Pakistan

The UNESCO Chair in ICT4D is working in 2017 and 2018 in support of the Inter-Islamic Network on Information Technology’s important initiative to enhance the lives of people with disabilities across the Islamic world through the use of ICTs.  This work is being led by David Banes, and will focus initially on Pakistan, Tunisia, Jordan, Qatar and Malaysia.  Our research is focusing especially on identifying areas of good practice in these countries that can be shared more widely, particularly in terms of the development and implementation of ICT strategies for people with disabilities.  Building on work begun in 2016, members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D held interviews and focus groups in Pakistan in October 2017, one of the outcomes of which was a recognition that more needs to be done to raise awareness and share information about what currently is being undertaken in the country.  This page therefore seeks to provide some information about ongoing activities of relevance.

Please use our contact us page to add recommendations for additions to this page.

Disability organisations in Pakistan

Organisations are listed in alphabetical order under each heading below.

Disability associations and for those with multiple disabilities

• Disabled Welfare Association (on Facebook)
• National Forum of Women with Disabilities
• National Disability and Development Forum (Nawabshah Disability Forum) working for advocacy in disability and development of society to bring sustainable environment for all
• Network of Organisations Working for People with Disabilities (NOWPDP), Pakistan
• Pakistan Disabled Foundation – providing support for implementing the rights of people with disabilities in Pakistan
• Pakistan Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled – a non-profit, charitable organisation established in 1957 in Lahore. It provides a  range of affordable medical, surgical, educational and rehabilitation services to people with physical disabilities, especially the poor.
• Special Talent Exchange Program (STEP), a cross disability organization.

For blind and visually impaired people

• Aziz Jahan Begum Trust for the Blind
• Pakistan Association of the Blind

For deaf and hearing impaired people

• Danishkadah – an NGO  established to empower persons with disabilities and to work as a think-tank on disability related issues.  Activities mainly focus on deaf and hard of hearing persons.
• Pakistan Association of the Deaf – originally established in 1987 as the Karachi Deaf Welfare Association (KDWA)
• Sind Welfare Association of the Deaf (also on Facebook) – working for the betterment in life of the deaf Community Social Network

For autism and those with special learning needs

• Autism Society of Pakistan – umbrella organization with a focused mandate for advocacy, fund raising, training, research, and for generally creating awareness about Autism in Pakistan
• Centre for Autism, Karachi (on Facebook )
• Pakistan Autism Meetup Group
  • List of Special Schools in Pakistan

For paraplegics and people with physical disabilities

• Paraplegic Centre, Peshawar

 

 ICT initiatives for people with disabilities in Pakistan (and commentary)

• 2016 award launched by PTA for app for people with disabilities
• ICT for disabled – the Pakistan prospective – by Mohammad Amir Malik in 2011

 

Interesting reports on disability issues in Pakistan

• Moving from the margins: Mainstreaming persons with disabilities in Pakistan – produced in 2014  by the Economist Intelligence Unit for the British Council
• Laws relating to employment of people with disabilities in Pakistan – by Paycheck.pk
• The pain of being disabled in Pakistan – by Al Jazeera in 2014
• Country profile on disability, Islamic Republic of Pakistan – report by JICA in 2002
• Causes of blindness and visual impairment in Pakistan. The Pakistan national blindness and visual impairment survey, by Dineen, B. et al., in British Journal of Ophthalmology, 2007, 91(8), 1005-10
• Causes of childhood deafness in Pukhtoonkhwa Province of Pakistan and the role of consanguinity, by Sajjad, M. et al., Journal of Laryngology and Otology, 2008, 122(10), 1057-63.

 

ICT initiatives elsewhere that are particularly relevant to the needs of Pakistan

(See also general page on Links to Resources)

• Mada (Qatar Assistive Technology Center)
• Nabil Eid’s blogs on disability in the Telecentre Foundation Community
• Sightsavers International seeking to eliminate avoidable blindness and equality for people with disabilities
• Telecentre for Disabilities – a group working to promote and improve telecentres’ knowledge on ICTs for people with disabilities

 

Updated 30th December 2019