On 10 April, the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens published a notice on its website seeking comments on the draft amendment to the ‘Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2074’. The notice and the draft act are still on the ministry’s website. But the parties concerned for whom 

the law is being made or improved are deprived of the information. Although the document mentions ‘making information accessible’, the published information itself is not accessible.

The notice and draft file are in ‘Preeti Font’ and ‘Image’ formats. ‘Screen reader’ software used by visually impaired people cannot read them. Titles, paragraphs, lists, etc. within the file are not properly tagged. In this case, the screen reader cannot distinguish which part is a title and which is a point. If the user tries to enlarge the letters, translate them, or put them in an assistive tool, it does not work or becomes very cumbersome. The fact that the notification of the amendment to the law on disability rights is not disability-friendly has undermined the government's slogan of digital inclusion. 

'It is ironic that the draft is placed on the website in a way that is not readable by the person for whom the act is being amended,' says Saugat Wagle, coordinator of Sarvodaya Abhiyan, who is also an employee of Nepal Airlines Corporation and has been managing writing assistance for visually impaired students in exams. 'Only after one of our friends made it accessible and posted it on social media, we were able to read what amendments have been made to the law.' According to Saugat, the 'Citizen App', which integrates government services, has also ceased to be accessible to visually impaired iPhone users in the last month. 

The Director General of the department, Mr. Chandra Shah, has described this initiative as a historic step. He had said during a training session held this week that it is the government's duty to make government apps and portals accessible to people with disabilities, even if resources are limited. Saugat says that even putting the content of the website and mobile app in Unicode would be a great relief for them. Due to the lack of digital access, people from disabled students to employees have had a lot of trouble reading the government's constitution and regulations.

Kamal Lamichhane, a senior researcher and author at the University of Tokyo, points out that while most website designers focus only on making the website look good, the software used by blind or visually impaired people cannot understand the content of the website. According to him, even changing the color or using the keyboard can be of great help to people with disabilities.

Professor Lamichhane believes that in the digital age, the development of technology should benefit the most and should be easy for people with disabilities, but this is not the case. 'When creating technology, it should be made useful for everyone from the beginning,' he said. 'Many people try to avoid it by saying that making accessible technology is expensive, but this is a misconception. If it is made accessible from the beginning, it does not cost much. It will cost more to improve the existing structure. This is more a problem of our thinking and behavior than a problem of cost.’ 

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) government has announced to make government websites disability-friendly in its 100-day agenda for governance reforms. Informing about the reform efforts being made by the government, Subash Dhakal, Director of the Department of Information Technology, said that about 55 improvements have been made to make websites accessible. ‘We are making many changes to make the system disability-friendly,’ he said, ‘Although a large amount of resources are required to make all websites completely accessible, basic improvements are currently being made. The improvements have been made in accordance with international standards.’ 

Under the 100-day agenda for governance reforms, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has set a target of making more than 250 government websites disability-friendly within 30 days. The Department of Information Technology has recently organized training and taken an initiative to make government websites inclusive and user-friendly.

Director General of the department, Mr. Chandra Shah, described this initiative as a historic step. He had said during a training session held this week that it is the government's duty to make government apps and portals accessible to people with disabilities, despite limited resources.

The 'Web Content Accessibility Guidelines' or WCAG 2.2 is considered the main international standard for making information technology systems accessible. It has put forward four main principles to make digital content accessible to all. It states that content should be perceptible, operable, understandable and robust. 

According to the standards, there are provisions such as 'alt text' should be placed on images, 'captions' should be provided on videos, the website should be operated only with the help of a keyboard without a mouse, and the color contrast should be clear.

The federation has been advocating for making government websites and applications disability-friendly for a long time, said Devidutta Acharya, president of the National Federation of the Disabled, according to whom the federation has been advocating for making government websites and applications disability-friendly. According to him, an initiative was taken during the time of former Minister Jagdish Kharel to ensure that all government digital content should be accessible. ‘A task force was formed to take it forward and it is positive that it is included in the current 100-day agenda,’ Acharya said, ‘Earlier, employees used to say that this also happens. That is why there has been a delay in implementation. Now the government seems committed.’   The 'Guidelines for the Construction and Management of Government Office Websites, 2078' issued by the government five years ago also makes it mandatory for websites to be accessible to people with disabilities. According to the guidelines, the website should have user-friendly navigation, content should be in Unicode, font size should be increased or decreased, and the website should have a ‘responsive’ design that does not change the layout of the website on any device such as mobile or tablet. According to the standards, ‘alt text’ should be used in images, ‘captions’ should be used in videos, the website should be accessible only with the help of a keyboard without a mouse, and color contrast should be clear. Rule 4 of the guidelines states that the content on the website should be in Nepali (Unicode) and, as far as possible, English and should be available in HTML, Word or PDF as required. 

Currently, an ‘accessibility audit’ of the websites of about eight ministries has been conducted and improvements are being made based on the reports received, said Acharya, the Federation President. He said that the Federation is providing technical support, training to auditors and policy suggestions in this process.

‘In the absence of a disability-friendly digital system, not everyone has access to government information,’ he said, ‘The right to information is a fundamental right. Citizens with disabilities are being deprived of employment opportunities and other government facilities due to lack of information. This is very necessary as the digital system creates an environment where people can receive services from home.’ 

Although the government’s efforts are positive at present, digital inclusion should be made sustainable and institutionalized, Prof. Lamichhane is of the opinion. “There should be a legal provision that any government website that does not meet the WCAG standards should not be approved,” he said. “This will not incur any additional costs and will ensure that accessible technology is developed for all from the very beginning. IT students should be taught about WCAG in college so that every system they build tomorrow will be inclusive by default. Real inclusion does not mean creating something separate for people with disabilities, but rather addressing our needs within a system that is being built for everyone.”