Digital accessibility in India is controlled, enabled and regulated through the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. Section 40 together with Section 100(2)(g) requires the Central Government to develop standards of accessibility for physical and digital spaces/ecosystems across the country.
Rules have been issued under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act by a notification dated June 15, 2017. (This PDF document has the Notification in both Hindi and English. English starts on Page 27).
Rule 15(1)(c) of the 2017 Notification requires that with respect to Information and Communication Technology, the standards as specified in the guidelines for Indian Government websites, linked above, as adopted by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India are complied with by all establishments.
Rule 15(1)(c) also requires that all documents which are placed on websites should either be in Electronic Publication (ePUB) or should be PDFs which are capable of being converted into accessible documents through Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
On July 26, 2022, amendments were proposed to Rule 15(1) to incorporate Indian Standards 17802 Parts 1 and 2 issued by Bureau of Indian Standards. These are designed to be in line with European Standard EN 301549 and WCAG 2.1 containing exhaustive guidelines to make Information and Communication Technology Accessible. The amendment is under active consideration as of April 10, 2023.
Section 46 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 requires all service providers, whether public or private, to ensure compliance with ICT Standards of Rule 15(1) within two years from the date of the notification of the rules. This date has passed yet there is still not full compliance.
Additional articles on digital accessibility in India include:
