‘Make hospital websites disabled-friendly’

Health care and disability rights activists have demanded that the Delhi government speed-up the process of making the websites of its hospitals disabled-friendly.

Disability rights activist Dr. Satendra Singh said: “Last October, I filed a petition in the Court of Commissioner, Persons with Disabilities (GNCTD), that the websites of hospitals of the Delhi government are not disabled-friendly. Hearings were then held with officials of the Health and IT departments.”

Dr. Singh added that the Court had passed an order with instructions to the Secretary, IT and Health, to submit a final action taken report in three months.

The order states that not just websites of hospitals, but those of all departments, and local and autonomous bodies under the Delhi government be made disabled-friendly. “We showed them how the ‘web accessibility evaluation tool’ of the Delhi government website had 110 errors, while the website of the Department of Disability Affairs showed no errors, and that of the Commissioner (Disability) had two. Web accessibility not only helps the disabled, but also the elderly, those with low vision, seizures, dyslexia, colour blind, slow internet connections and those with dexterity problems,” noted Dr. Singh.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/make-hospital-websites-disabledfriendly/article7798439.ece

Tthe online registration form http://dshm.delhi.gov.in/mis/(S(m2ebikg1ttcwdrrekqcel5l4))/opr/frmNewUserRegistration.aspx is not accessible to many due to the image CAPTCHA (see image and type characters). After a long struggle IRCTC agreed to provide an alternative to this. They now provide a one time password on mobile phone which has to be entered in the website. Without such kind of option, this is totally inaccessible to visually impaired users.

Dr Satendra Singh (Petitioner) and Prashant Ranjan Verma (Joint Secretary, National Association for the Blind) conducted a sensitization workshop also for the officials of IT Dept and Health at Delhi Secretariat on 16 Oct 2015.

Top govt websites are not disabled-friendly

TIMES OF INDIA, 26 Aug 2014, NEW DELHI: An estimated 70 million disabled people in India have no accessibility to the information on top government websites. This is despite Indian government's guidelines for all government websites to comply as per the international accessibility standards. "The fact that the disabled friendly society is still not a priority for the government is apparent because barely 10 states sent their ministers and half that number of secretaries to the Centre's first conference to review disability affairs," said Thaawar Chand Gehlot,the union minister for social justice and empowerment on Saturday. 

Inspite of the ministry of social justice providing financial grant to make websites accessible for disabled under SIPDA (Scheme for Implementation of PWD Act), websites of key organizations like Supreme Court of India, Election Commission of India (ECI), University Grants Commission (UGC), Delhi University (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University ( JNU), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Medical Council of India (MCI), National Human Right Commission (NHRC) and National Commission for Women (NCW) are still not disable friendly. 

An activist for disabled people, Dr Satendra Singh, wrote to the ECI in December 2013 to make its website accessible for the disabled voters. On receiving no response, he complained to the court of Chief Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities (CCPD). The ECI however did not respond to CCPD's letter or subsequent reminder as well. On July 31, 2014 CCPD again wrote to ECI to make their website disabled friendly in a time-frame and submit an action taken report in 30 days. "ECI website as of today still remains inaccessible," said Singh.

RTI replies revealed that no institute or university from Delhi ever asked for a SIDPA grant to make buildings accessible in 2010-11 and 2012-13. However, institutions and universities from states like Bihar, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Chhattisgarh have availed these grants in 2010-11, while Puducherry, Mizoram, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan in 2011-12 and Nagaland and Meghalaya in 2012-13. In another incident, DU's University College of Medical Sciences' proposal was turned down as it did not have the signature of the executive engineer. 

"On one hand the ministry is saying that the funds are under-utilized but on the other hand they are turning down proposals of deserving institutions despite the principal requesting for it," added Singh. 

Not all institutes who availed the grant have made their websites accessible. "MJP Rohilkhand University, Bareilly took Rs 4 lakhs to make its website accessible in 2010-11, while Puducherry was granted Rs 10 lakh in 2011-12 to make the website of the Directorate of Social welfare accessible. They are still out of reach," said Singh. MCI had asked all medical institutions to submit a compliance report on their disabled friendly initiatives, yet its own website is not as per the required standards. 

"The root cause of this indifference stems from the exclusion of disabled people in policy making/ decision taking. An accessible website will not only help a person with visual impairment/ low vision but also deaf, cognitive impaired and learning disabled," said Singh. 
Source: TOI

Election Commission warned to make websites disabled friendly

The Hindu, 18 Aug 2014
The ECI has been given a 30-day deadline (from July 31 onwards) to comply and make amends.

Pressure from disability rights activists has prompted the Court of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities to issue a stern warning and ultimatum to the Election Commission of India (ECI) asking it to make its website user friendly for persons with disability.

The ECI has been given a 30-day deadline (from July 31 onwards) to comply and make amends.

Dr. Satendra Singh, a polio survivor and assistant professor of physiology at the University College of Medical Sciences and Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, Delhi, who has been pursuing the case said: “The ECI has been directed to intimate the Court of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities within 30 days about the action taken on the direction.”

Dr. Singh added that while Delhi has made its website accessible for persons with disability the same has not been made available to the rest of the country.

“The visually impaired need to have a user-friendly website to ensure that they are able to make an informed choice before voting. Though we have been appealing to the ECI since December last year there has been no response from them,” said Dr. Singh.

“Despite my letters, the ECI did not budge and did not make their website accessible to disabled voters. There are Prime Minister Office (PMO) orders as well as guidelines whereby all government institutions must make their websites disabled-friendly. However, we are hoping that things will improve now,” said Dr. Singh.

Accusing the ECI of having violated the orders issued by the PMO in 2010, Dr. Singh said: “The current direction by the Court of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities we hope will work favourably for the persons with disabilities and give them the right to vote in a well informed manner.’’

Source: The Hindu