Compliance support infrastructure and services - ITU

Accessibility

ITU focuses on a series of issues ranging from the rights of persons with disabilities (PwDs) to making technical design standards accessible, to providing education and training on accessible ICT.

Key areas include:

• Raising awareness on the importance of adoption of global standards when implementing accessible products and services, including the trade facilitation and inclusion perspectives;

• Development of telecommunication/ICT standards (ITU-T Recommendations) involving industry, governments and PwDs;

• Implementing a conformity assessment programme to improve interoperability of equipment and services from different vendors;

• Promotion of the development of assistive products and services;

• Helping Member States meet their obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;

• Establishing outreach programmes;

• Encouraging the exchange of best practices;

• Helping develop and promoting policy guidelines;

• Creating greater awareness through conferences and publications; and

• Creating capacity building opportunities in developing countries, including in cooperation with other institutions, both internal and external to the UN System.

Cybersecurity

The objective is to enhance security and build confidence in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) applications. Security concerns have been identified as a barrier to the use of current and next generation networks (NGNs) for certain mission-critical services (e.g. e-commerce, e-governance, e-payment and e-health) where it is important to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information systems. ITU develops international standards for ICT security and organizes workshops, meetings and seminars to address technical, policy, legal and strategy issues for cybersecurity, ICT applications and Internet protocol, and to promote public awareness on ICTs and foster use of the Internet.

For more information: http://www.itu.int/cybersecurity/

Standardization

ITU has been at the cutting edge of information and communication technologies, defining and adopting the globally agreed technical standards that have allowed industry to interconnect people and equipment seamlessly around the world. It has also successfully regulated worldwide use of the radio-frequency spec- trum, ensuring all international wireless communications remain interference-free to ensure the relay of vital information and economic data around the world.

The work of ITU in the development of global standards for ICTs and telecommunications has helped the smoother, more economical introduction of new technologies. Global standards from ITU (ITU-T Recommendations) underpin today’s ICT world, giving us the ability to speak to each other from one side of the world to another, and giving us the Internet that has become so much a part of our daily lives. Literally thousands of standards pin together this framework of technologies that keeps the world’s businesses and consumers connected.

Given the importance of global connectivity and interoperability between devices, networks, services and applications, the global harmonization of ICT standards development is essential. In this regard, ITU launched the Conformity and Interoperability (C&I) programme which was initiated at the request of ITU’s membership to enhance the conformity and interoperability of ICT products implementing ITU Recommendations or part thereof, solicit feedback to improve the quality of ITU Recommendations, and reduce the digital divide and the Standardization Gap by assisting developing countries with human resource and infrastructure capacity building. In 2014, ITU launched the Product Conformity Database which lists ICT products and services compliant with ITU-T’s international standards.

More information about the ITU C&I Programme is available on its web portal, www.itu.int/go/citest.

In this context, ITU is also undertaking several capacity building activities to bridge the standardization gap between developing and developed countries with the objectives of: (i) facilitating the participation of developing countries in the standards development process; (ii) allowing them to profit from access to new technology development; and (iii) ensuring that their requirements are taken into account in the development of standards.