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Good practice Imported

Kenya's National ICT Accessibility Standard (KS 2952) — Africa's First

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Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 68% 56/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Kenya Bureau of Standards, working with disability NGO inABLE and government regulators, gazetted KS 2952 in 2022 — Africa's first national ICT accessibility standard covering hardware and software across public and private sectors.

Kenya's National ICT Accessibility Standard (KS 2952) — Africa's First

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), with inABLE, the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, the Communications Authority of Kenya and the ICT Authority
Period
2021–ongoing
Keywords
ICT accessibility, standards & certification, disability inclusion, universal design, public and private sector

Context

Before Kenya's National ICT Accessibility Standard, developers and public bodies had no binding national benchmark for digital accessibility, and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) estimated that around 30% of persons with disabilities in the country were unable to access digital products and services, a gap that widened during the COVID-19 pandemic as essential services moved online.

Objectives

KEBS set out to create Africa's first national ICT accessibility standard, applying universal design principles to hardware, software, websites, mobile applications, kiosks and financial platforms across both the public and private sectors.

Activities

KEBS partnered with the disability-focused NGO inABLE, the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, the Communications Authority of Kenya and the ICT Authority to develop KS 2952, announced in October 2021 and gazetted in May 2022, published in two parts — KS 2952-1:2022 (Requirements) and KS 2952-2:2022 (Conformance).

Results

As a newly gazetted standard, KS 2952 does not yet have published post-launch conformance or adoption statistics.

Conclusions

Its near-term evidence base rests on the rigour of its multi-stakeholder development process and the scale of the access gap it targets, not yet on measured uptake.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Development relied on convening national standards, disability and telecom regulatory bodies rather than large capital investment; costs to affected organisations will depend on compliance once conformance testing (KS 2952-2) is applied.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Development ran from an October 2021 announcement to gazettal of both standard parts in May 2022, roughly seven months, though post-launch conformance and adoption tracking timelines are not yet published.
Staffing & skills
Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) as lead standards body, inABLE (disability-focused NGO), National Council for Persons with Disabilities, Communications Authority of Kenya, ICT Authority

Conditions for success

  • Multi-stakeholder development process bringing together the standards body, disability NGOs, telecom regulator and ICT authority
  • Formal gazettal giving the standard binding legal status
  • Two-part structure separating requirements (KS 2952-1) from conformance/testing (KS 2952-2)

Common failure modes

  • No published post-launch conformance or adoption data as of gazettal
  • No certified-product or organisation-adoption counts published since May 2022
  • Standard remains voluntary in practice unless linked to procurement or regulatory mandates

Where it fits

Governance type
national standards body with government/NGO multi-stakeholder partnership
Scale
national
Income level
lower-middle-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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