Latest news with #MissionAccessibility
Business Standard
16-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
On Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2025, India Takes a Step Towards Ensuring Digital Accessibility
NewsVoir New Delhi [India], May 16: A draft curriculum to teach digital accessibility in undergraduate computer science and design courses was unveiled at the Inclusive India Summit, held at the India International Centre, New Delhi, on the occasion of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) 2025. The initiative aims to ensure accessibility becomes a core part of how future technologists and designers are trained in India. The summit brought together academic leaders, accessibility professionals, and disability rights advocates from across the country. The Inclusive India Summit was hosted on the occasion of Global Accessibility Awareness Day by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), SBI Foundation (the CSR arm of the State Bank of India), and the National Association for the Blind. It was organised in collaboration with the Association of People with Disability (APD) and Mission Accessibility (Dhananjay Sanjogta Foundation), and held at the India International Centre, New Delhi, on May 15. The event was conducted in hybrid mode, with both online and in-person participation. The proposed curriculum is a response to a longstanding gap: while digital services have expanded rapidly in India, most platforms remain difficult to navigate for persons with disabilities. A 2023 audit by the Centre for Internet and Society found that 98% of leading Indian websites do not meet global accessibility standards. Globally, the picture is no better; WebAIM's 2023 analysis of the top 1 million homepages found accessibility errors on 96.3% of them. Experts at the summit agreed that the problem lies upstream, in how technologists and designers are trained. C.P. Gurnani, former CEO, Tech Mahindra, and a speaker at the summit, said, "India's digital economy can't afford to treat accessibility as an afterthought. Embedding it into how we educate our technologists is not just timely--it's essential. This curriculum is a step toward building digital solutions that are truly inclusive, by design." The curriculum, developed over several months by a national working group--including contributors from the International Institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru; Design Beku; Mission Accessibility; Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), India; the Xavier's Resource Center for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC); Artilabs; and BMS College of Engineering, Bengaluru--is designed to be modular, adaptable, and grounded in Indian contexts. It introduces students to accessibility principles, web standards like WCAG, assistive technologies, universal design, and disability rights law. Amar Jain, lawyer and Co-founder of Mission Accessibility, who also led the Supreme Court petition, said, "We have policy and precedent. What's missing is implementation capacity. This curriculum ensures that we're not just fixing what's broken--we're teaching how to build it right from the start." The national consultation on Digital Accessibility Inclusion was chaired by Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, DEPwD, and had participation from the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA), Ministry of Education, IIT Delhi, IIIT Delhi & IIT Bombay. It focused on how the curriculum was designed to equip students with both conceptual and practical skills to build accessible digital products. It covered disability rights, accessibility laws, and technical standards like WCAG 2.2, along with hands-on training using screen readers, audit tools like Axe and WAVE, and real-world user testing. The discussion saw a strong emphasis on designing in collaboration with persons with disabilities, particularly in the Indian context. Participants also discussed the need to address accessibility in emerging technologies like AI/ML, AR/VR, and Internet of Things (IoT). They highlighted how the curriculum connects academic learning to career opportunities through certifications like the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC). Inclusive hiring practices were also highlighted as essential, ensuring equal access to jobs by removing barriers in recruitment and workplace systems. Prof. Amit Prakash of IIIT-Bangalore added, "Our goal is to shift the culture of how digital technology design is taught and understood. Accessibility must become foundational, something that students see intrinsic value in, and internalise as an important design principle and not a post-implementation patchwork." The draft curriculum is now open for public consultation and will soon be submitted to India's key academic regulators. The emphasis on accessibility by design closely aligns with the Yes to Access project by APD, which advocates for systemic change in how accessibility is integrated into public infrastructure and digital services. A key innovation under this initiative is the Yes to Access app--India's first AI-powered tool for conducting accessibility audits--which was featured during the summit's panel discussion on 'Inclusive Mainstream Technologies'. While the app enables real-time assessments of the built environment, the curriculum complements it by equipping the next generation of technologists and designers to embed accessibility into digital products from the ground up. Together, these efforts reflect a growing consensus that practical tools and foundational education must work hand in hand to make accessibility the norm, not an afterthought. The Association of People with Disability (APD) is a 65-year-old non-profit organisation that empowers individuals with disabilities to lead independent, dignified, and productive lives. Through its comprehensive Life Cycle Approach, APD supports persons with disabilities at every stage--from early intervention and inclusive education to healthcare access, livelihood support, and advocacy for accessible infrastructure and systems. For more information, please visit
Hindustan Times
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
HC seeks state's response to plea for filling vacant disability quota posts
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court last week asked the Maharashtra government to respond to a petition seeking a special recruitment drive to fill all backlog vacancies reserved for differently abled persons in various state departments. The public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by Mission Accessibility, an NGO founded by visually impaired advocates dedicated to the rights and inclusion of persons with disabilities (PwDs). It sought the enforcement of section 34(1) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016, which mandates a 4% horizontal reservation for PwDs in all government establishments, including educational institutions. The petition, filed through advocates Prithviraj Choudhary and Sharon Patole, highlighted systemic non-compliance with the law by the Maharashtra government and educational bodies. It cited specific instances such as NGO Laxmi Shikshan Sanstha's failure to reserve posts at its institutions despite numerous vacancies, the denial of reserved positions to eligible candidates, and exploitative temporary contracts imposed on faculty with visual impairments. These violations infringe upon the constitutional rights to equality, dignity, and equal opportunity, the PIL said. The petitioner highlighted government data, which reveals that only 36% of the 26 million PwDs are employed in India. Notably, 47% of men with disabilities are likely to find employment, compared with just 23% of women, according to the data. In February 2024, the state commissionerate for people with disabilities (SCPD) highlighted that 99.99% of seats reserved for people with disabilities remain unfilled in Maharashtra, the petition said. Based on this data, the petitioner wrote to the SCPD to report the non-compliance with the reservation mandate in 11 universities and 1,117 colleges across Maharashtra. The commissionerate, in response, directed the state department of higher education to investigate the matter and take corrective measures. Although the department showed no progress in identifying and filling the backlog vacancies, it submitted data revealing the alarming state of vacancies reserved for PwDs in Maharashtra, the petition said. The statistics indicated a significant number of unfulfilled reserved posts: 76 out of 89 seats were vacant in Kolhapur, 69 out of 74 seats in Nagpur, 29 out of 30 seats in Mumbai, and 13 out of 28 seats in Solapur. Supported by government orders, RTI responses, media reports, and affidavits, the petitioner sought directions for a special recruitment drive to fill backlog vacancies, audits, and corrective recommendations by the SCPD, strict institutional compliance with the RPWD Act, and to address the systemic discrimination faced by PwDs in educational employment in Maharashtra. Taking cognisance of the matter, a division bench of chief justice Alok Aradhe and justice MS Karnik directed the state to submit its response through the respondent parties—the Department of Higher and Technical Education, the Department for Welfare of Persons with Disabilities, and the SCPD—within four weeks.
Mint
23-04-2025
- Business
- Mint
Are Swiggy and Zepto failing blind users? Delhi high court to hear accessibility case
Can blind or visually impaired users independently order groceries or meals using India's biggest delivery apps? That's the question now before the Delhi high court, after a public interest petition accused Swiggy and Zepto of failing to make their digital platforms accessible to persons with disabilities (PwDs). Filed by the New Delhi-based NGO Mission Accessibility, the case could have wide-reaching implications for digital inclusion in India's booming app economy. In an order issued Wednesday, the court sought responses from Swiggy, Zepto, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The next hearing is scheduled for 28 May. The petition, reviewed by Mint, alleges that the companies' apps are unusable by people with blindness or impaired vision, in violation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016. It also cites broader constitutional violations, including the denial of equality, dignity, and freedom of expression. 'The petition seeks directions from this Hon'ble Court mandating the Respondents to ensure full compliance with digital accessibility standards,' it states. Requested features include screen reader compatibility, alternatives for inaccessible elements, and voice-guided camera assistance for tasks such as processing returns. The NGO says it first flagged these issues with the companies' customer support teams but received no meaningful response—evidence, it argues, of disregard for accessibility requirements and a breach of both legal and ethical duties. Email queries to Swiggy and Zepto went unanswered. Among the key complaints: Swiggy's search box is unresponsive to screen readers, making it impossible for visually impaired users to search for products. Payment options are reportedly inaccessible, preventing transaction completion. Other features—including Instamart's voice search, Swiggy's DineOut and table reservation services, and newer offerings like Snacc and Pyng—are also said to be difficult or impossible to navigate without sight. The petition also highlights a significant hurdle during image capture for returns or refunds. Without voice prompts or haptic feedback, blind users are unable to position their cameras correctly—effectively barring them from completing basic transactions. These shortcomings, the petition notes, fall short of India's first national digital accessibility standard—BIS IS 17802—introduced in 2023. The standard mandates features like labeled icons and screen reader compatibility across all digital platforms. According to the petition, Swiggy and Zepto have yet to comply. Mission Accessibility is asking the court to direct the platforms to undergo a formal accessibility audit, publish a public roadmap to fix the gaps, train their staff in digital accessibility, and disclose conformance reports. The case follows broader enforcement efforts: In February, the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD) fined 155 entities—including the Ministry of External Affairs, Tata Digital, Reliance, National Depository Ltd, Pluxee India, and Yatra Online Ltd—for failing to meet digital accessibility standards. First Published: 23 Apr 2025, 05:44 PM IST
