This will force all government agencies to develop websites to support the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s standard for Web accessibility.

Ajin Jirachieepattana, director of the ICT Use Promotion and Development Bureau at the ICT Ministry, said the plan was hoped to help the around 1.1 million disabled people in the nation access knowledge with no barriers.

"There are now only six government websites which support the W3C standard, from more than 160 government agencies nationwide," said Ajin.

As an initial step, the ministry will push the W3C standard on Web accessibility for use in government agencies under the ministry.

Web accessibility will also allow disabled people to do business transactions via the Internet, such as pay utility bills and tax, for example.

The National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre has provided key principles to develop Web accessibility under the W3C standard at Nectec's web site (www.nectec.or.th).

The ministry has also worked with community offices to set up ICT centres in communities to support disabled people, so they learn how to access knowledge as well as improve their IT skills. People in the communities will be able to utilise public services and electronic learning at the centres. He said that each community centre will have 15 to 20 desktop computers and network infrastructure.

The ministry set up 35 ICT community centres in 2006, and plans to expand this to 80 centres this year.

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation