New Delhi: A staggering 74 per cent Orissa government websites pertaining to different departments are still not friendly to the physically challenged who face several hassles while using such platforms.
A close analysis of all the 38 state government departmental websites by Orissa POST reveals that merely 10 state government department websites offer the physically challenged users some tools for better access to their contents and services.
These 10 disabled-friendly websites have been assisting their users through added services like screen readers, text magnifier, differential optimised colour option among others which the remaining 28 websites from the state fail to facilitate.
Disability activists opine that such services are of paramount importance to bridge the digital divide for the physically challenged. They claim that services like screen reader, text magnifier and optimised website colour tools aid persons with blindness and low vision to access them on their own as their absence makes them dependable on others for digital information.
“Such tools are very crucial for people with low vision while accessing the websites, absence of which can really mar their eagerness and need of them to access the government services. Many a times due to this, they are deprived of vital information and services,” said Ram Kishor Sharma, assistant director, Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for the Handicapped, Bhubaneswar.
He added, “In every state, there should be an expert authority to scrutinise all government websites to ensure they are disabled-friendly. A monitoring mechanism is needed.”
Cyber experts believe that making websites disabled-friendly does not require much investment. “Even with small investments, developers can make it disabled-friendly by adding these simple tools, a few of which could also be done free of cost,” said Dinesh Mohanty, a cyber expert from the city.
Mohanty said that most Orissa government websites are not updated regularly. “Most of these websites are working on HTML 4 version while now HTML 5 is available, which makes these websites non-compatible to devices like mobiles, tabs, etc which could affect their accessibility by the physically challenged.” he added.
The non-compliance to make websites disabled-friendly goes against the government’s decision to make all state government websites disabled-friendly, announced in 2014.
However, the plan is likely to get impetus with the Centre planning to make 50 per cent of all the central and state government websites disabled-friendly by March 2017 under the Accessible India Mission, which is currently in the process of auditing these websites.
Manish Kumar
Post News Network