Asia Pacific Regional Network

Technologies, Projects & Services

Asia Pacific Regional Network

Region and Scope

In its coverage, the DAISY Asia Pacific network is aligned with the membership of UNESCAP covering 58 countries from Pacific, South East Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East countries except those which are Arabic speaking countries.

Regional Context

Globally, 16% of the population is estimated to have a disability, with 750 million people in the APAC region. The World Health Organization reports 253 million people are visually impaired, and 43 million are blind. Nearly two-thirds of those with moderate-to-severe vision impairment live in East, South and Central Asia, even though the APAC region only has 51% of the world’s population. The APAC region has the fastest aging population, with 1.3 billion people over 60 by 2050, and 227 million living with Type 2 diabetes, increasing the risk of vision loss.  There are also a large number of people with other disabilities and conditions such as a visual, perceptual, physical, cognitive, developmental, or learning disability who require content in alternate formats such as audio, braille or e-text.

Besides commitments under UNCRPD, SDGs and the Marrakesh Treaty, in the APAC region, the Incheon Strategy and the Jakarta Declaration focus on disability-inclusive development goals. The 10 regionally agreed disability-specific development goals, 27 targets and 62 indicators of the Incheon Strategy, helped the region to monitor its progress towards disability inclusion from 2013-2022. Building on the Incheon strategy, the Jakarta Declaration emphasizes harmonizing national legislations with the CRPD, enabling meaningful participation of persons with disabilities, advancing universal design-based accessibility, promoting a gender-responsive approach, closing disability data gaps, and building on synergies with monitoring Sustainable Development Goal progress.

Challenges and Opportunities

Despite significant policy developments, the APAC region continues to see slow progress on accessibility implementation. Persons with disabilities are less likely to be employed, and accessibility standards are inconsistent. There is a lack of affordable assistive technology compatible with national and official languages, accessible information dissemination systems, and trained human resources to support users. Inadequate financial and human resource investment is also a challenge. In addition, the socio-economic, geographical, political, linguistic and cultural diversity of countries, coupled with the fact that it is home to nearly 3000 languages, makes communication and resource sharing difficult.

However, increased support for critical assistive technology in local languages and availability of accessible content through online repositories such as the Global Library Service are now opening up a world of possibilities for persons with print disabilities.

Activities

The DAISY Asia Pacific network’s steering group meets regularly every month to discuss its activities and strategies.

The following activities have been identified for action:

Establishing the network and getting members

As of May 2025, representatives from Bangladesh, India, Japan, Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka have joined as members of the DAISY Asia Pacific Regional Network. The steering group will continue to reach out and include members to grow the network in the next 6 months and beyond, until all the countries in the region are included.

Identifying processes for administering network activities

The steering group identified processes and terms of reference for membership and network activities.

Carrying out awareness raising activities on the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty and accessible publishing through webinars in different countries- A webinar was organised in Sri Lanka on 27th March on the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty. It had good participation from key officials and representatives from the copyright office, government agencies and civil society.  The network plans to organise 2-3 more such webinars during this year.

Fund raising

The network is in the process of identifying funding opportunities and applying for grants to carry out its various activities. Its main focus centres around expanding the network, awareness raising webinars, in-depth country engagement to provide technological and content solutions for countries and, capacity building of libraries, organisations and users, as well as policy advisory. It plans to explore and actively pursue more funding sources to carry out these activities going forward.

Steering Group Members

  • Birendra Pokhrel, ADRAD, Nepal
  • Hiroshi Kawamura, ATDO, Japan
  • Ashoka Bandula Veerawardhana, Access to Success, Sri Lanka
  • Nirmita Narasimhan, Saksham, India
  • Vashkar Bhattacharjee, YPSA, Bangladesh

DAISY Ambassadors

  • Birendra Pokhrel, Action on Disability Rights and Development (ADRAD), Nepal
  • Hiroshi Kawamura, Assistive Technology Development Organization (ATDO), Japan
  • Vashkar Bhattacharjee, Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), Bangladesh
  • Ashoka Bandula Weerawardhana, Access to Success, Sri Lanka
  • Nirmita Narasimhan, Saksham, India
  • Lukerya Lonshakova, Zhiger – Inclusive Printing House, Kazakhstan
  • Dang Hoai Phúc, Sao Mai Center for the Blind (SMCB), Vietnam
  • Aria Indrawati, Mitranetra, Indonesia
  • Yoon Loong Wong, National Council for the Blind, Malaysia

DAISY in the Asia Pacific Region

And 9 organizations represented in the Network Partners.

Contact the Asia Pacific Region

You can contact us at the following email:

  • nirmita.n @ gmail dot com
  • dmanocha @ daisy dot org