Algeria's ICT-Accessibility Scorecard — Strong Institutional Capacity, but Half the Digital-Accessibility Policy Areas Still Empty

Algeria ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009 and, per G3ict's Digital Accessibility Rights Evaluation (DARE) Index, has since built real institutional capacity to act on it: the country scores a full 25 out of 25 on the index's 'capacity to implement' component, achieved by only a handful of the 137 countries assessed.

That capacity has translated into policy in five of the ten ICT-accessibility areas the index tracks (web accessibility, inclusive ICT in education, employment enablement, e-government and smart cities, public procurement), each scoring 2-3 of 5. The other five areas score zero. The composite score is 49.5/100, 42nd globally and 6th in the Middle East and North Africa, with the outcomes component (12/50) the weakest of the index's three pillars.

Algeria's wider disability framework predates these digital-specific gaps: a 2002 law guarantees access to specialised hospitals and free transport, and primary-school completion for children with disabilities reached 92.26% by 2013, though secondary completion trailed at 58.36%. The same institutional follow-through has not yet extended into telecoms regulation, e-book accessibility standards or a national assistive-technology programme.