Million of disabled unaware of million apps, meant for their help
Million of disabled unaware of million apps, meant for their help

According to census 2011, the number of disabled in India was 26 millions, whereas the advocacy groups say the real figure is approximately 150 million.

After the boom of digital India, it is recorded that nearly nine billion mobile-based applications were downloaded last year.

Nirmit Narasimhan, policy director at CIS, said, "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."

A study says that of taxi-hailing apps Meru, Ola and Uber, only Uber was completely accessible to the disabled. The others had mislabeled or unlabeled buttons and graphics.

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.

Among the marketplace apps, Amazon and Snapdeal were the only accessible ones. Myntra and Flipkart had incorrectly labeled 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.

Narasimhan said, "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.

 
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