July 26, 2015: The Government of India is taking a significant initiative, where the government websites will be made friendly for differently-abled people, so that they can access such websites easily.
The new initiative will cover close to 6,000 websites, owned by states and center, and according to reports, as much as 50% of these websites will be made fully accessible for differently-abled people by July 2016, sources from Social Justice Department said.
The center is taking steps for the change and is planning to have web auditors, who will work on enhancing the features of the government-owned sites, to make them easy to use for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
A letter has been written to ERNET India by Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DoPwD) for the purpose, said a report on Economic Times.
An official was quoted saying that there are more than 6,000 websites owned by governments, and most sites are used by PwDs, and the initiative is to ensure these people have access to all websites in simpler way.
ERNET India has been reached for means, ways and suggestions, the official said.
Initiative is a part of Accessibility India Campaign, which is aimed at enhancing the proportion of accessible public documents and information that meet international standards.
The step will ensure that the documents for public are published and websites are maintained at pair with the criteria set by relevant International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
The web auditors will check that whether the websites are meeting the disability standards of W3C.
ERNET India is expected to engage many web editors for the work.
