BREAKING BARRIERS: WAICATNet Declares Digital Inclusion a Human Right on Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2025
On this Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), May 15, 2025, the West Africa ICT Action Network (WAICATNet) joins the world in calling for urgent and concrete actions to make digital spaces fully inclusive and accessible—especially for persons with disabilities in Liberia, the MRU sub-region, and ECOWAS.
With over 1.3 billion persons with disabilities (PWDs) globally and countless in West Africa being digitally marginalized, WAICATNet considers this day not only significant, but a wake-up call. We regard it as a launchpad for our ambitious regional project: to be unveil, a cross-border initiative to audit digital accessibility, build capacity in inclusive tech design, and push for binding ICT accessibility policy in Liberia and beyond.
Director Peterking Quaye ,“Digital access is not a luxury—it is a lifeline. At WAICATNet, we believe that no one should be locked out of opportunity because of poor design or neglect. Today, on GAAD 2025, we are committing to building an accessible, inclusive, and empowering digital future for every citizen of Liberia and the Mano River Union region.
Accessibility is not just good policy—it is justice.” GAAD 2025 must serve as a pivotal moment for West Africa. While other regions race ahead, Africa still faces stark accessibility gaps—from low broadband access and expensive data, to the absence of assistive technologies tailored to local languages and needs. These issues deepen inequality, especially for the disabled, rural communities,
and the youth.
WAICATNet is advancing a comprehensive three-pronged policy advocacy and implementation plan across Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire to promote digital inclusion for persons with disabilities. This includes conducting Accessibility-First Policy Audits to review and reform national digital strategies that may contain exclusionary elements; establishing Inclusive Innovation Labs that support the development of low-cost, multilingual assistive technologies in collaboration with universities and startups; and launching a Digital Accessibility Fellowship Program to train a new generation of digital rights advocates and technologists with disabilities at the forefront.
These efforts are aligned with Sustainable Development Goals 9 and 10, the Protocol on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa, and the ECOWAS ICT Accessibility Policy, ensuring that our work remains rights-based and locally relevant. We call on governments to fund national accessibility strategies, developers and startups to adopt inclusive design from the start, telecom companies to lower costs and broaden access for persons with disabilities, civil society to elevate the voices of the digitally invisible, and donors and partners to support WAICATNet’s initiative. Accessibility is not optional—it is a moral imperative. WAICATNet believes that a digitally accessible Africa is a stronger, fairer, and more prosperous Africa.
