Accessibility

This platform is built to be usable by everyone — including staff, house mothers and co-workers with low vision, hearing loss, limited hand movement, or difficulty reading.

Standards we build to

• WCAG 2.2 Level AA (W3C Recommendation, October 2023; also published as ISO/IEC 40500)
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 (India), Sections 40–46, and IS 17802, the Indian Standard for accessibility of ICT products and services
• GIGW 3.0, the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites — relevant because this platform operates under state government partnerships
• EN 301 549 for procurement conformance
• W3C COGA guidance, Making Content Usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities — the most important document for our actual audience

What we have done

• Audio-first delivery. Every screen has recorded voiceover in Hindi and English. On-screen text is keywords only; the meaning is carried by the voice. A learner who reads slowly is not disadvantaged.
• Transcripts and captions for all audio and video, in both languages.
• Adjustable display — three text sizes, high-contrast and dark themes, and a wide text-spacing mode using the WCAG 1.4.12 values. Settings are saved for a year and survive logout.
• Full keyboard operation with a visible focus indicator on every control, and skip links to the main content and to the settings panel.
• Touch targets of 56 pixels, well above the 24 pixel minimum of WCAG 2.5.8.
• No dragging is ever required. Every sorting and slider interaction has a tap or click alternative (WCAG 2.5.7).
• Accessible sign-in — a show-password control, and sign-in by phone number or email, so no one has to reproduce something from memory (WCAG 3.3.8).
• Errors explained in plain language, listed in a summary at the top of the page and linked to the field that needs fixing.
• No autoplay and no unexpected movement. Motion can be switched off, and we honour the operating system's reduced-motion setting.
• Pinch-zoom is never blocked. The page reflows to 400% at 320 pixels wide without horizontal scrolling.
• No time limits. Tests may be retaken without limit and courses stay open indefinitely.
• Language changes are marked up, so a screen reader pronounces English inside a Hindi page correctly.
• Works without JavaScript. Lessons, sign-in, tests and the settings panel all function with scripting disabled.

Known limitations

• Indian Sign Language interpretation is not yet provided for video content. It is planned for the Level 1 scenario videos.
• Audio description of purely visual video sequences is not yet recorded; the current videos are narrated throughout, which covers most of the need.
• Some voiceover is still being produced. Screens without audio show their full text until the recording is loaded.

Testing

Automated tools detect only around a third of accessibility problems, so we test manually with keyboard-only operation, with NVDA and with TalkBack, and at 400% zoom. Before wider rollout we will run sessions with house mothers and co-workers who have low vision or low literacy, because the people this platform is for are the only reliable test of whether it works.

Feedback

Tell your village co-ordinator, or write to us. We aim to respond within fifteen working days and to fix confirmed barriers.