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Why are your websites, apps inaccessible for persons with disabilities, asks court
The court of the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities has observed that the websites, mobile applications, and other digital platforms of ministries/departments are not accessible for persons with all types of disabilities
The court of the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities (CCPD) has issued a suo moto notice to all government ministries and departments, the director general of National Information Centre (NIC) and about five dozen private companies for failing to make their websites, mobile applications and other digital platforms accessible for people with disabilities. All the respondents have been asked to appear before the CCPD in an online hearing on July 16 at 10.30am.
“It has been observed with due concerns that the websites, mobile applications, and other digital platforms of ministries/departments of the Government of India and establishments under their control are not accessible for persons with all types of disabilities,” the July 6 notice to the ministries said.
The CCPD has tagged 22 cases against different government establishments together.
Notices to the private entities were sent on July 10 and it include fintech firms such as Zerodha and Cred, e-marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart, newspapers including Hindustan Times and Indian Express, digital publishers and news channels such as Moneycontrol and NDTV, all three private telcos, social media companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Telegram, and many others.
All respondents have also been instructed to file their compliance or action taken reports, if any, by July 15. The CCPD is also organising an online training programme the same day on the subject “to facilitate the respondents to fulfil the above referred statutory mandate in their respective departments,” the notice said.
The notices have been issued under sections 75 and 77 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, that deal with the functions and powers of the chief commissioner.
“This is an important step forward in terms of the CCPD playing the role of a watchdog in ensuring that the rights of persons with disabilities are upheld in the digital marketplace. The companies should take this in a constructive manner. By making their websites and apps inaccessible, the companies are depriving themselves of an important consumer base. Compliance with disability standards makes commercial sense apart from being a legal obligation,” said Rahul Bajaj, lawyer and co-founder of Mission Accessibility who is the complainant in the cases that the CCPD has tagged together for the hearing.
Bajaj had filed a slew of complaints in 2022 with the CCPD, listing how different websites and apps were inaccessible for persons with disabilities.
