PTA has announced a collaboration with ConnectHear, Pakistan’s pioneering sign language technology company, to mark International Girls in Information and Communications Technology Day 2026, with the partnership specifically directed at advancing digital inclusion and accessibility for women and girls living with hearing impairments across the country. The announcement, made on April 23, 2026, brings together Pakistan’s primary telecommunications regulator and one of its most recognised disability-focused technology ventures in a shared commitment to ensuring that the benefits of digital participation are extended to communities that have historically been excluded from mainstream technology access.
ConnectHear has built its work around developing sign language interpretation technology and accessibility tools for Pakistan’s deaf and hard-of-hearing population, a community that faces compounding disadvantages when it comes to engaging with digital platforms, educational content, and public services that are designed without their needs in mind. The collaboration with PTA on International Girls in Information and Communications Technology Day adds a gender dimension to this accessibility focus, recognising that women and girls with hearing impairments face a dual layer of exclusion that requires deliberate, targeted intervention rather than general digital inclusion programmes that rarely reach this specific demographic in a meaningful way.
International Girls in Information and Communications Technology Day, observed annually under the framework of the International Telecommunication Union, was established to close the participation gap between women and men in the technology sector by encouraging girls to explore careers and opportunities in information and communications technology. Framing this year’s observance around accessibility and hearing impairment reflects a maturing understanding within Pakistan’s regulatory and technology community that digital inclusion cannot be treated as a single, undifferentiated challenge, and that the most marginalised groups within already underserved populations require specific, targeted attention backed by institutional commitment.
For PTA, the partnership with ConnectHear represents an extension of its broader consumer protection and digital inclusion mandate into the disability access space, signalling that accessibility for persons with disabilities is being incorporated into the regulator’s vision for a digitally inclusive Pakistan rather than left to the voluntary efforts of civil society alone. The collaboration is expected to generate awareness, develop accessible digital resources, and create pathways through which women and girls with hearing impairments can more fully participate in Pakistan’s growing digital economy.
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