2. Needs of readers
• cannot read with the necessary skill
• suffer emotional or psychological problems that
interfere with comprehension
• experience disabilities that interfere with reading
or comprehension (physical or mental)
Or "situational limited literacy"
Add presentation title (go to View > M Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
3. Add presentation title (go to View > Master > Slide Master) | Add name and organisation of presenter
4. pivotal role
Since access to information is needed
to exercise all other human rights,
the right to information
is a right
placing on governments
a duty to provide people
with usable information
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
5. a right to access quality information
Quality of information:
• accuracy
• completeness
• currency
• comprehensibility
• format comprehensible
to the people who need it
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
6. United Nations human rights instruments:
1. Universal Declaration of Human
Rights
2. International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights
Right “to seek, receive and
impart information”
implies a right of access to information
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
7. Inter-American Court of Human Rights:
Claude Reyes et al vs. Chile
Art 13 –
right to seek and receive information
American Convention on Human Rights:
the state must follow the principles of
public nature of information,
transparency, and
maximum disclosure
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
8. Article 19 of the UDHR
Everyone has the right
to freedom of opinion and expression;
this right includes
the freedom to hold opinions without
interference and
to seek, receive, and impart information
and ideas
through any media and
regardless of frontiers
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
9. US Disability or Discrimination Laws
Access to information
Conditions of effective communication are
1.timeliness of delivery
2.accuracy of the translation
3.manner and medium appropriate to the
•
significance of the message and
•
abilities of the individual
with the disability
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
10. Canada FCAC s. 6(4)
Any disclosure
that is required to be made
by a bank …
must be made in language, and
presented in a manner,
that is clear, simple
and not misleading.
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
11. Canadian anti-discrimination laws
Failing to accommodate people with low
literacy skills may be a form of systemic
discrimination.
Failing to take reasonable steps to end
systemic discrimination exposes
organizations to human rights claims.
To meet its duty to accommodate, an
organization must adjust a policy or
practice to meet the special needs of a
person.
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
12. Supreme Court of Canada
• now recognizes differences that are
disabling given external barriers posed
by a society and its norms, procedures,
and institutions
• discrimination is socially constructed
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
13. Supreme Court of Canada
aspects to disability:
physical or mental impairments or illness,
functional limitations, real or perceived,
society’s problematic response to the
person’s condition: prejudice and
stereotypes
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
14. Ontario legislation defines disability
a condition of mental impairment or a
developmental disability
a learning disability, or a dysfunction in
one or more of the processes involved
in understanding or using symbols or
spoken language
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
15. A Theory of Everything
Entities
Laws
Motivators
Resource
government
treaties
duties
IN
industry
constitutions
ethics
FOR
finance
rights docs
interests
MA
health
info access
obligations
TION
insurance
anti-discrim
profit
academia
disability
marketing
justice system
int’l norms
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
16. A Theory of Everything
Intermediaries
Skill
Delivery
Resource
gov’t services
access
IN
marketeers
formats
FOR
health/social serv
quality
MA
NGOs
transmission belt
TION
communicators
marketing
DE
enforcers
LI
VERY
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
17. A Theory of Everything
People
Needs
Rights
Results
citizens
low literacy civil
consumers
warnings
moral
investors
risk
quality
civilians
protection
human
learners
disabilities
liberties
immigrants
ESL
ethical treatment
disenfranchised
Information is a right | Cheryl Stephens
