Shaping a more disabled-friendly digital ecosystem

Source– The post is based on the article “Shaping a more disabled-friendly digital ecosystem” published in The Hindu on 15th February 2023.

Syllabus: GS2- Vulnerable sections of the population

Relevance– Issues related to persons with disability

News– The article explains the issue of accessibility of digital space for persons with disabilities.

What are some statistics related to people with disabilities?

As per estimation in Census 2011, 2.21% of India’s population is disabled. This is a gross underestimation.

According to the World Health Organization, about 16% of the global population is disabled. If it is applied to the Indian context, there are at least 192 million disabled people.

India had 750 million Internet/smartphone users in 2020. Applying the 16% figure here, means roughly 12 crore Internet users with disabilities.

What is the status of accessibility of digital space?

A report evaluates the accessibility of 10 of the most widely used apps in India, across five sectors. These sectors were chosen based on broad stakeholder consultation with people with disabilities.

Based on the number of violations, the level of accessibility of the apps was categorised as

“high”, “medium” and “low”. The report found that four apps ranked low, five were in the medium category.

What is the way forward to improve the accessibility of digital space?

There is a need to work with these service providers. They need help to design practices and processes that will not only improve app accessibility but also educate their stakeholders about accessibility and people with disabilities.

This will also help change attitudes of the business community around disability in the country. They will move away from a charity approach to a rights-based and investment outlook.

Technology is used to automate a large number of accessibility tests, and combine that with in-depth manual testing to provide comprehensive accessibility feedback to developers.

AI can help to further automate the accessibility testing process. Feedback from users with disabilities can now be analysed at scale to provide actionable insights to developers and companies.

Everything digital must be accessible to everyone. This starts with incorporating the principles of accessibility and inclusive design into every digital offering from inception.

India needs to be truly accessible for all people with disabilities. Organisations, companies, civil society, the government and the courts must work upon it.