Information and Communications Technology

The importance that Information Technology (IT) plays in people’s lives today cannot be overstated - it is used for facilitating education, disseminating information, supporting creative endeavors of all kinds, as a tool for entertainment and a means of connecting people to each other regardless of distance. While IT is slowly becoming accessible to persons with widely differing economic and educational backgrounds, much remains to be done for persons with disabilities.

The IT Core Group. From left to right sitting: Dr. Sam Taraporevala, Ms. Shivani Gupta and Mr. Javed Abidi. From left to right standing: Ms. Nirmita Narasimhan, Mr. Parag Namdev, Ms. Shilpi Kapoor, Mr. Rahul Gonsalves and Mr. Nilesh Singit. Mr. Dipendra Manocha is not there in the Group Photo as he had left earlier. Mr. Vijay Krishnamani and Dr. S.K. Aggarwal could not attend the meeting.

Baseline Report

The Baseline Report on IT studies the existing IT and Information and Broadcasting Policies and their impact on the lives of people with disabilities and makes basic recommendations for further analysis/discussion.

List of members

• Convenor – Mr. Javed Abidi. Honorary Director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People
• Co-Convenor – Ms. Shilpi Kapoor. Managing Director, BarrierBreak Technologies

Members

• Mr. Dipendra Manocha. Developing Countries Coordinator, DAISY Consortium
• Mr. Nilesh Singit. Founder Member, Disability Research and Design Foundation
• Ms. Nirmita Narasimhan. Programme Manager, Centre for Interrnet & Society
• Dr. Sam Taraporevala. Director, The Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged
• Dr. S.K. Aggarwal. Director (e-infrastructure Division), Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication & Information Tecchnology
• Mr. Vijay Kapoor. National Technology Officer, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd.
• Mr. Zamir Dhale. Advocacy Officer, Sense International (India)

Minutes of Meetings

• Full minutes of the meeting of the IT Core Group held on 5th March, 2009 between 10 am and 1 pm at IDSA, New Delhi.
• Full minutes of the meeting of the IT Core Group held on 23rd June, 2009 between 10 am and 1 pm at IDSA, New Delhi.

Initiatives

Policy on Website Accessibility

As a result of advocacy efforts by NCPEDP, the Government of India announced a Policy on Website Accessibility on the 16th of February, 2009.

Advocacy with NASSCOM

NCPEDP encouraged NASSCOM, the premier trade body and chamber of commerce for India's IT/BPO companies, to adopt and support the adoption of web accessibility guidelines. NASSCOM responded positively, but then inexplicably, chose to remain silent and uncommunicative. No progress was made on the agreed upon targets. After NCPEDP threatened to hold a sit-in protest outside the location of the NASSCOM Leadership Forum, there was a belated reply and promises were again hastily made. However, after that, no work has happened on and NASSCOM remains silent while the disability sector looks askance. The entire NASSCOM story is available here.

Draft National Policy on Electronic Accessibility

National Committee Member and Head of BarrierBreak Technologies, Shilpi Kapoor has authored a draft of The National Policy on Electronic Accessibility .

Related Sections of the UNCRPD

• Article 8 - Awareness-raising
• Article 9 – Accessibility
• Article 21 - Freedom of expression and opinion, and access to information