The Importance Of Digital Transformation For 22.5 Million People With Disabilities In The 3T Region

Head of the Strategic Planning Division of BAKTI Kominfo, Yulis Widyo Marfiah in the webinar "Breaking the Boundaries of People with Disabilities in the 3T Region". (photo: screenshot)

JAKARTA – In this digital era, communication is an important factor, especially to reach people with disabilities. The Ministry of Communication and Information (Kemenkominfo) through BAKTI Kominfo seeks to realize the success of this digital transformation.

Through ICT Training and Competitions, BAKTI Kominfo aims to improve access, literacy, and disability competencies in the ICT field. Especially for people with disabilities in the 3 T area (Front, Remote and Disadvantaged).

"We do a lot of training, such as in the tourism sector, the education sector and the factory sector. This is support for the digital ecosystem. All must be connected to broadband in the 3T area, as well as in commercial areas that have been built by fellow operators. In digital transformation, we also need to pay attention to human resources," said the Head of the Strategic Planning Division of BAKTI Kominfo, Yulis Widyo Marfiah in the webinar "Bringing Disability Boundaries in 3T Regions", Wednesday, October 6.

Yulis realizes that digital inclusion at all levels of society is the most important factor to achieve a full digital transformation in 2024, especially for people with disabilities.

"People with disabilities are also the main supporters. Because we are here to see also the number of people with disabilities in Indonesia based on current data from the BPS (2020) is 22.5 million people," said Yulis.

The 2018 National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) revealed that access to information for persons with disabilities in the use of mobile phones or laptops was only 34.89 percent, while for non-disabled it was 81.61 percent.

"Similarly, the use of the internet for people with disabilities which only reaches 8.50 percent, this accessibility is far from that of non-disabled people, which is 45.46 percent," explained Yulis.

In addition, this is also in line with the statement of the Minister of Communication and Informatics, Johnny G Plate, who stated that there is still ample room to ensure fair and equal digital access for the disabled.

"Our activities can increase access to interaction and competence of friends with disabilities in the field of ICT. This has been done from 2007 to 2008 and 2020, for 2021 we are still working on it, because the budget is still limited," said Yulis.

"Indeed, our minister is currently focusing on building telecommunications infrastructure in all 3T areas, both BTS and internet access," he added.

Meanwhile, the Chairperson of ParaDifa as well as people with disabilities, Echi Pramitasari, revealed that the online training facilitated by BAKTI Kominfo greatly affected the level of participation of participants, especially those in the 3T Region.

"Although network-related problems still exist, based on the implementation in 2020, out of 256 participants, only 15 people need special assistance," said Echi.

"This proves that the development of internet network infrastructure that has been and continues to be carried out by BAKTI Kominfo has reached friends with disabilities to remote parts of Indonesia," he added.

Meanwhile, in the future, Yulis said that these people with disabilities will not only be limited to participating in training and competitions, because in the future BAKTI Kominfo plans to channel people with disabilities to get jobs according to their abilities.

"Besides this competition, we are also thinking about channeling where they will work, according to the abilities of friends with disabilities. This will be our focus going forward," concluded Yulis.