Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Our dream of model accessible universities for persons with disabilities


Our dream of Model Accessible University for persons with disabilities:

 It is general observation that none of Indian universities or colleges provide barrier free access to building infrastructure, course curriculum, information and communication technology systems etc for persons with disabilities which is the reason of their low enrollment in higher education institutions.

persons with disabilities have to struggle a lot for higher schooling during course selection, admission, classroom learning, exam preparation, writing exams, project and internship, research work, placement and recreational activities.

We are dreaming to have model accessible universities across the country to implement and promote inclusive education. The model accessible university shall have barrier free environment for all kinds of persons with disabilities. its program, services and activities will be accessible. Such universities shall have accessible built infrastructure, accessible course content, accessible teaching and learning and accessible web services.

• Building infrastructure will be fully accessible with ramps and accessible toilets. No hurdles of parked vehicles on road side, dustbins, chairs and tables, tree pots, trimming branches of trees in passage way and building corridors, bips, Braille signs and other signal for identification of certain places. classroom, laboratories, seminar halls, library, cafeteria, gymnasium, playgrounds garden and landscape, internal roads and foot paths etc. will be accessible with ramps, tactile paths, color contrast of doors and walls, floors and staircases, accessible toilets and accessible electric switches for wheelchair users.

• Information technology services like university website, online admission, examination, transcript request, e-learning portals, discussion forums, notices and circulars, employee portal, web mail services etc will be accessibility compliant to national and international accessibility standards for web accessibility.

• Course material like text books, reference books, notes, including graphs, charts and tables etc will be readily available in alternative formats like audio, digital, large prints, Braille and sign languages.

• All the faculties, academic administrators, non teaching staff, abled body students are sensitized about special needs of individuals with disabilities. Faculties will have proper training of accessible teaching to inclusive class and dealing with students and researchers with disabilities.

• A center for disability services will be available in the model accessible university which will be headed by a director and supported with the team of experts in assistive technology and accessibility . The center will address all the matters of students, researchers, staff, faculties, and visitors with disabilities in the university. The center shall have assistive technology training lab, accessibility research lab and accessible digital library. The center will conduct accessibility research, monitor and ensure accessibility services to the persons with disabilities in university schools and departments and affiliated colleges.

Hope our HRD minister will take decision to transform at least some universities in to model accessible universities in next few years instead of setting up special universities for persons with disabilities.

Monday, May 15, 2017

Inaccessible environment is the biggest challenge for empowerment of persons with disabilities


       Life of persons with disabilities is improved a lot by the availability of assistive technologies. Persons with visual impairment can read and write independently using computer screen reader and screen magnifier software similar to abled body persons. The software can reads any content on computer screen like human being in artificial human voice. They can also able to use touchscreen mobile phones with the use of similar mobile software. They can use the same computer or mobile phones as the able-bodied persons use. Only the difference is they prefer to use keyboard than mouse.  Similarly the screen magnifier software magnifies content on screen for low vision persons. Automatic wheel chair can enable persons with Sever motor disabilities to move around independently.

But these assistive technologies have limitation in smooth functioning due to inaccessible environment. wheel chair cannot move properly on broken footpaths, buildings where there are no proper ramps and elevators. Railway stations, bus stands, airports, buses, trains and aircraft are often inaccessible for wheel chair users. They cannot easily walk down in ATMs, roadside shops, even big mauls due to accessibility barriers. Persons with visual impairment also have to face challenges while walking down on broken footpaths using white cane. They often fumble on drainage man holes, bump on electric poles, protruding branches of trees etc. Unable to understand traffic signals, cross walks, while walking on road.

Assistive technologies like screen reader and screen magnifiers do not function properly if web interfaces providing online services are not designed with the consideration of accessibility standards and regulations.  The screen reader software cannot properly read poorly designed web content, interactive controls etc. They also have difficulties in web navigation as some times all the functionalities are not available to keyboard users.

These challenges are due to non consideration of users with disabilities by Government and corporate organizations while designing their products and services despite of having several laws, standards, guidelines, policies, mandates and directives. Persons with disabilities have to always take partial assistance for online services such as email, social media, E-governance services, e-commerce services and other online services like online banking, movie tickets, bus, train and air tickets  booking, taxi booking etc. despite having assistive technologies. Life of persons with disabilities is so dependent in our country that they never get feeling of living in independent nation.

The stakeholders have mercy approach. Focuses of Government policies are on provision of reservation in academics and jobs, Concession in bus and train fare, education fees and other subsidies etc. Corporate and NGOs also do not have different approach. Instead they can implement accessibility standards and regulations in their services as the services are of no use if they are not accessible.

Stakeholders in this area should understand that all the persons with disabilities are not poor. They can afford products and services if they are accessible and usable to them.

Media Should educate people about persons with disabilities by designing movies, TV shows and showcase how persons with disabilities trying  to be independent using assistive technologies, their accessibility challenges due to inaccessible environment etc rather showing that they have divine power.

Academic institution should provide accessible services instead providing fee concession and accessibility standards and regulations in the syllabus of relevant degree programs.

Software professionals should consider accessibility standards and regulations as a crucial part of their software development if they wish to help persons with disabilities. They can make web services compliant to Web content accessibility guidelines like standards.

Real estate developers or builders should insure that all of their development should comply with ministry of urban development built infrastructure guidelines for disabled and elderly rather than making unusable ramps in few places.

Persons with disabilities should not give importance to reservation, concession and subsidies. Instead they should strongly demand accessible environment as it is their constitutional right.

I would like to bring attention of all the stake holders on this occasion The Global accessibility awareness day  towards challenges due to inaccessible environment for persons with disabilities and measures to be taken to empower persons with disabilities to make them productive citizen of the country by providing barrier free and universal designing of products and services.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Academic accessibility

                                     Academic accessibility



1.Definition:



It is the accessibility of academic programs, services and activities for every one especially for persons with disabilities. Academic environment has several barriers for persons with disabilities such as inaccessibility of built infrastructure for persons with motor disabilities, inaccessibility of course content, inaccessibility of web services, inaccessibility of course delivery mechanism for persons with visual impairment etc. That’s the reason persons with disabilities have to struggle a lot for higher schooling during course selection, admission,  classroom learning, exam preparation, writing exams, project and internship, research work, placement etc. academic accessibility involve all these issues.



  2.Scope:


Several national and international rules and regulations prohibit discrimination against individuals with physical disabilities.

    Academic institutions such as colleges and University should make each of their programs, services, and activities accessible to and usable by qualified persons with disabilities. These regulations contain information about different types of disabilities, typical access problems, how to accommodate persons who have disabilities, and how to make campus programs and public areas of academic institution accessible. Many persons with disabilities find it difficult to participate in activities (work, recreational, Social/cultural, etc.) because of programmatic or physical barriers, and many are reluctant to "ask for help." Consequently, most people in the general community are unaware that individuals with disabilities exist in large numbers.

Visitors with disabilities must be accommodated when they come to the campus to interview for a job or to participate in campus sponsored activities and programs including Extension University, sports, recreation, and cultural events.


Program accessibility encompasses library services, computing services, student health services, career planning services, counseling and psychological services, campus stores, dining rooms, language laboratories, science laboratories, field trips, athletic programs, student housing, admissions and examinations, graduation ceremonies, and co-curricular activities, off-campus programs and events, etc.


Areas where a major activity takes place may include reception areas, classrooms and other teaching facilities, conference rooms, faculty and teaching assistant offices, research labs, cafeterias, museums, counseling centers, gymnasiums and other recreational facilities, and libraries. All public areas in which program activities occur should be accessible.


Persons with disabilities should also have access to drinking water, restrooms, telephones, and reasonably convenient parking.


 3.Importance:

A. Enrollment of persons with disabilities increases due to accessible environment in academic institution.
B. Learning experience of persons with disabilities is improved due to academic accessibility.
C. Skilled and productive human resource with disabilities can be developed.
D. Compliance of accessibility regulation result in to less risk of non compliance.


 4.Components of academic accessibility:

There could be 4 important components of academic accessibility based on academic infrastructure and services:

A.Built infrastructure accessibility
B.Web services accessibility
C.Course curriculum accessibility
D.Course delivery mechanism accessibility.

4.1  Built infrastructure accessibility:

Academic institutions have large campuses. It comprises buildings of academic departments, complexes, administrative buildings, student and staff hostels, guest houses, common auditorium and seminar halls, cafeteria’s, commercial complexes, gymnasiums, playground, gardens, footpaths, roads etc. Persons with disabilities have several hurdles while accessing built infrastructure of academic institutions. Wheel chair users cannot access class rooms, academic offices, auditoriums, hostel rooms and other recreational services. Persons with visual impairment often bump on protruding branches of trees, chairs and pots in corridors etc. persons with low vision cannot easily identify staircases, doors walls due to insufficient light and color contrast.


      It is also essential to make entire built infrastructure accessibility compliant as per built accessibility                standards through the installation of ramps, elevators, accessible toilets, repenting for maintaining color
      contrast for low vision, removing structural barriers and hurdles on building corridors, hall ways, 
      footpaths,  roads etc. Built infrastructure accessibility should be factored
      in the building project designing architects and builder considers accessibility while building any structure        sin academic complexes.



4.2  Academic web services accessibility:


Academic institutions have huge interactive web portals that make its entire academic and administrative services online. The services include online admission notification, online course entrance, course admission, hostel admission, online examination application form, online examination system, course material, online transcript request, internet service request, recreational facility request, eligibility form, scholarship request form and many more. Online circulars, notifications, employee services request, research grant request etc. are also gone online.


     These services are not usually accessibility compliant as per any web accessibility norms. Students, staff,       faculties, researchers and visitors with disabilities face several difficulties while accessing these services.In
     order to make all these services accessible and usable for every one including persons with disabilities,           need is realized to implement accessibility standards and regulations in user interfaces of the university           web portal. The academic institutions have a team of web developers who should be trained and                   continuous accessibility evaluation has to be conducted through web accessibility expert. A dedicated           web accessibility  expert is required to ensure accessibility of university web portal and to coordinate             accessibility  matter between various departments and web development team of the university as web           accessibility implementation and maintenance is continuous process.

4.3  Course content accessibility:

University runs several hundred degree and diploma programs. The course content of these degree 
programs are not fully accessible and usable for persons with disabilities. Books in the library are not
available in alternative formats, notes are also usually not provided in accessible formats.

     The course content of all the programs is essential to be made accessible and usable for all kinds of                persons with disabilities such as making available the course content in alternative format like audio,              electronic format, electronic Braille and large print format, tactile graphics format as per requirement so          that the  academic programs will be made easy for persons with disabilities that will increase their                  enrollment in main stream degree programs of the university. A dedicated team of personnel is needed            who can undertake course content accessibility projects and ensure accessibility of academic course 
      content.


4.4  Course delivery mechanism accessibility:



Course delivery mechanism involves teaching and transmit ion of knowledge to course aspirants through various ways such as verbal, body language, interaction and activities etc. Teaching is done with the consideration that all the learners in class and laboratories are abled body persons which does not includes persons with visual, auditory and speech impairment. Persons with visual disabilities face several issues in understanding various visual concepts in class room and science laboratories. Persons with auditory and speech impairment cannot understand verbal interactions and audio visual material. They require sign language interpreter or body language from the teacher while teaching. Classroom teaching and laboratory experiments should be made accessible and understandable for persons with all kinds of disabilities in order to have pleasant learning experience to them. All the teachers and learning facilitators should be trained to teach inclusive class.


5.      Standards and regulations governing academic accessibility:



Academic accessibility in campuses accessibility of built infrastructure, Accessibility of academic web services, course content accessibility and accessibility of course delivery mechanism. There are specific accessibility standards and regulations for specific components.


5.1  Laws governing on built infrastructure accessibility:

     Article 14 and 15 ensure accessibility of all the built infrastructure services for everyone. Persons with disabilities (equal opportunities and protection of rights and full participation) act 1995 also advocates accessibility of built infrastructure services for persons with disabilities in its section 44, 45, 46. The act has made several provisions such as installation of ramps, elevators signage’s in alternative formats etc. United Nations conventions on rights of persons with disabilities (UNCRPD) also emphasize on accessibility of built infrastructure. The international law has similar provisions but more effective way. Ministry of urban development also has issued guidelines for built infrastructure for disabled and elderly which have several comprehensive provisions beside the laws. It has given stress on color combinations of walls, floor, staircases etc. It has provisions like height of electric switches and other controls from floor for wheel chair users. USA has Americans with disabilities act (ADA) which also in line with the provisions discussed above. USA has rehabilitation act 1973 amended in 1998 which also talks about accessibility of built infrastructure services. Similar such laws are present in united kingdom Members states of European Union Australia and Canada. But the laws are little weak in Asian countries. Japan, UAE and Korea are some exceptions. Built infrastructure of all the academic institutions also comes under these laws and regulations.


5.2  Laws governing on web services: 

     Indian laws do not cover accessibility of digital services accessibility as the laws are older. Whereas international laws like UNCRPD addresses web services accessibility. Section 508 of US rehabilitation act is one of the strongest regulations that makes web services accessibility compulsory. It also has penalties for non compliance. Disability discrimination act of UK and Australia also covers web services accessibility similar to US act. Several developed countries like Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Singapore etc has their laws on web services accessibility. World Wide Web consortium W3c has given Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) especially for web accessibility which is widely used in more than 100 countries. These guidelines are specific and comprehensive for web services. Government of India has also issued guidelines for web accessibility (GIGW) similar to WCAG. Several developed countries also have parallel guidelines. Several corporate organizations like Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe Corporation, Google Corporation, Hewlett-Packard (HP) has their own accessibility standards for their products and services. Almost all these regulations are applicable for academic web services accessibility.



5.3   Accessibility of academic course content: 

     Web and digital accessibility regulations are also applicable to course content accessibility. However accessibility of physical course content such as tactile graphics 3rd models, training equipment, Laboratory equipment, special assistive gadgets etc. are not covered in any of the laws and regulations. Also best practices documents are not available. Teachers and learning facilities are providing course content in their own ways which some time difficult for students with disabilities. Need is realized to have regulation for course content accessibility.



6.      Implementation and assurance of academic accessibility:



Several laws, standards, guidelines, policies, mandates and directives are available which ensures accessibility of academic services in India. But the implementation is negligible at ground level in academic institutions. Faculties, staff, students and researchers with disabilities face lot of challenges due to inaccessible academic services right from kindergarten to tertiary education. Mumbai high court also ordered through a judgment in November 2014 to all educational institutions in India to make their programs, services and activities accessible and barrier free for all including persons with disabilities up to end of the year 2015. But academic organizations are ignoring such orders as it has no penalties. Persons with disabilities are not united to create pressure group and push accessibility in academic institutions. Several academic institutions are really wish to make their premises accessible for every one including persons with disabilities but they are unaware about the laws and regulations and the accessibility provisions. Inline to the persons with disabilities act, UGC introduced schemes for development of facilities for persons with disabilities in colleges and universities from 1998 in IX 5 year education plan. This provision is being continued in XII plan also. But its actual implementation in academic institutions is not clearly known. Several schemes such as teacher preparation for special education (TPSE), access to infra-structure, etc. are not yet implemented in any of the universities in India. The main reason is number of schemes and number of accessibility standards and regulations for different services.none of the Indian academic institution has implemented any of these guidelines in their campuses due to variety of reasons such as lack of awareness, lack of proper method for its implementation and difficulty in addressing multiple compliance for specific type of infrastructure and services etc.


[Judgment of Mumbai high court dated on 15/11/2014]


 6.1 Resource center for persons with disabilities: 

UGC Has introduced scheme higher education persons with special need which makes organizations mandatory to set up resource center for persons with disabilities which acts as disability support service to the students and staff with disabilities of the academic institutions. The unit addresses all the accessibility related matters of the academic institutions. The unit provides consultation about every disability related matters of the institution and guide academic administrators, faculties, staffs, students and persons with disabilities. The unit also spread awareness about how persons with disabilities learn, read and write, complete their academic assignments etc. All research and development related activities are also carried out under the disability support unit. The unit provides assistive technologies and special gadgets to students with disabilities and its training. Thus the unit is responsible for implementation of accessibility in the academic institutions. Such units are available in some large academic institutions in India. And it is available in almost all the academic institutions in developed countries with train human resource.



6.2 Institutional policies for academic accessibility: 

large academic institutions have policy for all the matters related to persons with disabilities are addressed in the policy document of the institution. The institution commit to provide accessible and barrier free environment to the students, researchers, staff and faculties with disabilities. Such policies are present in the academic institutions in the developed countries that state all the norms and procedures about disability support service and assurance of barrier free environment in the academic campus.



6.3 Case studies of accessibility implementation in academic institutions in world:

Delhi university (DU) has support service unit and clear policy for persons with disabilities however it lack procedures for provision of accessible academics to the students with disabilities. Some universities like JNU, SPPU, Mumbai University, IIM Bangalore, TISS etc has functional disability support service units in their campuses. But none of Indian universities provide barrier free education to the students with disabilities. North Maharashtra University has its built infrastructure accessible for some type of students with disabilities. They have ramps and elevators installed in their campuses. Pune university disability support service unit and Xavier’s resource center for visually challenged are the best among all that conduct research in the area of accessibility of academic services. University of California Santiago University of Texas at Olsten, University of Illinois Urbana Campaign, UTA state university, Purdue university, Indiana university at Bloomington USA, university of leads UK has very good disability support service. They provide barrier free schooling to their students with disabilities. All these institutions have excellent policy document with clear procedure for accessibility practices.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Disability work force management and accessibility


Management of disability workforce is a big challenge in government, non government and corporate organization due to lack of awareness about  working stile of individuals with disabilities, inaccessibility at workplace  and unskilled human resource with disabilities. Government organizations are hiring persons with disabilities on large scale not considering their potential and capabilities but to fill their backlog of reservation which is the reason that Employees with disabilities do not get suitable job and duties. It seems that most of the Corporate organizations are also willing to hire persons with disabilities to showcase that they are equal opportunity employer. Several organizations really wish to make themselves as an equal opportunity employer. But they don’t have proper approach and strategy for retention of disability work force. Employers are hardly able to understand requirement of employees with disabilities and follow best practices for disability work force management.

This extended abstract presents an accessibility model for disability work force management in an effective way as a solution for the problem. It is the outcome of the author experience in the area of accessibility and assistive technology training in last 8 years.

It is a five steps implementation model that provide sequential and systematic points for hiring and retention of disability work force.

1.        Set up diversity and inclusion unit: 

      Diversity and inclusion unit shall be set up in the organization which will be responsible for addressing all the matter related to disability work force such as accessibility of workplace, procurement of assistive technologies, training and sensitization to staff about employees with disabilities, accessible recruitment, orientation, training, retention etc. It shall have representatives from board of directors, VP HR, a person with disabilities from middle level management and a technical person from middle level management along with a small team of HR and web accessibility. Each organization should have clear policy and procedures for disability workforce management which will be monitored by diversity and inclusion unit. Small organizations can avail such services from the experts outside of the organization.

2.       Make the workplace accessible:

Workplace accessibility is the crucial part of retention of employees with disabilities and their productivity. Therefore, It is essential for organizations to ensure accessibility at workplace before starting recruitment. All the infrastructure including digital and built infrastructure should be made accessibility compliant as per appropriate standards and regulations. services like web portal, web mail services, human resource management system, inventory management system, customer relationship management system, sales and distribution system etc should be made accessibility compliant. Built infrastructure such as building corridors, restrooms, staircases, furniture, parking, cafeteria and recreational facilities etc should be made accessibility compliant as per appropriate standards and regulations. Appropriate assistive technologies should be made available to the employees with disabilities to access the systems.

Accessible workplace ensures productivity of employees with disabilities and organizations can use their full potential and capability.

3.       Accessible recruitment planning:

Before starting recruitment, organizations must ensure accessibility compliance at workplace. Experts in disability matter should be deployed for job identification. These experts will analyse various available portfolios in the organizations and segregate them with the consideration of specific disabilities. All the recruitment activities like job advertisement, recruitment place, aptitude test, group discussion and personal interviews, communication of results and offer letters should be made accessibility compliant with the consideration of appropriate accessibility standards and regulations.

4.       Retention planning:

After accessible recruitment, the activities like job orientation, training and work culture should be made accessible. Appropriate assistive technologies shall also be provided to the employees with disabilities by understanding their need. All the peer staff of the employees with disabilities in the organization should be sensitize about persons with disabilities and their specific need so that all the people in the organizations will be aware of challenges of persons with disabilities and they will help include them all the activities. Employees with disabilities will have perfect inclusion in the entire work force and their subordinates will also be get motivated by them. Diversity and inclusion unit of the organization shall provide concern support service and consultation about identification of specific need of employees with disabilities, procurement of assistive technologies, assistive technology training and sensitization in all the employees in the organization.

5.       Budget and control:

Understanding  business case of equal opportunity employment, Appropriate budget should be allocated for accessibility implementation and retention of employees with disabilities at organizational level. This investment for accessibility compliance and equal opportunity employment be helpful for the organization in long run growth. and On bench employees can be engaged for creation of accessible work culture. Job extension of interested employees can also be done for ensuring accessibility compliance.

Conclusion:

A comprehensive model in the form of step by step procedure for disability workforce management in the entire setting of the organization is developed from personal user and research experience that can be referred by any government or corporate organization. It is applicable for organization of any size and type.

Achieving digital accessibility in India, an implementation model


         accessibility of Information and communications systems in India is critical issue not only for persons with disabilities but also all others. Persons with disabilities face several challenges in accessing e-governance services, commercial portals, Banking services, academic services and other online services as all information is being transferred on web and mobile devices. India has ratified the United nations conventions on rights of persons with disabilities in 2007 which recognizes digital accessibility a basic human rights. Still  persons with disabilities are struggling to access essential online services. In order to make all the services accessible specially for  persons with disabilities, Government of India is launching nationwide Campaign named accessible India campaign which covers accessibility of built environment, accessibility  of transportation services and accessibility of information and communication systems. Information and communication or Digital services accessibility is one of the crucial components of the campaign.

This extended abstract presents a comprehensive    model that provides a procedure of complete execution of accessibility standards and regulations in India at all the levels in a systematic way which can be refer by concerned authorities to achieve the objective of one of the components of the campaign.   

Following points are the step by steps measures that can be taken to remove digital accessibility barriers in India by implementing accessibility standards and regulations.

1.       Constitute the committee:

A committee with the representation of all the stakeholders such as government officials, scientists and academicians, Corporate professionals, social entrepreneurs and activists preferably  persons with disabilities who have proven track record in ICT accessibility shall be appointed and appropriate responsibility shall be given to them. This committee will execute the entire accessibility implementation.

2.       Setting up a goal:

Sector wise accessibility Requirement shall be done for various services and appropriate accessibility standard or regulations with specific priority levels shall be adopted for implementation. Short term and long term goal shall be set up for adapting different priority levels of the standards and regulations in phases. Essential services in each sector and each state shall be given priority followed by other services. Accessibility Implementation should be  planned uniformly in various geographical areas in stipulated  time line for each projects.

3.       Building implementation channel:


Identify partners from government organizations, Academic and research institutions, corporate and non-government organizations and individual consultants who have proven track record of handling accessibility implementation projects. Assign them responsibility of accessibility implementation as way appropriate. These shall be the organizations with which access audit, accessibility awareness and training, accessibility implementation etc will be carry out.

4.       Generate awareness:


Structured awareness generation programs in the form of workshops for application developers, Seminars and short talks for policy makers and conferences for researchers shall be designed and conducted with the identified partners in different geographical parts of the country.  Various media  Channels should be used for educating people and awareness generation about digital accessibility through program series.


5.       Strengthen government organizations:


Accessibility lab should be set up in Appropriate government organizations like software development centers and government owned companies, research organizations and academic institutions and recruit web accessibility professionals there. These  labs will insure accessibility of various services from government side. Enhance facilities of accessibility research labs of academic and research institutions already working in the area. These accessibility labs will acts as nodal centers for accessibility implementation and maintenance in government and public sector. Accessibility labs can be set up in Collaboration with corporate organizations working in the area of digital accessibility.

6.       Capacity building:

Short courses on various aspects of digital accessibility should be designed as per requirement and IT professionals should be trained for digital accessibility standards and regulations in the accessibility labs of the recognized nodal centers. Appropriate certification shall be given after accomplishment of the courses. Conceptual level topic on Digital accessibility should be made compulsory in the course curriculum of engineering/technology/management in various academic institutions. Optional or specialization on accessible computing shall be introduced in the relevant academic degree programs.


      7.     Mandate accessibility as essential component of all the developments :

   
   compliance of appropriate accessibility standards and regulations shall be considered in all the                 projects right from the beginning. Accessibility and usability should be factored in all the projects from     the initial design phase till deployment. Accessibility of mobile applications, Desktop applications as         well as accessibility of embedded systems shall also be considered.

8.       Monitoring accessibility compliance:

Recognized nodal accessibility centers should be given responsibility for monitoring and maintenance of accessibility compliance in the organizations as appropriate. Accessibility professionals at the recognized nodal centers will perform periodic accessibility evaluation and insure compliance in the organizations in specific sectors. The organization who fails to comply accessibility standards and regulations shall be penalized as appropriate.

9.       Budget and control:

Appropriate budget should be allocated for digital accessibility implementation. Fund shall also be raised through public private partnership. Appropriate subsidy should be provided to government and non-government organizations, academic institutions and corporate organizations to encourage them adaptation and maintenance of digital accessibility compliance through mutual contribution.


This model is the outcome from the individual research experience of the author in the field of accessibility research and implementation practices who have personally experienced the challenges and difficulties   due to  inaccessible environment in India. The author has individually found out solutions to cope up with inaccessible environment through thousands of trial and errors in every step of his life. This model could be a road map for the implementation of digital accessibility in India.

Conclusion:

A comprehensive model in the form of step by step procedure for implementation of accessibility standards and regulations in the entire digital setting of the country is developed from personal user and research experiences that can be referred by government authorities. The model can be applicable to other developing states.