MANILA, Philippines ? The United Nations is looking to find new ways for some 400 million disabled people in the Asia Pacific to get access to the Internet and mobile phone technologies.

In the recently concluded Regional Workshop on the Enhancement of Information and Communications Technology Accessibility for People with Disabilities, member countries from across the region came up with several new guidelines to help improve ICT access for disabled people.

The workshop was held in Incheon, South Korea and organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the Asia Pacific Center for Information and Communications Technology (APCICT).

The workshop is a follow up to the first meeting of Asia Pacific countries in 2008 where the representatives of attending countries agreed to come up with their own country reports that could be collated and combined for a cohesive technology guideline for PWDs.

For this year, several UN member-countries provided their own reports on how they are leveraging on ICT to improve the lives of disabled people. Among the countries that reported were Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

There were also some reports from the European Union that were to be used as basis for additional guidelines for PWD-friendly technology models.

Uwe Wissenbach, the EU representative to the workshop, said that about 15 percent of the population in Europe is disabled. As such, the organization is installing, albeit slowly, new technologies to improve the lives of PWDs and make them more productive members of society.

Meanwhile, Sean Smith from the United Kingdom?s HM Revenue and Customs said their country implements taxation laws that penalize companies without accessibility technologies for PWDs. This encourages companies to put in place infrastructure for PWDs.

Smith also acknowledges the need to tap into the skills of PWDs who can contribute to economic gains.

APCICT Director Hyeun-Suk Rhee said the contributions could be useful for creating guidelines that can be followed by other countries when establishing their own PWD-friendly infrastructure.

?ICTs, when used effectively, have the potential to empower people with disabilities to lead active, independent and productive lives,? Hyeun-Suk said.