:05 good ways for real and efficient inclusion. Thank you. Thank you.
16:09 [Junaid Ahmad]: Elham, thank you very much for those important
16:13 messages. There's no doubt that if we are to be successful in our fight against climate change and
16:20 COVID-19, we have to hear the voices of persons with disabilities. Your message is well heard.
16:26 [Junaid Ahmad]: Abimbola, if I may turn
16:29 to you. Elham, already mentioned transport. So, here in Nigeria, in Sub-Saharan Africa,
16:36 the Lagos Bus Rapid Transit System is a great example
16:40 of accessible design. It would be really good to get your perspective and hear how you have
16:47 taken the BRT through a process, which has made it accessible for persons with disabilities.
16:53 And importantly, what are some of the lessons that other countries can learn from the Legos BRT?
16:58 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, thank you very much
17:02 for that question. So, hello, everybody. I am Abimbola. I'm a black woman. And I
17:10 have black hair. And my hair is in tiny little twists. I have pods of little plats on my head.
17:19 I have metal framed glasses on. And I'm wearing a brown and a black top.
17:27 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, let's talk about the Lagos BRT.
17:35 So, the Lagos BRT system is a first. It's a way that Lagos state government has created
17:43 a regulated bus system for Lagos state. And in preparing that, we have always acknowledged,
17:51 or we have identified the fact that we need to have an inclusive system. We need to ensure that
17:59 persons with disabilities can access this public transportation.
18:03 [Abimbola Akinajo]: Now, it's interesting what Elham said that
18:08 we talk to and engage persons with disability. And then that's exactly what LAMATA did
18:14 as part of the planning and designing for the BRT system, not just the infrastructure,
18:21 but also the rolling stock when they come. So, this is a bus system. And it was challenging,
18:26 bearing in mind that we're trying to implement in a developed city already. So,
18:32 there were things. First of all, like Elham said, we needed to engage the
18:39 persons with disability communities that already had groups within Lagos. And
18:46 we took their concerns and we made that in the design, we implemented a number of those issues.
18:54 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, for instance, we have
18:59 ramps on our buses for wheeling on and wheeling off of passengers. We have level
19:05 boarding on our BRT stations. And recently what we've also done because we realized that
19:12 whilst we have level boarding on our BRT systems or bus stations, when the buses are not parking
19:21 at or stopping at BRT stations, it was difficult for the physically challenged to board them. So,
19:29 the new buses we have now are actually leaning buses. And which means that when we stop at any
19:34 other station, the bus can tilt and allow level boarding, regardless of where we are.
19:39 [Abimbola Akinajo]: We have ramps with all
19:42 of the new bus terminals we're building now. And Lagos is in the process of implementing a number
19:47 of the bus terminals in accordance with our strategic master plan.
19:52 So, all the bus terminals we're building now, we have ramps at them for easy access.
19:57 [Abimbola Akinajo]: We have
20:00 specially designed toilets for the physical physically challenged within our bus terminals,
20:05 because that's also some of the things you sort of sometimes overlook. We have on our
20:12 rolling stock as well, we have designated seats for the physically challenged, so that when you
20:20 are sitting on the bus, it's written there, you know that you need to give up a seat for a
20:27 priority passenger, or there's a place to actually wheel your wheelchairs to park it on the bus.
20:35 [Abimbola Akinajo]: Now, one very major thing we've
20:39 identified apart from talking and engaging with physically challenged or
20:47 disabled people is we need to train our people. No matter what you do, you need to really ensure
20:55 that those who work at those bus stops, those who work, those on the buses understand the reason why
21:03 you are telling them to do certain things. So, there's a big role for the state and for the
21:09 agency to ensure that we carry out regular trainings, that will ensure that those who
21:16 work in those facilities know what to do when they encounter the physically challenged.
21:23 Know that what we are asking you to do when you see them, how to respond to them,
21:27 how to work with them. And we see this regularly in the system, where we recognize that when
21:35 people were not trained, they just didn't know how to react or how to deal with them.
21:41 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, a physically challenged person comes
21:44 to a bus that does not have a kneeling position, will need the bus driver to come out and pull out
21:50 a ramp. Now, if he's not trained to understand that that is what he must do to allow the
21:56 physically challenged to access his bus, he won't know to get down or to go and provide that access.
22:03 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, the one thing LAMATA has learned
22:05 is continuous training of the people who work on the system. It's fantastic to provide all
22:12 of these things that are build off. We have pedestrian bridges that access our bus terminals,
22:17 but we also need to ensure that all those who work around it are well trained to understand what
22:24 needs to be done and why they need to do it. And that is part of the things that we have learned,
22:31 because when we first had all of these systems and we realized that people were probably not
22:36 responding as well as we wanted them to, we've now started to do a lot of training advocacy
22:42 and letting people know, and also putting it out there that LAMATA is in the business of actively
22:50 engaging and ensuring that we're inclusive in the business of public transportation.
22:55 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, from LAMATA's perspective, it is a deliberate
23:02 action that we must make. It is we have to be deliberate about this inclusion. We can't just
23:08 ensure that we do certain things and think it'll just work. There's the engagement.
23:13 And Elham mentioned that at the start, we need to continuously engage those
23:19 organizations and ensure that their needs are met and their needs are being constantly fed into the
23:25 system. But we also need to ensure that our people are well trained to know the reasons why they're
23:32 doing what they're doing and how to do what they need to do to ensure that everybody is included.
23:38 [Abimbola Akinajo]: And we also have complaint lines.
23:42 And I get that regularly from those who have encountered poor service at any of
23:48 our bus services. And we know to follow up that complaint and to find out where it happened,
23:55 and we know what we now need to do. So, we reach out to the complainer and we understand what the
24:01 challenge was. And then we go back to identify how to deal with it, whether it is to go back
24:06 to that bus terminal and ensure that we up our training and speak to them. So, it's a constant
24:13 and continuous process of engagement. And I think that is the key thing, engagement. Provide all the
24:19 physical infrastructure to support inclusion, but continue to talk. Thank you very much.
24:25 [Junaid Ahmad]: Thank you very much. What a fascinating story. You
24:31 talk about the use of technology, infrastructure in a different way. You talk about training.
24:37 But most importantly, you talk about the need for constant voice, listening to those who face
24:43 disabilities to make transport accessible for all. What an extraordinary story from Lagos.
24:49 [Junaid Ahmad]: Let's continue our
24:51 focus in Nigeria. And I would like to invite Ibiyemi to share her thoughts. The identity for
25:00 inclusion or ID4I solution has been a game changer for athletes with disabilities.
25:07 Can you tell us more about this and why it was so vital to have this provision?
25:13 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: Sure. Good day, everybody. My name is
25:17 Ibiyemi Ayeni, and I am a chocolate brown, black woman with dark brown eyes. I have brown hair,
25:27 and it's an afro, and I have it pulled back. I'm also wearing a brown dress with stripes. Okay.
25:34 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: Let's talk about ID4I. ID4I means
25:40 identification for inclusion, and it's a solution being championed by Special Olympics Nigeria,
25:47 to facilitate the registration of people with intellectual disabilities, living in Nigeria,
25:52 through the issuance of a national identification number. This is important to us because to attain
25:59 a sustainable development goal, we need to promote more inclusive communities.
26:04 To have more inclusive communities, we need to promote equitable access to every individual
26:10 in the community to opportunities and services. This will not be possible, if an individual is not
26:18 registered and recognized, one as a citizen, and two, to be able to access a world of opportunity.
26:24 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: Special Olympics mostly
26:30 focus on people with intellectual disabilities. We empower them through the power of sports.
26:36 So, our athletes go for training opportunities and competition opportunities. During competition
26:42 and international competition, they have to travel. To travel, you need a passport. And
26:47 now in Nigeria to get an international passport, you need to have a National Identification Number.
26:54 And a National Identification Number is not just to get an international passport,
27:00 in order for them to access healthcare when they want to make sure that they're good
27:03 and they perform optimally during their sporting activities. To access the healthcare,
27:09 they need a National Identification Number. Same thing with accessing financial services,
27:13 to get access to communication services, to get access to education
27:17 and empowerment opportunities. And a National Identification Number is essential. And that
27:24 is why we believe that everybody should have a National Identification Number.
27:29 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: Now, the reason why we reached out to various
27:34 communities and families of people with intellectual disabilities,
27:38 and we inquired about the reasons why there's no records of people with disabilities,
27:44 especially those with intellectual disabilities registered in the database is because a lot of
27:50 family members don't know the importance of registering their ward or child with a disability,
27:56 especially those with intellectual disabilities in the system. And then two, most of them are worried
28:03 about the distance. They don't have the time to go out, to take out, to go to these various centers.
28:09 And another reason is that a lot of them are worried about the treatment that their
28:13 child or ward might receive when they go outside to these centers.
28:19 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: So, to tackle these barriers,
28:22 the ID4I solution has come up with three steps. Number one,
28:28 we are educating people with intellectual disabilities, people with disabilities and
28:33 their family members. We're also partnering with the National Identification Management Commission.
28:38 Without them, we cannot register anybody. So, through their partnership, we are able to
28:45 train their staff on how to treat and tolerate people with differing abilities, and to provide
28:53 their utmost service to these vulnerable groups. And then once that's done, three, Special Olympics
29:01 Nigeria team, and the National Identification Management go into the various communities across
29:09 the various local government areas in Nigeria. And we try to facilitate registration locally
29:17 in centers, close to these vulnerable groups to ensure and promote their registration.
29:24 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: We believe we've
29:26 started off in Lagos. And we have already entered into 25 local government areas.
29:33 And we are hoping that through work we're doing that will gain more partners
29:41 and sponsor support to go into other states, to facilitate registration
29:46 for others with disabilities, especially those with intellectual disabilities across Nigeria.
29:51 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: Nigeria is heading towards
29:54 a nation that is being more strategic. And we know, and we believe that we're
29:58 heading to a place where the nation would start thinking about strategic social protection for
30:05 vulnerable groups. And in order for them to be able to do this, they need to know
30:11 who these vulnerable groups are. And that's why it's very important for every
30:16 individual to have a National Identification Number, especially those with disabilities.
30:22 [Junaid Ahmad]: Thank you, Ibiyemi, for your insightful comments.
30:28 The Identity for Inclusion or ID4I continues to do some pathbreaking work. So, thank you very much.
30:34 [Junaid Ahmad]: Finally, we'll wrap up this
30:36 panel discussion with Rebecca. Rebecca, this is a very important time in our history in the world.
30:44 We are trying to recover from COVID-19. And recovery has to be one that includes everyone.
30:50 Perhaps you could share from your experience what inclusive community development looks like
30:57 and what lessons do development practitioners can really see on how to ensure that disability
31:03 does not stop us from ensuring inclusion and development, especially in this context
31:09 when we are really coming out in a recovery process, post-COVID-19. Rebecca, over to you.
31:15 [Rebecca Cokley]: Thank you so much for
31:17 having me. Hi, my name is Rebecca Cokley. I am a redheaded little person. I have
31:23 achondroplastic dwarfism. I am wearing a red jacket, black shirt. And I have a
31:31 lovely three generations worth abundance of freckles that I am very proud of.
31:36 [Rebecca Cokley]: This is such an important question now
31:39 more than ever, because of COVID-19. We know that the epidemic had has not just pretty much changed
31:46 everyone's way of life, but it has also resulted in the creation of over 85 million newly disabled
31:53 people around the world. This is the largest disability population boom, probably almost ever.
32:00 [Rebecca Cokley]: Inclusive community development
32:03 means the ability to adapt to this changing population, while at the same time centering
32:10 the needs of the most impacted. As my colleagues were saying, any response to climate change
32:17 or transportation, or poverty will be ineffective if disability is not centered. The opportunity
32:25 here is really to move from how we've responded to previous crises, responding with fear,
32:31 responding with isolation, with pity, to responding with empowerment.
32:36 [Rebecca Cokley]: And so, when I think about
32:37 what this looks like, it means that development should be investing in innovation. It should be
32:43 investing in best practice. It means including people with disabilities and their communities
32:49 before there's a crisis, before there's a problem in terms of both physical access,
32:54 programmatic access and linguistic accessibility.
32:58 From a grant making perspective, what it means is engaging in participatory grant making, bringing
33:04 those that are directly impacted to the table from day one, to decide how funding is being spent.
33:10 [Rebecca Cokley]: At the Ford Foundation,
33:12 as we built out our US Disability Rights Program Strategy this last year, this was a central part
33:17 of our thinking. So, we pulled together a series of disability community consultancies
33:23 on our strategy, where we talk to experts, talk to family members, and most importantly, talk to
33:30 people with disabilities, both those that work within the disability rights and justice space
33:36 and those who work in other organizations, to tell us what works and what doesn't work,
33:40 where should we be focusing on? In this time of COVID, how do we balance, responding to crises
33:48 with the day to day issues and realities that impact the lives of people with disabilities?
33:54 This translated into our workplaces, as we're talking about the development space.
33:59 [Rebecca Cokley]: What does it really mean now to go back to work?
34:02 Accommodations and flexibility that disabled people have asked for, have begged for,
34:09 for years and were told we're not reasonable, became provided to everyone almost overnight.
34:16 That said, when we return to work, it cannot be a time for employers to shift
34:22 back to inaccessibility. It also cannot be a time that employers say, "Okay, fine.
34:28 If you were working from home all of this time, we don't have to make our workplace accessible.
34:34 You can just stay at home." The new reality cannot be an excuse for segregation.
34:39 And development has a role in making sure that that's not the case.
34:42 [Rebecca Cokley]: Development can be investing
34:45 in healthcare systems, that center versus isolating disabled people and the disability
34:51 communities. Practitioners in these spaces must be more thoughtful in terms of the recovery.
34:58 So many times in the development world, we believe that our job is sweeping in
35:04 and telling communities what they need. And instead, we must listen. We must center those
35:09 impacted. It does no good to rush in with exoskeletons when the people on the ground
35:15 tell us that what they need is clean drinking water and passable roads. Thank you very much.
35:21 [Junaid Ahmad]:
35:23 Thank you, Rebecca. Very powerful message, that the new reality cannot be used as an
35:28 excuse for segregation. That's a very important message for all of us. Elham, Abimbola, Ibiyemi,
35:36 Rebecca, it's leaders like you, who will ensure
35:40 that development is indeed inclusive. Thank you very much for joining us in this discussion.
35:45 [Junaid Ahmad]:
35:46 I now want to hand over the mic to my colleague, Louise Cord, who is the global director of social
35:52 sustainability and inclusion at the World Bank for a fireside chat with Jenny Lay-Flurrie,
35:58 who's the chief accessibility officer at Microsoft. Louise, over to you.
36:04 [Louise Cord]:
36:07 Well, thank you very much, Junaid. And good morning and welcome, everybody, to this segment of
36:12 today's program, which will be a fireside chat on digital accessibility for an inclusive recovery.
36:18 [Louise Cord]: Before we go any further,
36:19 let me just briefly introduce myself. My name is Louise Cord. I am the global director for
36:24 social sustainability and inclusion at the World Bank. I identify as a woman with short brown hair.
36:32 I am today wearing dangling earrings, and I have a pink scarf and a gray sweater.
36:37 [Louise Cord]: So, I've been so impressed so far by the
36:41 honesty and the meaningful discussions that we've been having on how the World Bank Group and other
36:46 development actors can make a world more inclusive for persons with disabilities. I now have the
36:53 pleasure of welcoming, Jenny Lay-Flurrie to this discussion. Jenny is the chief accessibility
37:00 officer at Microsoft. Welcome, Jenny. And let's just dive right into the discussion.
37:05 [Louise Cord]: The first question I'd like to ask is about
37:08 inclusion and how the World Bank sees challenges of inclusion as critical in this recovery period,
37:15 where COVID has done so much to exacerbate inequalities. The role of digital technology is
37:22 absolutely key for an inclusive recovery amongst our client countries in the developing world.
37:27 And I'd like to hear how Microsoft, the efforts that they've made to develop accessible product
37:33 design and make technology available, and ensure an inclusive digital access.
37:39 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]:
37:43 Thank you. Great question. And first, thank you for having me. Jenny Lay-Flurrie. I
37:48 am a white female, sitting in a Microsoft office. So, I have a whiteboard behind me,
37:54 brown hair, glasses, and thick red lipstick. It's early in the morning here.
37:59 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: And it's a great question. I will say that
38:03 like many, we have been learning from this period and learning really as the demographics
38:10 of disability continue to go up, but the social inequity continues, unfortunately to go with it.
38:17 And we are seeing that really the effects of the pandemic disproportionately impact the disabled
38:23 community. So, it's something that's incredibly top of mind for us here at Microsoft. We did just
38:29 recently redo our strategy to really just be very thoughtful, to tackle and attack this bluntly,
38:38 and with a tagline that actually came from World Bank,
38:42 which was a study you did in 2016 that coined the phrase, disability divide,
38:48 and very aptly described some of the facets and reasons why that has come to the fore.
38:54 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: So, for us, yes, we are a nerdy technical company,
38:59 that is the core and the grounding that we stand on. And I think the bottom line basics is making
39:06 sure that we embed the disabled community into the core and fabric of what we do,
39:12 everything that we do. We very stand just vehemently on the nothing about us without us.
39:20 And so, that does mean that the insights of people with disabilities, whether it's
39:25 feedback channel, social listening, engaging with specific nonprofits and countries,
39:31 and economic differences. We collect that and GARNER that. We test our products with disabled
39:41 communities. We design them with... And that's being able to net us bluntly better products.
39:47 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: I mean, this isn't just a charity,
39:53 or an optional thing. There so much business benefit to doing this, but it also does mean that
40:00 the bar of inclusion and accessibility within our products has systematically gone up over time.
40:06 So, it's very, very top of mind for us, and not just in our products,
40:11 but in our processes, how we hire talent, how we empower talent, how we unblock
40:18 issues that could be preventing talent from going from early education into higher education,
40:25 from higher education into the workforce. So yes, it's got to be thoughtful and systematic.
40:31 [Louise Cord]:
40:33 Could I ask you maybe just to describe in just a few words, one of your most favorite dimensions of
40:40 Microsoft's accessible product design, a specific one, if there's something you'd like to highlight?
40:46 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: Oh, crikey. There are so many. I mean,
40:52 I feel very lucky to work with as many teams as we do. But I would also one of my favorites,
40:59 and they're all my favorites to be clear. But one of my favorites right now is the
41:05 acceleration we're seeing in accessibility in gaming. And gaming and play, I think is
41:15 as important as workplace and education, respite, and having the ability to chill out with family,
41:24 with friends, whether it's on a phone, it's on a PC, or it's on any device, or it's on an Xbox
41:32 and methodically opening doors to disabled talent to game.
41:37 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: And some of the beautiful
41:40 projects that I've seen come through this, even with Forza, which is a driving game,
41:46 embedding British sign language, American sign language, captioning,
41:51 and a whole bunch and suit features into that to open doors to disabled gamers.
41:57 There's a lot more to do, a lot more. But I think play is just a crucially important component to
42:05 life in all parts of the world. And I don't think we put enough emphasis into opening doors there.
42:12 [Louise Cord]: Interesting. Interesting dimension there,
42:15 I wouldn't have thought of. And I can see why you raise it. It is quite important. Thank you.
42:20 [Louise Cord]: Let me turn now to just a question
42:22 more on the how. So, I understand that to do a lot of these digital accessible product lines,
42:29 you have a public private partnership. And maybe explain the how process. And you
42:35 mentioned your engagement with communities and with different groups. How has this been done?
42:43 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: Well, I think the first thing to recognize when
42:46 you're building anything and you are aiming to achieve a higher bar of inclusion is that you're
42:50 not the experts. And while we are very proud to hire, empower and publicly share our mission to
42:59 get more disabled talent into Microsoft, which we've been very aggressively pushing forward on.
43:06 We just published our new numbers at 7.1% of our US population being employees with disabilities.
43:15 We clearly don't represent the mass. And you can't have one company representative of the globe and
43:23 the true diversity of disability that exists and how that changes by country, by area, by location.
43:31 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: So, I think it really is important for us to have
43:35 the right connections, the right relationships and the right processes to garner that feedback
43:42 and to work together, to make sure that we ultimately make it easier to be accessible
43:47 and to understand the business benefits disability.
43:50 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: So, I absolutely love working with Charlotte
43:56 at World Bank. I think her expertise in the industry is legendary.
44:01 And she's an amazing thought leader. But partnering with her on how we can make it easier
44:06 is a very important part of what we do. Working with other public, private and nonprofits
44:12 to, again, methodically get that feedback in. So, one of those is Shepherd Center,
44:19 which has 1500 people with disabilities. And we test our products with them. And one,
44:27 we get invaluable feedback. Two, it's the right economic set of processes.
44:33 Individuals are paid around $50 an hour for their time. So, it is also creating a workplace,
44:42 which is also important, a sustainable workplace.
44:44 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: And I think the other aspects
44:47 that I look at is how can we also partner to you get out technology into people's hands?
44:54 One of the issues with accessibility is actually there's a wealth of goodness, just sitting in the
45:01 device in front of me, that people often don't even know about or have access to.
45:07 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: So, how can we get more technology
45:10 into people's hands with the right connectivity to be able to access? And we are trialing some
45:19 initiatives in the States, but I do hope that they go further assure because that's really
45:25 the benefit that we're going to see from this, to get
45:29 devices affordable, sustainably affordable into people's hands in New York and LA,
45:35 and particularly into disabled communities that may not have had access to those.
45:39 And that's a partnership between the public institutions in those cities, between connectivity
45:47 providers and Microsoft as providers of the hardware and software, and digital accessibility.
45:53 And so, I think there's a lot more that we can and should be doing. But yes,
46:00 we got to do this stuff together, if we're going to really tackle that disability divide.
46:05 [Louise Cord]: Wow, it sounds really exciting.
46:07 I would love to hear how this partnership goes with New York, and I think you said LA,
46:13 and the technology providers and Microsoft, because to get accessible devices into the hands
46:20 of persons with disabilities. Because I think there'd be a lot of valuable lessons learned
46:25 for our work in developing country context. So, we look forward to continuing the partnership
46:31 and staying in touch. And thank you so much for sharing your valuable knowledge and insight with
46:36 us and helping in the collaboration to build a more inclusive post pandemic world. Thank you.
46:42 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]:
46:45 Well, thank you for your time today. And happy International Persons with Disability Day.
46:50 [Louise Cord]: Thanks again, Jenny. It was
46:52 great to have you here with us. And now I'll hand it back to Junaid for the rest of the program.
46:57 [Junaid Ahmad]: Thank you, Jenny, for sharing your insights
47:02 and experiences on the advances that Microsoft has made in accessible technology. There's a lot
47:08 that we at the World Bank can learn from your experience. And I hope we'll get to continue
47:12 the conversations in the future. And Louise, thank you for moderating a wonderful session.
47:17 [Junaid Ahmad]:
47:18 Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are now going to turn to a very special event. We'll be
47:22 treated to a discussion with and performance by Warren Wawa Snipe, a rapper and performer,
47:29 who recently performed the National Anthem at the 2021 Super Bowl.
47:35 I'd like to hand over the state to Charlotte, our global disability advisor at the World Bank
47:42 for a conversation with Wawa in our office, at the World Bank in Washington. Charlotte, over to you.
47:47 [Charlotte McClain Nhlapo]: Hi, my name is Charlotte McLean
47:52 Chapo. I'm the global disability advisor at the World Bank Group. I'm a brown woman. I have long
47:57 brown hair. I have green eyes. Today, I'm wearing all black. I have large silver hoops and a silver
48:04 necklace around my neck. And today, I'm joined by Wawa. Wawa, please will you introduce yourself?
48:11 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: All right. I am Warren
48:14 Snipe. Everyone calls me Wawa. This is my sign name. I'm a tall black man, black and gray hair.
48:26 I have unique locks, pulled back. I have a blazer, a blue blazer and a black shirt with
48:34 an I love you sign on it. I have two unique earrings and a nice beard that shows my age.
48:41 [Charlotte McClain Nhlapo]: Great. Well, really glad to have you here,
48:45 Wawa. And we're so happy that you're here to celebrate with us the International Day
48:50 of Persons with Disabilities. And I was wondering if you could talk to us a bit about
48:55 as a deaf person, what does resilience mean to you, particularly given the fact that we've
49:01 all come through a pandemic, and really just share with us, what that has meant for you?
49:07 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: What resilience means to me
49:11 as a deaf black man is to never give up. Of course, we have limitations being in
49:18 this world as a disabled person. But what COVID did was complicate those things and exacerbate
49:25 what already existed. What we had to do in this pandemic is learn how adapt,
49:31 learn how to change and improve our lives for the better moving forward.
49:35 [Warren Wawa Snipe]:
49:37 For example, Zoom is new to many of us, but now it's a common thing for all of us.
49:43 We have to figure out ways to add closed captioning to videos,
49:48 subtitles to videos, things that we just really took for granted or were too slow
49:54 to acclimate ourselves too. Be much more inclusive, visually, technologically, knowing
50:01 that we all have disabilities, whether they're visible or invisible. Change was a big thing.
50:08 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: You can say that the pandemic had blessed us.
50:16 It was truly a blessing in disguise. We all had to augment what we believe reality and normalcy was.
50:23 We just could not give up in the process. And that is what resilience is.
50:27 We had to work together, so that we could live together, be together through these hard times
50:32 and persevere to see the other side, because we would never know what we had never thought of
50:39 had we not worked together. That we can see the light at the end of this tunnel called to COVID.
50:46 That way we had to be resilience, and never give up.
50:49 [Charlotte McClain Nhlapo]: Beautiful words, Wawa. Thank
50:51 you so much for sharing that. So, you had this amazing song called, LOUD.
50:58 And it has a very powerful message. Talk to us a bit about what that message is, what it means
51:06 and how you came about conceptualizing it.
51:08 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: Well, the message in and of itself,
51:16 it's honestly taking just from a crazy set of mess. I
51:21 turned negativity into positivity, a message that we all needed to learn.
51:28 What I wanted to do was be bold with it, take the next step forward and invigorate something new.
51:36 The word loud in and of itself, many people view deaf people as being loud. We clap. We sign loud.
51:43 We're loud in our voices. But honestly, with my cochlear implant, I find that the world is loud.
51:49 The cars are honking. The things you take for granted are loud to me. What is the difference?
51:54 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: I decided to use loud
51:57 in an altruistic sense, to be bold, to be brave, to go into uncertainty with the certainty that we
52:07 are to come out with something creative. That's what the pandemic did. It provided something that
52:15 on the onset seemed negative. We, as a people came together and found something
52:20 positive. I came up with something catchy. I never wrote something like this before.
52:27 But people were just inspired and ran with it. And that's what I think gave worth to the song.
52:32 [Charlotte McClain Nhlapo]: Thank you for sharing that
52:35 with us. And thank you for developing that beautiful song. So, what we're going to do
52:42 now is ask everybody to stay tuned because we're going to listen to the song right now.
54:09 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: (Singing with text on screen)
54:13 [Junaid Ahmad]: That was amazing. And
56:09 for someone who comes from a musical family, my wife is a musician, I am absolutely thrilled to
56:15 have listened to Wawa sing today. And I'm sure this song will be stuck in all of our heads
56:21 all day long. Thank you once again for sharing your talent Wawa and experience with us.
56:26 You truly brought to life the celebration that is today. Thank you Wawa for inspiring us.
56:33 [Junaid Ahmad]:
56:37 We're coming to the end of this celebration, but I'm sure the conversation started here
56:41 will continue. Let me close by thanking our guests for sharing the remarkable work,
56:47 insights and life stories. You have shown what can be achieved when we deliberately
56:53 include persons with disabilities in the design of our recovery response.
56:57 [Junaid Ahmad]: As Mari mentioned earlier,
57:00 today is a day to recognize and value the tremendous contributions and journeys of persons
57:07 with disabilities and to reflect on future action, promote inclusive and accessible societies.
57:14 [Junaid Ahmad]: We at the World Bank will
57:16 continue to step up our efforts to ensure that the persons with disabilities around the world
57:21 have access to opportunities and support to follow their dreams and contribute fully to
57:27 their communities and their economies. We also acknowledge the long road ahead
57:33 to address the gaps in access, participation and opportunities
57:37 that persons with disabilities continue to systematically encounter, unfortunately. I
57:44 look forward to continuing our work together to promote inclusion and expand equitable
57:50 opportunities for persons with disabilities and ensure that the future is indeed accessible.
57:56 [Junaid Ahmad]: Ladies and gentlemen,
57:58 thank you once again for joining us today. I hope that we keep these important conversations going.
58:06 Thank you very much.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2021

Follow the event on Twitter #IDPD

Join the World Bank and a panel of experts for an event on “Leadership and Participation of Persons with Disabilities.” The event features leaders from government, the private sector, and civil society, in addition to an exciting performance by deaf rapper and performer, Wawa. It commemorates the International Day of Persons with Disabilities with a discussion on how we can move toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable future in a post-COVID-19 world.

Use the following timestamps to navigate different sections of the video.

00:00 Welcome and introductory remarks
03:15 Including persons with disabilities for an inclusive recovery
07:36 Panel introductions: designing accessibility for an inclusive recovery
09:08 Addressing overlapping crises like climate change and COVID-19
16:32 Insights on disability-inclusive transport from Lagos
24:53 Empowering vulnerable populations: Identification for Inclusion
30:36 Inclusive community development
35:46 The role of the private sector and the strength of public-private partnerships
47:50 Resilience during COVID-19 for musicians and artists
52:49 Wawa’s music video: LOUD!
56:07 Closing remarks: inclusion, equity, access

"Designing accessible infrastructure, education programs, and health systems could change the entire trajectory in the life of a person with a disability."

— Mari Pangestu, World Bank

"I look forward to continuing our work together to promote inclusion and expand equitable opportunities for persons with disabilities and ensure the future is indeed accessible."

— Junaid Kamal Ahmad, World Bank

"COVID-19 has shown that emergency response systems in many countries are not designed to be inclusive of persons with disabilities. This is the best time for governments to consult with persons with disabilities."

— Elham Youssefian, International Disability Alliance (IDA)

"Development should be investing in innovation, in best practice. It means including people with disabilities before there’s a crisis."

— Rebecca Cokley, Ford Foundation

Poll Results

Read the transcript

00:15 [Junaid Ahmad]: Good morning, everyone. And welcome
00:17 to our annual celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. But before I begin,
00:24 I'd like to remind everyone that the international sign language interpretation
00:29 and closed caption services are available at the bottom of your screen. I hope you can see that.
00:35 [Junaid Ahmad]: My name is Junaid Ahmad,
00:37 and I am the World Bank Country Director for India. I'll be moderating today's event.
00:43 I'm a Bangladeshi of South Asian descent, light brown skin. I used to have a beautiful crop of
00:50 hair at one point, but working at the World Bank, I now am bald as bald can be. I wear glasses. And
00:56 I'm wearing an ethnic suit. It's called the Nehru jacket in India. It's called the Mujib
01:03 coat in Bangladesh. I hope you can visualize those jackets. They mean a lot for our region.
01:09 [Junaid Ahmad]:
01:10 Ladies and gentlemen, as climate change, COVID-19 and conflict continue to escalate globally,
01:18 building cohesive and resilient communities is more important than before. Therefore,
01:24 it is vital for us to reimagine what inclusive and sustainable recovery would look like for
01:31 populations across the world. Inclusive services for all is the objective. But regrettably,
01:38 persons with disabilities are often left out of conversations around these critical issues,
01:44 even though they're among the most of the affected groups that we face in development. Without
01:51 a disability-inclusive approach to recovery, persons with disabilities are at increased risk
01:58 of being further left behind and falling into poverty due to overlapping crises.
02:04 [Junaid Ahmad]: Over the next hour, we're bringing together
02:07 policy makers, practitioners, and disability champions to honor the resilience of persons
02:14 with disabilities and raise awareness of the challenges they face. We will also, and this
02:21 is very important, we will also be treated to a musical performance by an exciting artist,
02:27 known as Wawa, Warren Snipe. So, please stay till the end and you'll hear wonderful music.
02:34 [Junaid Ahmad]:
02:35 I also welcome you to follow the conversation online by using the hashtag IDPD2021
02:44 and Road2Inclusion, that's road, the number two, inclusion.
02:49 [Junaid Ahmad]: It is now my pleasure to welcome to the
02:52 conversation, Mari Pangestu, our managing director of development policy and partnerships at the
02:59 World Bank. Again, before I turn it over to Mari, I'd like to remind you all that close captioning
03:06 and international sign language are available at the bottom of your screen. Mari, over to you.
03:12 [Mari Pangestu]:
03:15 Good morning, everyone. I'm Mari Pangestu, managing director for development policy
03:20 and partnerships at the World Bank. I am from Indonesia. I have dark brown hair and
03:26 dark brown eyes. And today, I'm wearing a dark blue suit with a matching necklace.
03:32 [Mari Pangestu]: This week,
03:34 we join millions of people around the globe to celebrate the International Day of Persons
03:39 with Disabilities. It's a day to reflect on global diversity, to learn from the lived experiences
03:45 of persons with disabilities and to chart future actions to promote inclusive accessible societies.
03:52 The global theme this year is Leadership and Participation of Persons with Disabilities,
03:57 towards an inclusive, accessible, and sustainable post COVID-19 world. This gives us an opportunity
04:04 to renew our focus on the people who have been hit hardest by the ongoing pandemic.
04:09 [Mari Pangestu]: Including persons with
04:11 disabilities and expanding equitable opportunities are at the core of the World Bank's goals to end
04:18 extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. Persons with disabilities still struggle to
04:25 access adequate health, education, transportation, and other basic services. As we continue to work
04:32 towards an inclusive recovery from COVID 19, we need to design solutions that consider everybody.
04:38 It's part of our approach to green, resilient and inclusive development as we move forward.
04:44 [Mari Pangestu]: When something is built or designed
04:46 with accessibility in mind, it has powerful impacts on communities, not only for persons with
04:52 disabilities, but many other groups, including persons with temporary impairments, the elderly,
04:59 pregnant women and children. Designing accessible infrastructure, education programs and health
05:05 systems could change the entire trajectory in the life of a person with a disability.
05:11 [Mari Pangestu]: Addressing systemic inequalities
05:14 and improving accessibility for all are not easy things to do, but we are committed to staying the
05:23 course. We have been active in supporting persons with disabilities for close to two decades,
05:29 significantly ramping up our efforts in the last five years.
05:32 [Mari Pangestu]: The World Bank's fund for the
05:35 poorest countries also known as IDA recognizes disability inclusion as a theme that crosses a
05:41 number of sectors. IDA has enabled us to improve our disability inclusion work through stronger
05:47 engagement with persons with disabilities for our projects. Their voice and participation in
05:52 the design and delivery of development projects is crucial. Let me highlight a few examples.
05:58 [Mari Pangestu]: In Rwanda, we supported
06:00 the government with the design of disability inclusive infrastructure in schools. This resulted
06:06 in the expansion of over 20,000 classrooms and nearly 31,000 toilets, including new ramps that
06:13 provide easier access to classrooms, spacious restrooms that accommodate wheelchairs and
06:19 accessible blackboards for students and teachers with disabilities. The project will also provide
06:25 teacher training to support children with disabilities and accessible learning materials.
06:30 [Mari Pangestu]: In Nigeria, the Digital
06:32 Identification for Development Project ensured that persons with disabilities were involved
06:38 in the extensive consultation process, including two meetings that explored the challenges of
06:45 persons with disabilities, what they face in applying for and receiving unique identification.
06:55 The feedback from these consultations provides significant insight into the project design.
07:00 [Mari Pangestu]: Let me close by reiterating that
07:04 as this year's theme suggests, working towards an accessible future is everyone's responsibility. At
07:10 the time we must center the voices of persons with disabilities in our response and recovery efforts.
07:16 I'm delighted that we have an excellent panel today to share perspectives from the government,
07:22 private sector, civil society, including organizations of persons with disabilities
07:27 foundations and other partner organizations. I look forward to hearing from all of them today.
07:33 [Junaid Ahmad]:
07:36 Thank you Mari for clearly emphasizing the commitment of the World Bank in addressing the
07:41 challenge of disability as part of our development agenda. So once again, thank you very much.
07:46 [Junaid Ahmad]: Next, we turn to our panel
07:49 of four distinguished guests, who are joining us from across the globe to talk about approaches,
07:55 to designing accessibility for an inclusive recovery. We have with us, Elham Youssefian,
08:02 who is the inclusive humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction advisor at
08:09 the International Disability Alliance, also known as IDA. We also have Abimbola Akinajo,
08:17 who's the managing director at Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority. We have Ibiyemi
08:24 Ayeni, who's the initiative manager at Special Olympics in Nigeria. And finally, Rebecca Cokley,
08:30 who is the program officer working on the US Disability Rights Program at Ford Foundation.
08:36 [Junaid Ahmad]: Colleagues, you have beautiful names,
08:38 and I hope that in my Southern Asian accent, I have not done any disservice to those wonderful
08:44 names. It's a pleasure to have all of you join us today. So, welcome to all of you.
08:50 [Junaid Ahmad]: Elham, if I may begin with you.
08:53 This year's commemoration comes on the heels of COP 26. And we're still in the middle of COVID 19.
09:01 Climate change is real and a real threat to humanity. And COVID has had its real impact.
09:08 In your view, what measures must global leaders take to ensure that response to overlapping crisis
09:15 like climate change and COVID is inclusive of persons with disabilities. Elham?
09:21 [Elham Youssefian]: Thank you very much, Junaid. Hello,
09:24 everyone, wherever you are listening to me and seeing me. I just want to first say that
09:33 I am a mid-30s woman. I'm also blind. And I have medium color skin with dark brown
09:44 eyebrows and eyes and dark brown hair. I'm wearing a red shirt today.
09:48 [Elham Youssefian]: So global leaders,
09:51 of course, the list is very long, but if I have to just say one sentence to them, that would be,
09:59 no inclusion, no efficiency. So, if they want to be efficient, they need to be inclusive,
10:05 disability inclusive, and they need to be disability inclusive now.
10:09 [Elham Youssefian]: Let me use the example of
10:12 climate change, which is fresh in everyone's mind because of the Glasgow COP 26, which just ended.
10:20 We see that many of the climate adaptation and climate mitigation policies and programs
10:28 are being designed without considering impact on persons with disabilities,
10:33 and the role that persons with disabilities can play.
10:36 [Elham Youssefian]: For example, unfortunately, due to climate change,
10:40 heat waves are going to be a reality of many people's lives all over the world in the near
10:47 future. But we see that the adaptation policies that are being designed to address that are not
10:53 always disability inclusive. For example, they do not design the cooling centers in accessible way.
11:02 They do not design the information sharing and the messaging programs in a way that all people
11:10 with disabilities with different communication means that they use can access that information.
11:15 [Elham Youssefian]: Also, look at the climate mitigation. So,
11:19 we see that one of the policies that is being considered to mitigate the climate change
11:26 is to reduce carbon emission. But in many of these policies, they do not consider the impact on
11:33 persons with disabilities. For example, they raise the gas prices to encourage people to use public
11:40 transportation, but they do not pay attention to the fact that some people with disabilities cannot
11:47 use public transportation, simply because public transportation is not accessible.
11:52 [Elham Youssefian]: Interestingly, we, people with
11:56 disabilities have been advocating for climate friendly transportation policies way before
12:02 everyone else, because it's decades that we are advocating for accessible public transportation.
12:09 So, we have been climate advocates for many years without even noticing that.
12:14 [Elham Youssefian]: So,
12:17 transforming public transportation would be a great way to address climate change
12:25 and accessibility, disability inclusion at the same time. But without considering that,
12:33 increasing gas prices to reduce carbon emission would be discriminatory and excluding persons
12:40 with disabilities from community even more. So, that's what we mean when we ask global
12:46 leaders to consider impact of their policies and programs on persons with disabilities.
12:52 [Elham Youssefian]: Look at the COVID situation,
12:55 and now that we are recovering. COVID-19 proved that emergency setups, emergency response
13:06 systems and rules in many countries are designed in a very non-inclusive way for persons with
13:14 disabilities. So, now that all governments are more or less introducing recovery packages,
13:20 this is the best time to sit with persons with disabilities and their representative organization
13:26 and ask them, what should we do, so that for the next emergency, which unfortunately is inevitable,
13:35 sooner or later, we don't face this exclusion and discrimination that we did face in COVID-19?
13:43 [Elham Youssefian]: For example, look at the education.
13:48 Due to COVID-19, we had to transform students to remote education. That means
13:54 that many persons with disabilities could not access education and had to drop out because
14:01 the remote systems were not accessible for them. At the same time, it was an
14:06 opportunity for some groups of persons with disabilities who could not attend
14:12 education at school, that okay, they could use remote education.
14:19 [Elham Youssefian]: So, now that we are
14:20 considering education recovery policies and programs, it's a perfect timing to make sure that
14:26 those who were excluded from education because of COVID-19 restrictions can go back to school.
14:33 And those who could access to education due to introduction of remote learning systems
14:40 remain in the education cycle. These are just examples.
14:44 [Elham Youssefian]: And the main key that I think
14:49 all global leaders at country level, local level and regional and global can use is consultation.
15:00 Yes, it is important to listen to persons with disabilities. And listening to one person with
15:05 disability is not enough. You should talk to different groups of persons with disabilities,
15:10 because what I can share as a blind person is different from what a deaf colleague can share.
15:16 And what I can share from global perspective is different from what someone at local level can
15:21 share. Yes, it would take extra time because you need to take time to consult with persons
15:27 with disabilities and their representative organizations, but it worth it because
15:32 we are 15% of the population. And yes, you need to provide the information required
15:39 to understand the policy in accessible formats, in sign language, in braille or audio, in plain
15:45 language for those with intellectual disabilities. But that's the obligation that all governments
15:52 have under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
15:56 [Elham Youssefian]: So, the bottom line is that come to us,
16:00 talk to us and ask us, and we will be sharing
16:05 good ways for real and efficient inclusion. Thank you. Thank you.
16:09 [Junaid Ahmad]: Elham, thank you very much for those important
16:13 messages. There's no doubt that if we are to be successful in our fight against climate change and
16:20 COVID-19, we have to hear the voices of persons with disabilities. Your message is well heard.
16:26 [Junaid Ahmad]: Abimbola, if I may turn
16:29 to you. Elham, already mentioned transport. So, here in Nigeria, in Sub-Saharan Africa,
16:36 the Lagos Bus Rapid Transit System is a great example
16:40 of accessible design. It would be really good to get your perspective and hear how you have
16:47 taken the BRT through a process, which has made it accessible for persons with disabilities.
16:53 And importantly, what are some of the lessons that other countries can learn from the Legos BRT?
16:58 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, thank you very much
17:02 for that question. So, hello, everybody. I am Abimbola. I'm a black woman. And I
17:10 have black hair. And my hair is in tiny little twists. I have pods of little plats on my head.
17:19 I have metal framed glasses on. And I'm wearing a brown and a black top.
17:27 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, let's talk about the Lagos BRT.
17:35 So, the Lagos BRT system is a first. It's a way that Lagos state government has created
17:43 a regulated bus system for Lagos state. And in preparing that, we have always acknowledged,
17:51 or we have identified the fact that we need to have an inclusive system. We need to ensure that
17:59 persons with disabilities can access this public transportation.
18:03 [Abimbola Akinajo]: Now, it's interesting what Elham said that
18:08 we talk to and engage persons with disability. And then that's exactly what LAMATA did
18:14 as part of the planning and designing for the BRT system, not just the infrastructure,
18:21 but also the rolling stock when they come. So, this is a bus system. And it was challenging,
18:26 bearing in mind that we're trying to implement in a developed city already. So,
18:32 there were things. First of all, like Elham said, we needed to engage the
18:39 persons with disability communities that already had groups within Lagos. And
18:46 we took their concerns and we made that in the design, we implemented a number of those issues.
18:54 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, for instance, we have
18:59 ramps on our buses for wheeling on and wheeling off of passengers. We have level
19:05 boarding on our BRT stations. And recently what we've also done because we realized that
19:12 whilst we have level boarding on our BRT systems or bus stations, when the buses are not parking
19:21 at or stopping at BRT stations, it was difficult for the physically challenged to board them. So,
19:29 the new buses we have now are actually leaning buses. And which means that when we stop at any
19:34 other station, the bus can tilt and allow level boarding, regardless of where we are.
19:39 [Abimbola Akinajo]: We have ramps with all
19:42 of the new bus terminals we're building now. And Lagos is in the process of implementing a number
19:47 of the bus terminals in accordance with our strategic master plan.
19:52 So, all the bus terminals we're building now, we have ramps at them for easy access.
19:57 [Abimbola Akinajo]: We have
20:00 specially designed toilets for the physical physically challenged within our bus terminals,
20:05 because that's also some of the things you sort of sometimes overlook. We have on our
20:12 rolling stock as well, we have designated seats for the physically challenged, so that when you
20:20 are sitting on the bus, it's written there, you know that you need to give up a seat for a
20:27 priority passenger, or there's a place to actually wheel your wheelchairs to park it on the bus.
20:35 [Abimbola Akinajo]: Now, one very major thing we've
20:39 identified apart from talking and engaging with physically challenged or
20:47 disabled people is we need to train our people. No matter what you do, you need to really ensure
20:55 that those who work at those bus stops, those who work, those on the buses understand the reason why
21:03 you are telling them to do certain things. So, there's a big role for the state and for the
21:09 agency to ensure that we carry out regular trainings, that will ensure that those who
21:16 work in those facilities know what to do when they encounter the physically challenged.
21:23 Know that what we are asking you to do when you see them, how to respond to them,
21:27 how to work with them. And we see this regularly in the system, where we recognize that when
21:35 people were not trained, they just didn't know how to react or how to deal with them.
21:41 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, a physically challenged person comes
21:44 to a bus that does not have a kneeling position, will need the bus driver to come out and pull out
21:50 a ramp. Now, if he's not trained to understand that that is what he must do to allow the
21:56 physically challenged to access his bus, he won't know to get down or to go and provide that access.
22:03 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, the one thing LAMATA has learned
22:05 is continuous training of the people who work on the system. It's fantastic to provide all
22:12 of these things that are build off. We have pedestrian bridges that access our bus terminals,
22:17 but we also need to ensure that all those who work around it are well trained to understand what
22:24 needs to be done and why they need to do it. And that is part of the things that we have learned,
22:31 because when we first had all of these systems and we realized that people were probably not
22:36 responding as well as we wanted them to, we've now started to do a lot of training advocacy
22:42 and letting people know, and also putting it out there that LAMATA is in the business of actively
22:50 engaging and ensuring that we're inclusive in the business of public transportation.
22:55 [Abimbola Akinajo]: So, from LAMATA's perspective, it is a deliberate
23:02 action that we must make. It is we have to be deliberate about this inclusion. We can't just
23:08 ensure that we do certain things and think it'll just work. There's the engagement.
23:13 And Elham mentioned that at the start, we need to continuously engage those
23:19 organizations and ensure that their needs are met and their needs are being constantly fed into the
23:25 system. But we also need to ensure that our people are well trained to know the reasons why they're
23:32 doing what they're doing and how to do what they need to do to ensure that everybody is included.
23:38 [Abimbola Akinajo]: And we also have complaint lines.
23:42 And I get that regularly from those who have encountered poor service at any of
23:48 our bus services. And we know to follow up that complaint and to find out where it happened,
23:55 and we know what we now need to do. So, we reach out to the complainer and we understand what the
24:01 challenge was. And then we go back to identify how to deal with it, whether it is to go back
24:06 to that bus terminal and ensure that we up our training and speak to them. So, it's a constant
24:13 and continuous process of engagement. And I think that is the key thing, engagement. Provide all the
24:19 physical infrastructure to support inclusion, but continue to talk. Thank you very much.
24:25 [Junaid Ahmad]: Thank you very much. What a fascinating story. You
24:31 talk about the use of technology, infrastructure in a different way. You talk about training.
24:37 But most importantly, you talk about the need for constant voice, listening to those who face
24:43 disabilities to make transport accessible for all. What an extraordinary story from Lagos.
24:49 [Junaid Ahmad]: Let's continue our
24:51 focus in Nigeria. And I would like to invite Ibiyemi to share her thoughts. The identity for
25:00 inclusion or ID4I solution has been a game changer for athletes with disabilities.
25:07 Can you tell us more about this and why it was so vital to have this provision?
25:13 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: Sure. Good day, everybody. My name is
25:17 Ibiyemi Ayeni, and I am a chocolate brown, black woman with dark brown eyes. I have brown hair,
25:27 and it's an afro, and I have it pulled back. I'm also wearing a brown dress with stripes. Okay.
25:34 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: Let's talk about ID4I. ID4I means
25:40 identification for inclusion, and it's a solution being championed by Special Olympics Nigeria,
25:47 to facilitate the registration of people with intellectual disabilities, living in Nigeria,
25:52 through the issuance of a national identification number. This is important to us because to attain
25:59 a sustainable development goal, we need to promote more inclusive communities.
26:04 To have more inclusive communities, we need to promote equitable access to every individual
26:10 in the community to opportunities and services. This will not be possible, if an individual is not
26:18 registered and recognized, one as a citizen, and two, to be able to access a world of opportunity.
26:24 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: Special Olympics mostly
26:30 focus on people with intellectual disabilities. We empower them through the power of sports.
26:36 So, our athletes go for training opportunities and competition opportunities. During competition
26:42 and international competition, they have to travel. To travel, you need a passport. And
26:47 now in Nigeria to get an international passport, you need to have a National Identification Number.
26:54 And a National Identification Number is not just to get an international passport,
27:00 in order for them to access healthcare when they want to make sure that they're good
27:03 and they perform optimally during their sporting activities. To access the healthcare,
27:09 they need a National Identification Number. Same thing with accessing financial services,
27:13 to get access to communication services, to get access to education
27:17 and empowerment opportunities. And a National Identification Number is essential. And that
27:24 is why we believe that everybody should have a National Identification Number.
27:29 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: Now, the reason why we reached out to various
27:34 communities and families of people with intellectual disabilities,
27:38 and we inquired about the reasons why there's no records of people with disabilities,
27:44 especially those with intellectual disabilities registered in the database is because a lot of
27:50 family members don't know the importance of registering their ward or child with a disability,
27:56 especially those with intellectual disabilities in the system. And then two, most of them are worried
28:03 about the distance. They don't have the time to go out, to take out, to go to these various centers.
28:09 And another reason is that a lot of them are worried about the treatment that their
28:13 child or ward might receive when they go outside to these centers.
28:19 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: So, to tackle these barriers,
28:22 the ID4I solution has come up with three steps. Number one,
28:28 we are educating people with intellectual disabilities, people with disabilities and
28:33 their family members. We're also partnering with the National Identification Management Commission.
28:38 Without them, we cannot register anybody. So, through their partnership, we are able to
28:45 train their staff on how to treat and tolerate people with differing abilities, and to provide
28:53 their utmost service to these vulnerable groups. And then once that's done, three, Special Olympics
29:01 Nigeria team, and the National Identification Management go into the various communities across
29:09 the various local government areas in Nigeria. And we try to facilitate registration locally
29:17 in centers, close to these vulnerable groups to ensure and promote their registration.
29:24 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: We believe we've
29:26 started off in Lagos. And we have already entered into 25 local government areas.
29:33 And we are hoping that through work we're doing that will gain more partners
29:41 and sponsor support to go into other states, to facilitate registration
29:46 for others with disabilities, especially those with intellectual disabilities across Nigeria.
29:51 [Ibiyemi Ayeni]: Nigeria is heading towards
29:54 a nation that is being more strategic. And we know, and we believe that we're
29:58 heading to a place where the nation would start thinking about strategic social protection for
30:05 vulnerable groups. And in order for them to be able to do this, they need to know
30:11 who these vulnerable groups are. And that's why it's very important for every
30:16 individual to have a National Identification Number, especially those with disabilities.
30:22 [Junaid Ahmad]: Thank you, Ibiyemi, for your insightful comments.
30:28 The Identity for Inclusion or ID4I continues to do some pathbreaking work. So, thank you very much.
30:34 [Junaid Ahmad]: Finally, we'll wrap up this
30:36 panel discussion with Rebecca. Rebecca, this is a very important time in our history in the world.
30:44 We are trying to recover from COVID-19. And recovery has to be one that includes everyone.
30:50 Perhaps you could share from your experience what inclusive community development looks like
30:57 and what lessons do development practitioners can really see on how to ensure that disability
31:03 does not stop us from ensuring inclusion and development, especially in this context
31:09 when we are really coming out in a recovery process, post-COVID-19. Rebecca, over to you.
31:15 [Rebecca Cokley]: Thank you so much for
31:17 having me. Hi, my name is Rebecca Cokley. I am a redheaded little person. I have
31:23 achondroplastic dwarfism. I am wearing a red jacket, black shirt. And I have a
31:31 lovely three generations worth abundance of freckles that I am very proud of.
31:36 [Rebecca Cokley]: This is such an important question now
31:39 more than ever, because of COVID-19. We know that the epidemic had has not just pretty much changed
31:46 everyone's way of life, but it has also resulted in the creation of over 85 million newly disabled
31:53 people around the world. This is the largest disability population boom, probably almost ever.
32:00 [Rebecca Cokley]: Inclusive community development
32:03 means the ability to adapt to this changing population, while at the same time centering
32:10 the needs of the most impacted. As my colleagues were saying, any response to climate change
32:17 or transportation, or poverty will be ineffective if disability is not centered. The opportunity
32:25 here is really to move from how we've responded to previous crises, responding with fear,
32:31 responding with isolation, with pity, to responding with empowerment.
32:36 [Rebecca Cokley]: And so, when I think about
32:37 what this looks like, it means that development should be investing in innovation. It should be
32:43 investing in best practice. It means including people with disabilities and their communities
32:49 before there's a crisis, before there's a problem in terms of both physical access,
32:54 programmatic access and linguistic accessibility.
32:58 From a grant making perspective, what it means is engaging in participatory grant making, bringing
33:04 those that are directly impacted to the table from day one, to decide how funding is being spent.
33:10 [Rebecca Cokley]: At the Ford Foundation,
33:12 as we built out our US Disability Rights Program Strategy this last year, this was a central part
33:17 of our thinking. So, we pulled together a series of disability community consultancies
33:23 on our strategy, where we talk to experts, talk to family members, and most importantly, talk to
33:30 people with disabilities, both those that work within the disability rights and justice space
33:36 and those who work in other organizations, to tell us what works and what doesn't work,
33:40 where should we be focusing on? In this time of COVID, how do we balance, responding to crises
33:48 with the day to day issues and realities that impact the lives of people with disabilities?
33:54 This translated into our workplaces, as we're talking about the development space.
33:59 [Rebecca Cokley]: What does it really mean now to go back to work?
34:02 Accommodations and flexibility that disabled people have asked for, have begged for,
34:09 for years and were told we're not reasonable, became provided to everyone almost overnight.
34:16 That said, when we return to work, it cannot be a time for employers to shift
34:22 back to inaccessibility. It also cannot be a time that employers say, "Okay, fine.
34:28 If you were working from home all of this time, we don't have to make our workplace accessible.
34:34 You can just stay at home." The new reality cannot be an excuse for segregation.
34:39 And development has a role in making sure that that's not the case.
34:42 [Rebecca Cokley]: Development can be investing
34:45 in healthcare systems, that center versus isolating disabled people and the disability
34:51 communities. Practitioners in these spaces must be more thoughtful in terms of the recovery.
34:58 So many times in the development world, we believe that our job is sweeping in
35:04 and telling communities what they need. And instead, we must listen. We must center those
35:09 impacted. It does no good to rush in with exoskeletons when the people on the ground
35:15 tell us that what they need is clean drinking water and passable roads. Thank you very much.
35:21 [Junaid Ahmad]:
35:23 Thank you, Rebecca. Very powerful message, that the new reality cannot be used as an
35:28 excuse for segregation. That's a very important message for all of us. Elham, Abimbola, Ibiyemi,
35:36 Rebecca, it's leaders like you, who will ensure
35:40 that development is indeed inclusive. Thank you very much for joining us in this discussion.
35:45 [Junaid Ahmad]:
35:46 I now want to hand over the mic to my colleague, Louise Cord, who is the global director of social
35:52 sustainability and inclusion at the World Bank for a fireside chat with Jenny Lay-Flurrie,
35:58 who's the chief accessibility officer at Microsoft. Louise, over to you.
36:04 [Louise Cord]:
36:07 Well, thank you very much, Junaid. And good morning and welcome, everybody, to this segment of
36:12 today's program, which will be a fireside chat on digital accessibility for an inclusive recovery.
36:18 [Louise Cord]: Before we go any further,
36:19 let me just briefly introduce myself. My name is Louise Cord. I am the global director for
36:24 social sustainability and inclusion at the World Bank. I identify as a woman with short brown hair.
36:32 I am today wearing dangling earrings, and I have a pink scarf and a gray sweater.
36:37 [Louise Cord]: So, I've been so impressed so far by the
36:41 honesty and the meaningful discussions that we've been having on how the World Bank Group and other
36:46 development actors can make a world more inclusive for persons with disabilities. I now have the
36:53 pleasure of welcoming, Jenny Lay-Flurrie to this discussion. Jenny is the chief accessibility
37:00 officer at Microsoft. Welcome, Jenny. And let's just dive right into the discussion.
37:05 [Louise Cord]: The first question I'd like to ask is about
37:08 inclusion and how the World Bank sees challenges of inclusion as critical in this recovery period,
37:15 where COVID has done so much to exacerbate inequalities. The role of digital technology is
37:22 absolutely key for an inclusive recovery amongst our client countries in the developing world.
37:27 And I'd like to hear how Microsoft, the efforts that they've made to develop accessible product
37:33 design and make technology available, and ensure an inclusive digital access.
37:39 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]:
37:43 Thank you. Great question. And first, thank you for having me. Jenny Lay-Flurrie. I
37:48 am a white female, sitting in a Microsoft office. So, I have a whiteboard behind me,
37:54 brown hair, glasses, and thick red lipstick. It's early in the morning here.
37:59 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: And it's a great question. I will say that
38:03 like many, we have been learning from this period and learning really as the demographics
38:10 of disability continue to go up, but the social inequity continues, unfortunately to go with it.
38:17 And we are seeing that really the effects of the pandemic disproportionately impact the disabled
38:23 community. So, it's something that's incredibly top of mind for us here at Microsoft. We did just
38:29 recently redo our strategy to really just be very thoughtful, to tackle and attack this bluntly,
38:38 and with a tagline that actually came from World Bank,
38:42 which was a study you did in 2016 that coined the phrase, disability divide,
38:48 and very aptly described some of the facets and reasons why that has come to the fore.
38:54 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: So, for us, yes, we are a nerdy technical company,
38:59 that is the core and the grounding that we stand on. And I think the bottom line basics is making
39:06 sure that we embed the disabled community into the core and fabric of what we do,
39:12 everything that we do. We very stand just vehemently on the nothing about us without us.
39:20 And so, that does mean that the insights of people with disabilities, whether it's
39:25 feedback channel, social listening, engaging with specific nonprofits and countries,
39:31 and economic differences. We collect that and GARNER that. We test our products with disabled
39:41 communities. We design them with... And that's being able to net us bluntly better products.
39:47 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: I mean, this isn't just a charity,
39:53 or an optional thing. There so much business benefit to doing this, but it also does mean that
40:00 the bar of inclusion and accessibility within our products has systematically gone up over time.
40:06 So, it's very, very top of mind for us, and not just in our products,
40:11 but in our processes, how we hire talent, how we empower talent, how we unblock
40:18 issues that could be preventing talent from going from early education into higher education,
40:25 from higher education into the workforce. So yes, it's got to be thoughtful and systematic.
40:31 [Louise Cord]:
40:33 Could I ask you maybe just to describe in just a few words, one of your most favorite dimensions of
40:40 Microsoft's accessible product design, a specific one, if there's something you'd like to highlight?
40:46 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: Oh, crikey. There are so many. I mean,
40:52 I feel very lucky to work with as many teams as we do. But I would also one of my favorites,
40:59 and they're all my favorites to be clear. But one of my favorites right now is the
41:05 acceleration we're seeing in accessibility in gaming. And gaming and play, I think is
41:15 as important as workplace and education, respite, and having the ability to chill out with family,
41:24 with friends, whether it's on a phone, it's on a PC, or it's on any device, or it's on an Xbox
41:32 and methodically opening doors to disabled talent to game.
41:37 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: And some of the beautiful
41:40 projects that I've seen come through this, even with Forza, which is a driving game,
41:46 embedding British sign language, American sign language, captioning,
41:51 and a whole bunch and suit features into that to open doors to disabled gamers.
41:57 There's a lot more to do, a lot more. But I think play is just a crucially important component to
42:05 life in all parts of the world. And I don't think we put enough emphasis into opening doors there.
42:12 [Louise Cord]: Interesting. Interesting dimension there,
42:15 I wouldn't have thought of. And I can see why you raise it. It is quite important. Thank you.
42:20 [Louise Cord]: Let me turn now to just a question
42:22 more on the how. So, I understand that to do a lot of these digital accessible product lines,
42:29 you have a public private partnership. And maybe explain the how process. And you
42:35 mentioned your engagement with communities and with different groups. How has this been done?
42:43 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: Well, I think the first thing to recognize when
42:46 you're building anything and you are aiming to achieve a higher bar of inclusion is that you're
42:50 not the experts. And while we are very proud to hire, empower and publicly share our mission to
42:59 get more disabled talent into Microsoft, which we've been very aggressively pushing forward on.
43:06 We just published our new numbers at 7.1% of our US population being employees with disabilities.
43:15 We clearly don't represent the mass. And you can't have one company representative of the globe and
43:23 the true diversity of disability that exists and how that changes by country, by area, by location.
43:31 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: So, I think it really is important for us to have
43:35 the right connections, the right relationships and the right processes to garner that feedback
43:42 and to work together, to make sure that we ultimately make it easier to be accessible
43:47 and to understand the business benefits disability.
43:50 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: So, I absolutely love working with Charlotte
43:56 at World Bank. I think her expertise in the industry is legendary.
44:01 And she's an amazing thought leader. But partnering with her on how we can make it easier
44:06 is a very important part of what we do. Working with other public, private and nonprofits
44:12 to, again, methodically get that feedback in. So, one of those is Shepherd Center,
44:19 which has 1500 people with disabilities. And we test our products with them. And one,
44:27 we get invaluable feedback. Two, it's the right economic set of processes.
44:33 Individuals are paid around $50 an hour for their time. So, it is also creating a workplace,
44:42 which is also important, a sustainable workplace.
44:44 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: And I think the other aspects
44:47 that I look at is how can we also partner to you get out technology into people's hands?
44:54 One of the issues with accessibility is actually there's a wealth of goodness, just sitting in the
45:01 device in front of me, that people often don't even know about or have access to.
45:07 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]: So, how can we get more technology
45:10 into people's hands with the right connectivity to be able to access? And we are trialing some
45:19 initiatives in the States, but I do hope that they go further assure because that's really
45:25 the benefit that we're going to see from this, to get
45:29 devices affordable, sustainably affordable into people's hands in New York and LA,
45:35 and particularly into disabled communities that may not have had access to those.
45:39 And that's a partnership between the public institutions in those cities, between connectivity
45:47 providers and Microsoft as providers of the hardware and software, and digital accessibility.
45:53 And so, I think there's a lot more that we can and should be doing. But yes,
46:00 we got to do this stuff together, if we're going to really tackle that disability divide.
46:05 [Louise Cord]: Wow, it sounds really exciting.
46:07 I would love to hear how this partnership goes with New York, and I think you said LA,
46:13 and the technology providers and Microsoft, because to get accessible devices into the hands
46:20 of persons with disabilities. Because I think there'd be a lot of valuable lessons learned
46:25 for our work in developing country context. So, we look forward to continuing the partnership
46:31 and staying in touch. And thank you so much for sharing your valuable knowledge and insight with
46:36 us and helping in the collaboration to build a more inclusive post pandemic world. Thank you.
46:42 [Jenny Lay-Flurrie]:
46:45 Well, thank you for your time today. And happy International Persons with Disability Day.
46:50 [Louise Cord]: Thanks again, Jenny. It was
46:52 great to have you here with us. And now I'll hand it back to Junaid for the rest of the program.
46:57 [Junaid Ahmad]: Thank you, Jenny, for sharing your insights
47:02 and experiences on the advances that Microsoft has made in accessible technology. There's a lot
47:08 that we at the World Bank can learn from your experience. And I hope we'll get to continue
47:12 the conversations in the future. And Louise, thank you for moderating a wonderful session.
47:17 [Junaid Ahmad]:
47:18 Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are now going to turn to a very special event. We'll be
47:22 treated to a discussion with and performance by Warren Wawa Snipe, a rapper and performer,
47:29 who recently performed the National Anthem at the 2021 Super Bowl.
47:35 I'd like to hand over the state to Charlotte, our global disability advisor at the World Bank
47:42 for a conversation with Wawa in our office, at the World Bank in Washington. Charlotte, over to you.
47:47 [Charlotte McClain Nhlapo]: Hi, my name is Charlotte McLean
47:52 Chapo. I'm the global disability advisor at the World Bank Group. I'm a brown woman. I have long
47:57 brown hair. I have green eyes. Today, I'm wearing all black. I have large silver hoops and a silver
48:04 necklace around my neck. And today, I'm joined by Wawa. Wawa, please will you introduce yourself?
48:11 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: All right. I am Warren
48:14 Snipe. Everyone calls me Wawa. This is my sign name. I'm a tall black man, black and gray hair.
48:26 I have unique locks, pulled back. I have a blazer, a blue blazer and a black shirt with
48:34 an I love you sign on it. I have two unique earrings and a nice beard that shows my age.
48:41 [Charlotte McClain Nhlapo]: Great. Well, really glad to have you here,
48:45 Wawa. And we're so happy that you're here to celebrate with us the International Day
48:50 of Persons with Disabilities. And I was wondering if you could talk to us a bit about
48:55 as a deaf person, what does resilience mean to you, particularly given the fact that we've
49:01 all come through a pandemic, and really just share with us, what that has meant for you?
49:07 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: What resilience means to me
49:11 as a deaf black man is to never give up. Of course, we have limitations being in
49:18 this world as a disabled person. But what COVID did was complicate those things and exacerbate
49:25 what already existed. What we had to do in this pandemic is learn how adapt,
49:31 learn how to change and improve our lives for the better moving forward.
49:35 [Warren Wawa Snipe]:
49:37 For example, Zoom is new to many of us, but now it's a common thing for all of us.
49:43 We have to figure out ways to add closed captioning to videos,
49:48 subtitles to videos, things that we just really took for granted or were too slow
49:54 to acclimate ourselves too. Be much more inclusive, visually, technologically, knowing
50:01 that we all have disabilities, whether they're visible or invisible. Change was a big thing.
50:08 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: You can say that the pandemic had blessed us.
50:16 It was truly a blessing in disguise. We all had to augment what we believe reality and normalcy was.
50:23 We just could not give up in the process. And that is what resilience is.
50:27 We had to work together, so that we could live together, be together through these hard times
50:32 and persevere to see the other side, because we would never know what we had never thought of
50:39 had we not worked together. That we can see the light at the end of this tunnel called to COVID.
50:46 That way we had to be resilience, and never give up.
50:49 [Charlotte McClain Nhlapo]: Beautiful words, Wawa. Thank
50:51 you so much for sharing that. So, you had this amazing song called, LOUD.
50:58 And it has a very powerful message. Talk to us a bit about what that message is, what it means
51:06 and how you came about conceptualizing it.
51:08 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: Well, the message in and of itself,
51:16 it's honestly taking just from a crazy set of mess. I
51:21 turned negativity into positivity, a message that we all needed to learn.
51:28 What I wanted to do was be bold with it, take the next step forward and invigorate something new.
51:36 The word loud in and of itself, many people view deaf people as being loud. We clap. We sign loud.
51:43 We're loud in our voices. But honestly, with my cochlear implant, I find that the world is loud.
51:49 The cars are honking. The things you take for granted are loud to me. What is the difference?
51:54 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: I decided to use loud
51:57 in an altruistic sense, to be bold, to be brave, to go into uncertainty with the certainty that we
52:07 are to come out with something creative. That's what the pandemic did. It provided something that
52:15 on the onset seemed negative. We, as a people came together and found something
52:20 positive. I came up with something catchy. I never wrote something like this before.
52:27 But people were just inspired and ran with it. And that's what I think gave worth to the song.
52:32 [Charlotte McClain Nhlapo]: Thank you for sharing that
52:35 with us. And thank you for developing that beautiful song. So, what we're going to do
52:42 now is ask everybody to stay tuned because we're going to listen to the song right now.
54:09 [Warren Wawa Snipe]: (Singing with text on screen)
54:13 [Junaid Ahmad]: That was amazing. And
56:09 for someone who comes from a musical family, my wife is a musician, I am absolutely thrilled to
56:15 have listened to Wawa sing today. And I'm sure this song will be stuck in all of our heads
56:21 all day long. Thank you once again for sharing your talent Wawa and experience with us.
56:26 You truly brought to life the celebration that is today. Thank you Wawa for inspiring us.
56:33 [Junaid Ahmad]:
56:37 We're coming to the end of this celebration, but I'm sure the conversation started here
56:41 will continue. Let me close by thanking our guests for sharing the remarkable work,
56:47 insights and life stories. You have shown what can be achieved when we deliberately
56:53 include persons with disabilities in the design of our recovery response.
56:57 [Junaid Ahmad]: As Mari mentioned earlier,
57:00 today is a day to recognize and value the tremendous contributions and journeys of persons
57:07 with disabilities and to reflect on future action, promote inclusive and accessible societies.
57:14 [Junaid Ahmad]: We at the World Bank will
57:16 continue to step up our efforts to ensure that the persons with disabilities around the world
57:21 have access to opportunities and support to follow their dreams and contribute fully to
57:27 their communities and their economies. We also acknowledge the long road ahead
57:33 to address the gaps in access, participation and opportunities
57:37 that persons with disabilities continue to systematically encounter, unfortunately. I
57:44 look forward to continuing our work together to promote inclusion and expand equitable
57:50 opportunities for persons with disabilities and ensure that the future is indeed accessible.
57:56 [Junaid Ahmad]: Ladies and gentlemen,
57:58 thank you once again for joining us today. I hope that we keep these important conversations going.
58:06 Thank you very much.

Speakers

Mari Pangestu

Former World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships
@Mari_Pangestu
Jenny Lay-Flurrie

Chief Accessibility Officer, Microsoft
@jennylayfluffy
Rebecca Cokley

Program Officer, Ford Foundation
@RebeccaCokley
Ibiyemi Ayeni

Initiatives Manager at Special Olympics,  Nigeria
Elham Youssefian

Inclusive Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction Advisor, International Disability Alliance (IDA)
Abimbola Akinajo

Managing Director, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA)
Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo

Global Disability Advisor, World Bank Group
@McNhlapo

Moderator

Junaid Kamal Ahmad

Vice President of Operations, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)
@JUNAIDWBG
Louise Cord

Global Director, Social Sustainability and Inclusion, World Bank
@LouiseCord

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