NEW DELHI: India may have made tremendous technological leaps in the past two decades but when it comes to developing websites for differently-abled persons, it continues to draw a blank.
Despite the ministry for information and technology setting up Indian Accessibility Guidelines (IAG) in February 2009 -- a decision that mandated that no new government website be created without following these rules -- the scheme is still caught in red tape. "It is true that new websites constructed after February 2009 are disabled-friendly. However, there are over 5,000 government websites that were in existence before these guidelines came. They do not fall under the ambit of this rule, hence, they remain inaccessible," said Javed Abidi, honorary director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NEPEDP). According to WHO statistics, nearly 600 million people are disabled globally. Of these, according to UN Development Programme, 80% live in developing countries. In India, there are over 70 million disabled persons. Of these, according to a conservative estimate, nearly 25 million suffer from varying degrees of visual-impairment. While the Indian technology market proudly stakes claim to creating "accessible" websites for several countries like the US, UK and South Africa, in India, accessible web portals, especially in the public or government domain, are still a rarity. In fact, even the website of ministry of social justice and empowerment, the nodal agency for empowering disabled persons, only became accessible as recently as earlier this month, nearly one year after the IAG came into being. It is, however, a case of being better late than never; a fact that even Abidi confesses to. Inaugurated in its new accessible avatar on January 5, the website comes equipped with alternate text for images, menus that can be operated with any input texts, such as through keyboards, joysticks and on-screen keyboards. In addition, for those with learning disabilities, provisions have been made for learning through icons and accessing structured text under several simplified heads. Captions for audio-video files allow hearing impaired users to navigate through the site. For the elderly or for those suffering from colour blindness, the site also allows larger text size, contrast colours and wider spacing between words to reduce clutter. "It will be sufficient to say that it is a state-of-the-art website, at par with international accessible websites," said Shilpi Kapoor, managing director, BarrierBreak Technologies, a Mumbai-based `accessible' solutions provider. Well begun, however, is half done. Though the social justice ministry has the distinction of being the first-of-its-kind, nearly 50 other government websites need urgent attention for being made accessible. The list, comprising popular websites, includes links to services like passport, railways and rural development, among others. "We sent a written request to the Prime Minister's Office for making all government and private websites disabled-friendly. Even though the PM has taken cognizance of this and appealed to the ministries to implement these guidelines, the progress is painfully slow," said Abidi. cheers raghu To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
