BackIT ministry to make 100 govt websites disabled friendly
Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad says 16 websites have already been made disabled-friendly
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New Delhi: The government is planning to make 100 official websites disabled-friendly, Union minister of electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday. Sixteen websites have already been made disabled-friendly, Prasad said while launching Sugamya Pustakalaya, an online library for disabled.
The task will be handled by National Informatics Center (NIC), which develops and maintains all major central government websites.
Sugamya Pustakalaya, which will house publications across diverse subjects and languages and multiple formats, has been created by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in collaboration with member organizations of DAISY Forum of India.
DAISY Forum of India is a consortium of not-for-profit organizations involved in production and distribution of books for persons who cannot read normal print due to visual, cognitive or physical disabilities.
The project is part of Modi government’s Accessible India Campaign launched in December which seeks to make at least 50% of all government buildings in the national capital and all state capitals fully accessible for the disabled by July 2018.
The disabled-friendly websites, especially for visually impaired, use features such as screen readers and screen magnifiers, which can relay website content to the user in audio format.
Institutions and publishers can sign up for the project and provide content for the online library.
The officers of department of IT as well as social justice and empowerment should work together to chart out a road map to make online access for disabled easier, Prasad said.
Sugamya Pustakalaya will offer over 200,000 books in diverse languages and integrate different libraries across India, including Bookshare the largest online international library.
The Copyright Amendment Act (2012) allows adaptation and reproduction of copies of any work by a person or an organization for the benefit of persons with disabilities.
To follow the provisions of copyright law, the platform will only be available to visually impaired people.
“We can’t just rely on the government to make websites disabled-friendly. It should be made mandatory for all institutions. It is not technically very challenging and NIC has already created guidelines for disabled-friendly websites," said Dr. Ramesh Gaur, librarian, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
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