In a joint project between the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) office in Kazakhstan and the international technopark of IT start-ups Astana Hub, on April 29, Demo Day presented an online educational program for teachers of primary and secondary classes and successful start-up projects contributing to equal access to education and infrastructure to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Accessible Kazakhstan
"Accessible Kazakhstan" was one of the contestants from Astana Hub with a website and a mobile application to show for. The project aims to provide information on the accessibility of public facilities for people with limited mobility and people with special needs.
The internationally recognized digital public good originated back in 2015 when a team of the Tandau Foundation initiated a project called "Accessible Pavlodar". As a result, the residents of Pavlodar had a map they could use to find out how accessible a particular location was for people with disabilities. In 2016, the initiative covered the entire Pavlodar region.
The following year, Almaty Oblast joined the project, transforming it into Accessible Kazakhstan. Supported by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Astana Hub, the project now brings together 15 public organizations and 500 volunteers across the country, and the doskaz.kz map provides information on accessibility to 21,737 places in 22 cities across Kazakhstan.
The target audience of the service is people with limited mobility and people with special needs (including people with disabilities, parents with young children in wheelchairs, the elderly, pregnant women, temporarily traumatized people, and children under 7 years). Users can plan the most accessible and safe route and find out how accessible and safe to visit the selected site is.
"Accessible Kazakhstan" has been verified by the Digital Public Goods (DPG) Alliance, endorsed by the United Nations, and has been added to the global registry, open for access to the world.
Recognition as a DPG increases the visibility, support and visibility of open source projects that have the potential to solve global problems. To become a DPG, all projects must meet the DPG standard, which ensures that they truly adhere to the principles of open source.
The registry operates on a "one-stop-shop" principle, giving access to open digital technologies: applications, data visualization tools, and educational programs, with minimal requirements for their free adaptation and use to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals as quickly as possible.
