Month: February 2019

I have attended Empower 2018 – Assistive Technology Conference hosted by Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi from 25th to 27th October, 2018. Here is a recap of the conference.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has published revised Guidelines for Indian Government Websites and Apps. Ministry has published first version in January, 2009 and after 9 years, Ministry has now published second version to align with current technologies. These guidelines are adopted by Department of Administrative Reforms and public grievances, Ministry of Personnel, public grievances and pension, Government of India. Revised guidelines not only has guidelines for websites but also for mobile applications.

Wow, NV Access is such a committed organization that I have never seen them missing a release nor compromising quality in a release. NV Access has just announced release of Non Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) 2018.4. NVDA is a free and open source screen reading software that enable people with vision impairment to have access to use of computer. 

Accessibility Testing is critical for ensuring accessibility of any product. Similar to any other testing e.g. performance, functional etc., quality is an essential component for accessibility testing too!

It was in 2008, Web Accessibility Initiative Group of W3C has announced Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 as a candid recommendation. Since then, there has beena lot of of improvements and changes in technologies.

Thanks to NCPEDP and Mr. Javed Abidi for putting this together. It’s important that The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill gets passed soon to make lives of people with disabilities more independent and make India more inclusive. Here are the details:

Here are a few accessibility events that I have / going to participate during October.

24^th September, 2016 marks a historic milestone for people with print disabilities in India. DAISY India, in partnership with Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and powered by TCS Access Infinity has launched Sugamya Pustakalaya (Accessible Digital Library) which provides opportunity to blind and print disabled people to have access to wide range of publications including study material, fiction, non-fiction etc.,

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAi) of World Wide Web Consortium is one stop for all resources including guidelines, techniques, checklists, examples related to web accessibility. Education and Outreach Working Group is seeking inputs from community to work on re-design of WAI’s website. The Survey with 57 questions asks very interesting input including what is needed for user’s job requirement and what would we like to see on WAI’s website. I have just completed the survey and highly encourage everyone to do so.

When it comes to providing opportunities for disabled people, the government of Kerala has always been a step ahead. Be it disability pension, educational scholarships,…