Be it booking a cab to ordering your weekly supply of vegetables, Paytm is
used by many people in India, and has emerged very quickly as one of
India’s leading mobile payment companies. It’s tagline of Paytm
Karo promises a hassle free experience to users across the board.
Not all users, however, with many blind and low vision people reporting that
the app was inaccessible, an issue that NewzHook has
reported on extensively.
Paytm has finally taken note of those complaints and has come out with an
updated 8.1 version that specifically addresses the issues faced by people
with visual disabilities. This is thanks to the efforts Mumbai lawyer
Amar Jain, who persisted in the face of constant
stonewalling from the company.
Jain, who is visually impaired, did not give up, going to the extent of
approaching the Securities and Exchange Board of India(SEBI)
and Masayoshi Son, Founder-CEO, Softbank,
which has invested in Paytm to ensure that his voice, as well as those of
thousands from the community are heard.
The thing to remember is that Paytm was at one point usable, if not fully
accessible on IOS and Android. Apparently, while the developers coded it
the same way some changes happened at the OS level and it went from usable
to un-usable. This was a while back and I started working on this
three-four years back. – Amar Jain, Lawyer
The 8.1 version has taken away many of the accessibility bugs that had made
the app a nightmare for people who are blind and low vision. This was
especially evident in the aftermath of demonetization, when there was a huge
shortage of cash for months.
“The problem was that earlier all the options in the app like Pay, Add
Money, UPI, View Passbook, etc would come together,” explains Jain, who
worked closely with Shivam Munshi, a developer on the Paytm
team to fix the bugs.
“Someone using a screen reader could not click on any. That needed to be
fixed on priority as it made the app un-usable. This became critical
especially after demonetisation. Paytm also has a large presence in terms of
its mobile wallet usage so it is critical for day to day transactions,”
adds Jain. “Paytm could choose to ignore us as we are not a sizeable
population, but we had no choice but to ensure it was made accessible, so we
made sure they took note.”
Apart from his inputs, Paytm also relied on an access audit report done on
the app by Dr Sam Taraporevala, Director, Xavier’s
Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged in Mumbai. Based on this
feedback, the Android version was upgraded and more recently on IOS. While
the main bus have been fixed, there is still a long way to go before the app
becomes fully accessible.
Well-known disability rights activist George Abraham, who
was among those who had raised the issue of Paytm’s growing inaccessibility
for blind users, is satisfied with the 8.1 version. “Adding money and
paying people is much easier now. And you can also find the people you pay
regularly in an orderly fashion. “
Abraham, however, sounds a note of caution as well. “I hope they remember
the accessibility aspect when they go for an upgrade, which was not the case
with Indian Bank and Railways. You may find that a new IT team comes in and
does the upgrade and the accessibility aspects gets neglected.”
It’s a fair concern given that companies remain oblivious to the fact that
people with disabilities are digital stakeholders, despite a national policy
on electronic accessibility.
p>ALSO READ:Feedback sought on issues faced by visually impaired people while
using PayTM
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/21158
