Most popular apps inaccessible to millions of disabled, says study
Arpita Raj
| TNN | Nov 21, 2016, 06.25 AM IST
(Representative image)
(Representative image)
BENGALURU: Booking cabs, buying food and making
payments online seem like they're just a swipe
and a tap away, but for millions of disabled Indians, these
apps are not designed for them to use.
According to a study conducted by
Centre for Internet and Society
last month, many of the most-commonly used
mobile apps for food delivery, online payments,
grocery shopping and transportation were not accessible to
the visually challenged. The study covered 22 apps.
The 2011 census puts the number of disabled in
the country at 26 million, while advocacy groups
say the real figure is closer to 150 million.Last year,
India recorded nearly nine billion downloads of
mobile-based applications last year.
"The national policy for universal electronic
accessibility says that all IT products and
services should be accessible. However, the government is still
unable to implement it. Several government apps are inaccessible," said
Nirmita Narasimhan,
policy director at CIS. CIS's survey of some key
government mobile based applications like My
Gov, E Pathshala and Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
's official app found them to be severely
lacking. The illiterate, aged and those not
proficient in English would also struggle with the apps, the study
found. The guidelines for government websites
laid out accessibility standards in 2009. The
2013 national policy on universal electronic accessibility
clearly upholds equal rights "ensuring that
accessibility standards and guidelines and
universal design concepts are adopted and adhered to."
However, most commonly-used apps fail to follow
this. All 22 of the apps studied were privately
owned but not all were fully compliant with universal standards.
Of taxi-hailing apps Meru, Ola and Uber, only
Uber was completely accessible to the disabled.
The others had mis-labelled or unlabeled buttons and graphics.
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When it came to food delivery, Zomato was the
best at replicating the user experience for
disabled people. Swiggy and Foodpanda were difficult for new
users, and Fresh menu was completely inaccessible.
Of the marketplace apps, Amazon and
Snapdeal
were the only accessible ones. Myntra and
Flipkart
had incorrectly labelled buttons and
misleading graphic tags, which made them
impossible for the disabled to use. For instance, customers would be
able
to select the product they wanted to buy but had
no way of choosing the quantity, the study said.
Online grocery delivery apps Grofers and Zop Now were
hard for the disabled to use, while Big Basket
was relatively better though pages change during
orders. Online payment portals Paytm, Oxigen and FreeCharge
were relatively accessible, the study found.
"Designers, developers and industries need to
realize that there are more people out there who
use this technology .The market is much bigger and they
should work towards being inclusive," said Narasimhan of CIS.
Albinder Dhinda, co founder of grocery delivery
service Grofers, said their app meets all
accessibility requirements. "However, the disability tools provided
by Google Play Store or the App Store often
don't benefit the user and are hard for them to
use. We are trying to make it better. Things like online payments
won't be accessible to the disabled as those
apps are supported by third party sites, and
don't fall within our settings. We're trying to make it better.We're
three years behind the US, in the playground
they made. It'll be a while before we reach their level," he said.
सादर / With thanks & Regards
राजेश आसॠदानी Rajesh Asudani
सहायक महापॠरबनॠधक AGM
बाजार आसूचना ईकाई MIU
à¤à¤¾à¤°à¤¤à¥€à¤¯ रिजरॠव बैंक Reserve Bank of India
नागपॠर Nagpur
0712 2806369
President
VIBEWA
Co-Moderator
VIB-India
A-pilll = Action coupled with Positivity, Interest, Love, Logic and
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