Persons with visual impairment must be involved in the design and testing of digital platforms to ensure technology does not deepen exclusion, stakeholders have said.
The call was made during a Zimbabwe Council for the Blind digital inclusion policy dialogue, where stakeholders discussed digital accessibility, artificial intelligence (AI), assistive technologies and the implementation of disability-related policies.
Robert Malunda of Gateway to Elation, which works with people with visual impairment in technology, said the availability of websites, online forms and other digital platforms did not guarantee access for people who use assistive technologies such as screen readers.
“So I’m speaking here as a person who is blind, and I’m also speaking as a person who is working with the blind in technology. So what we have observed here is that website can be available. An online form, could be an online form, could be a website, could be whatever is online,” Malunda said.
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“Any platform, even WhatsApp, it can still be inaccessible to a blind person. Because if it’s not working with the screen reader, it means a blind person is already excluded, like what the engineers are saying.”
Malunda said his organisation had trained blind people in information and communication technology (ICT) skills, but many continued to face barriers when using digital platforms.
“Of course, we have our colleagues who lose sight in the demonstration, right? Or who don’t get the opportunity to learn ICT at school. So for the past 10 years, we have trained a lot of our blind people.”
He said the experiences of trainees showed that providing computers and smartphones was not enough to achieve meaningful digital inclusion.
“And then they always come back to us as a graduation to say, but you have trained us, this program. How then is it that we can’t access? We now have the phones, we now have the computers, but we can’t access,” Malunda said.
Malunda said Gateway to Elation had this year started recruiting blind people into its Civic Voices initiative, known as Accessible Digital Civic Participation for Blind Communities, which seeks to involve people with visual impairment from the design stage of digital projects.
“We came up with a project this year of recruiting blind people in Civic Voices, which we call Accessible Digital Civic Participation for Blind Communities, where we are saying we want blind people to be incorporated right from the start of the designing of a project,” he said.
“It could be a website, it could be an online form, it could be an online platform, like I already mentioned, WhatsApp.”
Malunda said the initiative was based on an approach of access, participation and behaviour, with blind people participating in the design and testing of digital platforms before they are released to the public.
“We came up with a model, which we say is access, participate, behave. So we want to access, and in that part of accessing, we want to behave. We want to, by being here, we want to be part of the designing and testing of the platform before it’s being released to the public,” he said.
“To see, is everyone being included as we use these computers?”
He said young people with visual impairment should also be involved in the development of emerging technologies, including AI.
“When a platform is being designed, or being discussed, or being developed, we want blind people, especially the young people, to be included. It could be artificial intelligence,” he said.
“Therefore, I would like to end the speech here, and say may we make sure that blind people are part and parcel of designing, testing, and uploading all the digital platforms that we are planning as a country.”
Paradigm Initiative representative Bridget Ndlovu said digital inclusion also required effective laws, funding, accountability and enforcement.
Ndlovu said the organisation works on digital rights and inclusion across Africa and seeks to build the capacity of young people and other communities to participate in the digital economy and understand their digital rights.
She said international frameworks had already provided guidance on the inclusion of persons with disabilities and access to assistive technologies.
“We have the World Summit on the Information Society, which is a gathering of delegates from across continents. This is a UN-focused gathering. It prescribes standards,” Ndlovu said.
“It prescribes how nations should adopt specific policies. In one of the recent outcomes from the 2025 engagement, which is really the latest USIS outcome, it specifies in paragraph 23 that persons with disabilities should be included by all means and that there is need for assistive technologies to be readily accessible in different countries.”
Turning to Zimbabwe, Ndlovu said the country’s legal framework needed to be matched by implementation.
She said the Zimbabwe Disability Act adopted in 2025 provides for the establishment of a fund to subsidise assistive technologies, but that the fund had not yet been operationalised.
“And through our assessment, we did acknowledge that Zimbabwe adopted the Zimbabwe Disability Act in 2025. But within that Act, even though it prescribes that there is need for establishment of a fund to ensure and subsidise assistive technologies, this is something that’s still not being done,” Ndlovu said.
She said operationalising the fund would be important given the cost of assistive technologies.
“Also given that assistive technologies are very expensive and not going to be accessible for persons with visual impairment or broadly persons with disabilities. So once the fund is operationalised, this would really go a long way in addressing some of the challenges that I was speaking about,” she said.
Ndlovu also called for stronger accountability and enforcement of existing policies.
“There’s also an issue around accountability and enforcement. So while laws are being adopted, we did hear from the engineer that we have a very good policy landscape, we have NDS II, we have the National ICT Policy, we have the National Disability Act and a whole lot of other very good laws. But what happens when there’s no accountability and enforcement?” she said.
“So these two things need to be prioritised as well.”
She further called for Zimbabwe to develop national disability and accessibility standards aligned with international standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2.
“There’s also a need to ensure that there’s national disability and accessibility standards. This standard will really go a long way in aligning with international standards as well, such as the WCAG 2.2 standard,” Ndlovu said.
She also raised concerns over the accessibility of community information centres established through the Universal Service Fund.
“We did hear that at a national level we have the Universal Services Access Fund. This Universal Service Fund, it really puts in place within different regions or different areas community information centres or digital information centres,” she said.
“But if these digital information centres are not inclusive for persons with visual impairment, then this will not really be beneficial for everyone within the community. So this is something that should also be prioritised.”
Ndlovu said the fund should respond to the needs of people in both rural and urban areas.
She also linked digital inclusion to the development and deployment of AI, warning that systems should be tested for bias and their potential impact on human rights before being adopted.
“There’s usually concerns around AI bias, because given that the way AI is coming up within the continent, there’s need to make sure that there’s no specific bias when it comes to AI,” she said.
“There’s need to make sure that there’s testing before systems are developed or before systems are adopted or procured.”
Ndlovu said Zimbabwe’s adoption of an AI policy this year presented an opportunity to ensure that emerging technologies were subject to appropriate oversight.
“And one thing for sure is that we cannot simply adopt the AI technologies without testing this AI technology. Are they compliant with human rights standards at an international or regional level, be it at the African Commission level or be it at the UN level?” she said.
She said AI systems should undergo what she termed a “human life impact assessment” to monitor whether they comply with human rights standards and cause harm.
“So there’s what we call human life impact assessment. So this responds to the fact that when AI is adopted in a country or when specific digital systems are adopted in a country, there’s need for constant monitoring, constant checking to see if these systems are human rights compliant, they are not harming any human rights,” Ndlovu said.
Meanwhile, Nkosikhona Sibanda from the Department of Social Development said the government provides support for people requiring assistive devices, although applicants have to follow specified procedures.
“So in terms of normal universities, we are good, and so you just come to the department with the quotations of the technology that you are, of the device that you require, and then we provide,” Sibanda said.
He said applicants are required to provide proof of disability from a government institution and quotations for the required technology.
“What you need to have is proof of disability from a government institution. You should have quotations that have been done in both the ZIG and U.S. dollar.”
Sibanda said people who did not have the required documentation could approach the relevant offices for assistance.
Speaking from the Ministry of Youth Empowerment and Vocational Training, Ruth Sibanda said digital inclusion was particularly important for young people because technology increasingly determines access to education, employment and economic opportunities.
She said government policies, including the National Youth Strategy, recognise the importance of technology and digital inclusion.
“Technology and the digital world and young people, these are memories. They are just as important. You cannot separate young people from technology, which makes it very tricky.”
Sibanda warned that young people with visual impairment risk being excluded from opportunities if digital programmes are not designed to accommodate them.
“A young person who’s excluded from the AI technology and the digital opportunities, access to other opportunities which are digital, as a young person, what are we saying about that young person? It means he’s left out of opportunities,” she said.
“He’s left out of the trainings that they’re doing. He’s left out of digital marketing. He’s left out on market indicators that we’re talking about.”
She said exclusion from digital opportunities could worsen the challenges faced by young people, particularly amid unemployment concerns.
“We are saying leave no one behind, just like our engineer was saying. It becomes a cause for concern, because our future differs and if programming is left them behind, it means there’s a group, which becomes a cause for concern. We are saying young people, unemployment is a very big issue, international, and even in Zimbabwe. So if we are saying innovation for young people, technology, and then we have a group that is left out, then we have a problem,” said Sibanda.
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