In 2021, QLT completed and redesigned the Accessible Kazakhstan online map, which displays information about the accessibility of city facilities and services. These data enable groups of the population with limited mobility (people with physical disabilities, parents with small children in wheelchairs, the elderly, pregnant women and those temporarily injured) to navigate the urban space.

Founded in 2017, QLT develops functional platforms and already has many large projects to its credit. Today we will talk about one of these projects in an interview with QLT CEO Dauren Salipov.

- Dauren, first of all, please tell us more about your company, team and your projects.

- Our company employs 20+ employees: project managers, analysts, designers, frontend developers, backend developers, testers and mobile application developers. We have 10 years of experience in IT and dozens of completed projects. Our office is located in Nur-Sultan, we are residents of Astana Hub and accredited consultants of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The company has such projects as an interactive map of open budgets Public Budget, the platform for assessing the involvement of employees “PRO2”, software for automating the processes of conducting anti-corruption examination of NLA projects, the contactless electronic menu “QR-menu” and the application “Accessible Kazakhstan”.

- How to use “Accessible Kazakhstan”?

- You can go to the online map "Accessible Kazakhstan" at the link www.doskaz.kz and start using it today! The map contains objects with an accessibility assessment for pregnant women, families with children under 7 years old using baby carriages, for people with disabilities and other people with limited mobility.

Map users can find out in advance how accessible and safe the selected object is to visit and plan the most accessible and safe route.

In addition, any user can offer to mark a public place on the map and share information about its accessibility. The accessibility of objects is indicated on the map by an international traffic light system: accessible places are marked in green, partially accessible places in yellow and inaccessible places in red.

When you enter the map, you will immediately see that many objects are marked with a red icon. It so happened that there are much fewer accessible and partially accessible objects in settlements. The entrance to the building and all rooms in it must comply with the regulatory requirements specified in Article 25 of the Law “On Social Protection of Disabled Persons in the Republic of Kazakhstan”. However, we often notice that the elevators in the building often do not work or are completely absent, the ramps are designed incorrectly.

- Tell us more about the Digital Public Good (DPG) status.

- Digital public goods are open source software, open data, open artificial intelligence models that comply with privacy and other applicable laws and best practices, are non-harmful in nature, and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This definition is implemented in the DPG standard, a set of nine metrics that are used to determine whether a solution is a digital public good. Once a solution is recognized as a digital public good, it can be found on the DPG registry.

- What other projects are referred to as “digital public goods”?

- “Accessible Kazakhstan” is the first digital public good in Central Asia. The most famous digital public good is Wikipedia, which is used daily by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Also, the world's largest health management information system DHIS2, free and open source software (FOSS), open educational resources, the copyright of which is allowed to be freely reused, edited and shared, are also digital public goods.

- Digital technologies make it possible to simplify many processes and today are not only present in our lives, but also necessary in solving global problems. Do you plan to launch other social projects?

- With the help of digital technologies, we improve the level and quality of life of citizens, as well as provide useful information for a comfortable life. Thanks to participation in such projects, we become closer to the topic of social and public problems. We believe that regardless of age, place of residence, social status and health status, all citizens have equal rights and obligations. Our team is for taking part in new socially significant projects that benefit and benefit society.

To learn more about what “Digital Public Goods” are and what they are for, read our article.