Although the centre and state government are putting lot of thrust in order to reach out to masses through its websites, but a sizeable population of differently abled remains untouched by this technological revolution. According to the data, out of over 5,000 government websites across the country, only six or seven are of use for persons suffering from visual, hearing, mental and other disabilities.
Even the websites of big corporates including MNCs operating from India are not disabled friendly. In order to fill the gap, Mumbai-based Barrier Break Technologies, has come forward to assist the government and MNCs, making their websites disabled-friendly, but lack of awareness among the masses and functionaries is proving a stumbling block for implementation.
Speaking to Business Standard, Barrier Break Technologies, Head Accessibility Testing, Priti Rohra said,” Out of 5,000 odd government websites only six or seven cater to the needs of differently abled persons. Out of the seven disabled-friendly government websites, two are, the National Portal of India and the website of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Empowerment. Besides this, we had also developed websites for private organisation and NGO’s.
There is also guidelines by the centre government to make websites disabled friendly, but very few government department has come forward to make their sites disabled friendly.” She mentioned that the need of the hour is effective implementation of the guidelines. She also blames the lack of awareness, as also one of the reason.
Priti is partially blind since her birth. She has been working for the company for past 8 years and engaged in testing and developing softwares for the differently abled. She mentioned that majority of the employees are disabled-visually, aurally or physically so, they can understand the need of the user. At present, her company is engaged in making websites for foreign clients.
On being asked about how the web portals are made accessible to the differently abled, Rohra said, “There are specific technologies that are used the world over to make web portals user friendly to all.”
But the technology comes with cost, so it might be also one of the reason that very few government organizations and MNC’s or corporate sectors are coming forward to make their websites disabled friendly.
She added further, “ We wish to create an inclusive society through technology where there is equal opportunity for access to employment, education and social life to differently abled persons.”
