Seminar on ICT Accessibility for an Inclusive Digital India

Chase with a view towards building a case for wider adoption of ICT accessibility guidelines in e-governance websites and apps and promoting use of emerging tech and assistive tech for ICT accessibility released its report in this seminar. While there are several policies, law, standards promoting ICT accessibility in India but their adoption in e-governance websites and apps have not been measured. This gap was identified by Chase.  Chase partnered with two prominent voices in the space of ICT Accessibility in India i.e., National Association for the Blind, Delhi and Sumatak Technologies to assess the adoption of these standards and guidelines in 25 widely used e-governance websites and apps across Central & State Government. The report also studied the issues that persons with disabilities face while accessing these websites and apps through user survey. The report was launched in this seminar along with the presentation of the findings. The findings of the report along with key recommendations arising out of the discussions from the event were circulated across Central and State Government for facilitating informed policy decisions.

The event saw participation from stakeholders across sectors including persons with disabilities with Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities being the chief guest for the event. Speakers at the event included Ms. Ira Singhal, IAS, Jean-Philippe Courtois, EVP & President, National Transformation Partnerships, Microsoft, Nasir Shaikh, Senior VP – Head of Human Resources (Atos Group), Atos, Ms Eunsong Kim, Programme Specialist and Chief of Section - Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO, Dipendra Manocha, Director, Developing Countries Program, DAISY Consortium, Air Cmde. Ranjan Mukherjee VSM IAF, State Commissioner for PwD, NCT of Delhi, Rahul Gambhir, Senior Manager, Union Bank, Narinder Singh Arneja, Deputy Director General/Scientist G, National Information Centre, Sudeesh.V.C, Group General Manager (IT-2), IRCTC, Avneesh Singh, Member, Advisory Board, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

The event also saw presence of departments whose websites and apps were studied in the report, and they were willing to understand more on the findings with respect to their specific app/website. The recommendations resonated with all speakers and audiences for supporting their policy decisions.

Post the event, in a press release the Department of Telecommunication and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology have also informed that they will adopt BIS standards for accessibility on ICT products. In addition to this, in the same press release it was stated that the Department of Law and Justice will adopt BIS standards for ICT ecosystem.