Guide for Addressing Barriers to Digital Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities

How can the guide help you?

The Nyaaya Guide for Better Digital Access for the Disabled aims to empower people with disabilities (PwD) to effectively exercise their rights to access digital platforms.

What are the laws being discussed in the guide?

This guide discusses the duties of government agencies, law courts, civil society organizations and private companies to ensure better digital access to the disabled as laid down under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017, and the judgement passed by the Court of Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, in the case of Rahul Bajaj v. The Director, Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd. & Ors.¹ 

Who Is A Person With Disabilities

A person with disability is a person with a long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment, which restricts their full and effective participation in society equally with others.

Who Is A Person With “Benchmark” Disabilities

A person with benchmark disability is someone who has at least 40% of a specified disability.

Specified disabilities include:

1. Physical Disability

Locomotor Disability: Inability to perform activities associated with movement. People with locomotor disability include those with cerebral palsy, dwarfism, muscular dystrophy, acid attack victims, etc.

1. Impairment: A condition of blindness or low vision.
2. Hearing Impairment: Deafness or loss of hearing.
3. Speech and language disability: Permanent disability affecting speech and language.

1. Intellectual Disability

Significant limitations in intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem solving) and adaptive behaviour (everyday social and practical skills) including specific learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder.

1. Mental Illness

Substantial disorder of thinking, mood, perception, orientation or memory that severely impairs judgement, behaviour, capacity to recognise reality or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life. This does not include mental retardation.

Disability caused due to

1. 1. Chronic neurological conditions: Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease
   2. Blood disorders: Haemophilia, Thalassemia, Sickle cell disease

Multiple Disabilities: More than one of the above specified disabilities.

1. Any other disability specified by the Central Government.

Ways In Which A Disabled Person Can Address Barriers To Improve Digital Accessibility       

The five steps listed below may help you contact and collaborate with service providers and companies to make sure that PwDs have equal access to facilities and services they provide. 

1. Send a letter to the concerned service provider to alert them about accessibility issues on their platform and request that they take appropriate remedial actions;
2. If there is no response to the initial letter, you      can again send a reminder letter after 7–10 days;
3. If there is no      response, you      can start      a focused social media campaign to generate greater public consciousness about the problems you      are facing. This will help in persuading the      service provider to consider your      needs carefully and work towards implementing them;
4. You can send a      legal notice, giving the service provider a final opportunity to address the barriers on their platform within a reasonable time, typically no more than 10 days; and
5. You can exercise your rights, if the legal notice is also not paid heed to, in the manner mentioned in this guide below.

Available Legal Remedies 

The Act² provides for the appointment of a Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities at the Central level and State Commissioners for Persons with Disabilities at the State level. Under Rule 38 of RPwD Rules 2017, you can directly write a petition and present the same to the Chief Commissioner either in person/or through a representative/ or through registered post/ or through an email. In the ‘contact information’ section of this Guide, the contact details of each of these bodies are set out. You can write to them using these details.

Section 89 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 also lays out the penalties for violating the provisions of the Act. In the first instance, the penalty is a fine of up to Rs. 10,000. In case of further contraventions, the fine can be between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 5,00,000/-.

How To Avail The Legal Remedies

Who can avail the remedies?

In accordance with Rule 38 of the RPwD Rules 2017, any person with a disability may submit a complaint by mail, hand, or email. The complaint must be accompanied by a copy of the person’s disability certificate and any supporting documentation. Supporting documentation includes a copy of any email correspondence you have had with the service provider. It could also include screenshots/printouts of any social media posts that you have put up on the subject and any evidence of inaccessibility [such as an accessibility audit report]. Typically, an audit report is not necessary.

How can you approach the Chief Commissioner?

You can approach the Chief Commissioner in one of the following ways:

1. Approach the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities     via:                 
   1. Visiting in Person     
   2. Through a Representative     
   3. Through Registered Post at Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India, 5th Floor, NISD Building, Plot No.G-2, Sector-10, Dwarka, New Delhi-110075     
2. Complaint sent by E-mail at ccpd@nic.in. 

What details do you need to provide in the complaint?

1. The name of the complainant, the name of the affected person with disability, complete postal address, contact number, and email, if available.
2. Brief description of the affected person with disability.
3. Nature and percentage of disability.
4. The name of the person(s) and organization(s) against whom the complaint is being made, their address, contact number, and email, so far as they can be ascertained.
5. The facts relating to the complaint.
   1. What happened?
   2. When did the incident happen?
   3. Where did it happen?
   4. What reliefs do you seek?

Documents you need to submit along with the complaint.

You must include the following documents:

1. Documents in support of the allegations contained in the complaint. 
2. A clear and legible copy of the Disability Certificate of the person with disability from a valid authority which would mean government hospitals that are authorized to issue such certificates.

What’s next?

After receipt of your complaint by the Commissioner, they will forward a copy of the complaint to the opposing party named in the complaint. The opposing party is typically given a period of 30 days to file a response. The Complainant is then given 15 days to file their rejoinder [response to the reply]. Then, a hearing is appointed. The Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities tries to dispose of complaints within 3-6 months from the date of filing. If the opposing party or their representative does not show up on the scheduled hearing date, the Commissioner may, in accordance with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Act 2016, take the necessary steps to summon and compel the opposing party’s attendance or decide the complaint ex-parte, i.e., without requiring all of the parties to the dispute to be present.

It should be noted that the Commissioner may on such terms as they deem fit and at any stage of the proceedings, adjourn the hearing of a complaint.

Resources 

Contact Information 

• Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan)

5th Floor, NISD Building, Plot No.G-2, Sector-10, New Delhi-110075

Telephone Number: 011-20892364, 20892275

E-mail: ccpd@nic.in, Website: www.ccdisabilities.nic.in

• Addresses of State/UT’s Commissioners for Persons with Disabilities (as on February 2022)

Checklists 

1. Identify a particular app, website or digital offering [ATM device, point of sale device, washing machine, etc.] that is not disabled friendly     .
2. Find out the company that makes available the given facility or service.
3. Write to Mission Accessibility at missionaccessibility@gmail.com, to raise a grievance.
4. In collaboration with Mission Accessibility, write a letter to the concerned service provider about their offering being inaccessible. Write a follow-up letter after 7-10 days in case there isn’t a positive response to the first letter.
5. If there is no response within 10 days of the second letter, tag the service provider on social media and alert them to your grievance.
6. If there is no response to the same within ten days, work with Mission Accessibility to formulate a legal notice against the service provider.
7. If there is no response to the legal notice within      10-15 days, file a complaint in the office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities or State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.
8. Once you obtain a favourable order, check the facility/service regularly to ascertain if it has become disabled friendly.
9. If the proceedings in the Chief/State Commissioner’s Court do not yield the desired outcome, approach the relevant High Court or Supreme Court of India, in collaboration with Mission Accessibility.
10. If the desired results are obtained i.e. the facility/service becomes accessible, continue to check the facility/service regularly to ensure that it does not again become inaccessible.

This guide was made in collaboration with Mission Accessibility, an NGO that works to make digital offerings more disabled friendly. Their email ID is missionaccessibility@gmail.com.

Sources of Information 

1. Duties and functions of the Chief Commissioners at http://www.ccdisabilities.nic.in/aboutus/our-office.
2. Learn how to register a complaint with the Chief Commissioner at http://www.ccdisabilities.nic.in/Complaints/learn-how-register-complaint.
3. Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. 
4. Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017.
5. Rahul Bajaj v. The Director, Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd. & Ors.¹

1. Rahul Bajaj v. The Director, Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd. [PTPL] & Ors. [2022], 13205/1102/2022 [CCPD] [↩] [↩]
2. Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 [↩]