Accelerating Disability-Inclusive Digitalization — NCBM's Cross-Disability Digital-Accessibility Training in Malaysia

Between February 2021 and May 2022 the National Council for the Blind, Malaysia (NCBM) ran 'Accelerating Disability-Inclusive Digitalization', an ESCAP-supported project funded by Rehabilitation International and delivered online across Malaysia because of COVID-19 restrictions.

To create Malaysia's first cross-disability cohort of trained digital-accessibility auditors and to use their skills and voice to advocate for accessible digital services and disability-inclusive law.

Twenty-three people from blind/low-vision, Deaf, physical-disability, chronic-illness and dyslexic communities completed a digital-accessibility and website-auditing course, alongside accessible-publishing training; a further 38 people took a related gender-disability intersectionality course. A companion multilingual survey examined COVID-19 information access and psychological impact. Trained participants audited government websites and advocated for Malaysia's accession to the WIPO Marrakesh Treaty, and NCBM held a seminar in Kuala Lumpur on 31 May 2022 for officials from 19 government entities.

23 people completed the digital-accessibility course (10 women, 13 men); 38 completed the intersectionality course; the companion survey found 50% of respondents struggled to access COVID-19 information and 94.9% reported negative psychological symptoms during the pandemic. Malaysia acceded to the Marrakesh Treaty on 31 March 2022, alongside the Copyright (Amendment) Act 2022.

Direct training reach was modest (61 people across both courses), and the link between the training and the Marrakesh Treaty/Copyright Act outcomes comes from ESCAP and NCBM's own project reporting rather than an independent evaluation, so it is best read as one contributing strand of advocacy rather than a proven sole cause.