8/8/2019 eGov Nov 2010 Log Off

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egov-nov-2010-log-off 1/1

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.