155 establishments including central ministries fined for failing to meet digital accessibility standards

NEW DELHI: The Court of the

Chief Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities

has imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 each on nearly 155 establishments for failing to comply with accessibility standards for websites, mobile applications and other digital platforms. These include most central ministries, their departments and several private establishments.
The chief commissioner of persons with disabilities (CCPD) has also warned to impose higher penalties on the establishments that fail the compliance review to be held after Feb 28. The establishments have been asked to deposit the penalty amount in the National fund for Persons with Disabilities.
The CCPD had sought

access audit reports

as stipulated by law from all ministries and wanted to know if ‘access auditors’ had been appointed. The letter sent out by the court to all ministries, departments and CEOs of private establishments shows that only 20 establishments have appointed an access auditor for scrutinising and verifying if the websites, portals and apps comply with accessibility standards that largely aim to enable blind, deaf and deaf-blind persons to access the online mode.
Only six establishments have been able to submit access audit reports. These include the ministry of external affairs, Tata Digital Private Ltd (Tata Neu), Reliance Industries Ltd (Jio set-top box), National Depository Ltd, Pluxee India Private Ltd and Yatra Online Ltd.

Those who have appointed access auditors include ministries of labour, environment and forest, urban affairs, information and broadcasting, development of north-east region and department of economic affairs of the ministry of finance and department of communication of Reserve Bank of India.
Some of those on this long list of establishments that have failed to comply with the CCPD’s directions include various departments of the ministries like home affairs, defence, finance, health, agriculture, railways, road, transport and highways, communications, commerce and industries, consumer affairs, food and public distribution, women and child development, rural development, tribal affairs and even Niti Aayog and National Informatics Centre.
The court in its communication highlights that on Jan 28 a review of the compliance of directions issued during the previous hearing on Aug 7 last year was done.
Dissatisfied with the level of compliance, the court allowed time till Feb 5 to submit the access audit reports or at least the order of engagement of an access auditor. It also extended the last date for submission of the details sought till Feb 12.
It is learnt that the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities had even notified a list of empanelled auditors in Feb to enable those who are unable to find experts equipped for the job, to take on empanelled auditors from the list. “However, the review showed most organisations still not complying with the directions,” said the CCPD.