Based on my limited interaction with NIC and other Government Ministries/ Departments under the Central Government's perview mainly dealing with commercial aspects, I understand that unless explicit instructions are given, accessibility is not imbedded by default. Cost, time and effort are largely the reasons.
So ideally speaking: 1. Make sure that irrespective of the commercials, tenders and other considerations, no product goes out which does not have at least the very basic accessibility standards. I am not getting in the argument of what is basic and what is not. That can be evolved as time and technology demands. 2. Regarding the problem of putting the scanned copy containing the signature of the authorized officials, a low cost and good workable solution is to use digital signature. If an analysis is done for the documents which are in the draft stage, they are drafted using Microsoft Word, and even at times the PDF is made from those documents. So, the content accessibility should not be that big challenge (regional content is an exception here, for which Unicode is to be preferred). 3. Provide us a mechanism where the genuine small concerns regarding particular websites can be raised, and for making those minor amendments, N.I.C. should have the authority to amend the source code without instructions from the particular department (a term to that effect can be included in the contract). There exists an email address for the web guidelines, but I wonder if that is even opened now a days. India E-post Office is a good example. The very front page has a flash button which has to be clicked in order to continue. Rest of the site is manageable. If that one problem is solved (which NIC assured me to solve in its next version and I am talking about 2012 or so), the rest can be used. For the time-being, this much should be good to start. Would appreciate an update post the meeting. Regards, -- Amar Jain. Website: www.amarjain.com Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
