egov nov 2010 log off
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8/8/2019 eGov Nov 2010 Log Off
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50 egov / www.egovonline.net / November 2010
logoff
www.
indifference.inBoth our government and
corporate Websites have done little
to be disabled friendly
Shubhendu Parth
Managing Editor
eGov
s part o an exercise
o developing param-
eters to evaluate user
riendliness o Web-
sites, I was shocked
to see that not much eort has been made to
ensure inclusion o the dierently-able in the
online space.
Tough the Guidelines or Indian Govern-
ment Websites (GIGW) prepared by National
Inormatics Centre (NIC) do mention thatWeb pages should allow resizing o text without
the use o assistive technology, the 115-point
compliance matrix sheet has nothing to suggest
on how to make Websites user-riendly or the
blind, though it does take care o those with
colour vision deciency and low vision.
It also mentions that while captions should
be provided or all important audio content,
alternative text should be provided or non-text
elements like audio and video clips, images, as
well as multimedia presentation or making
the Website accessible to people with hearingimpairment.
AStrangely, out o 83 nominations that we
received or the India eGov 2.0 Awards or most
user riendly online initiatives rom govern-
ment and public Websites in India, only one
complied with the two basic principles o an
accessible Website.
Te Kerala State I Mission website <http://
www.itmission.kerala.gov.in/> not just allows
resizing o text in ve sizes—largest, large,
medium, smaller and smallest—it also allows
users to change the colour contrast.Tese tools are particularly helpul or people
with poor eyesight. While many o such users
require large text, others can only read smaller
letters or need a highly contrasting colour
scheme like yellow text on a black background.
Also, unlike most o the Indian sites that have
the accessibility option hidden under some
obscure link, or as a ‘+’ sign somewhere above
the global navigational bar, this Website has a
clear link or users to reach out or these options
not just on the home page but across all pages. It
also meets the guideline #95 o the GIGW thatstates that the purpose o each link should be
clear to the user.
Strangely enough, or a country that is home
to the world’s largest number o blind people—
1.5 crore o the 3.7 crore people across the globe
who were blind as per 2007 data—no eort,
whatsoever, has been made to make them part
o online revolution that the country is going
through, particularly in making citizen services
accessible to people anywhere and anytime
through the www interace.
What could be worse than the act that thecountry’s most successul government sector
e-commerce site—www.irctc.co.in—the online
reservation system o Indian Railways, credited
with bringing about a paradigm shif in govern-
ment-to-citizen transactions, cannot be accessed
and used by people with little or no vision.
Interestingly, while the world is gearing to
adopt the Web Content Accessibility Guide-
lines (WCAG) 2.0 the draf o which was
published on October 14 this year, both the
government and public sector organisations in
India are yet to adopt WCAG 1.0 standards ortheir websites.