#TIL: ‘Digital Accessibility’ is a must for ‘Transport Accessibility’

By Apoorv Kulkarni

Technology is deeply integrated in our travel experience encompassing all stages right from planning for a trip to paying for our ride. This ubiquity of technology has helped in improving safety, increasing reliability, and reducing cost of travel. However, many a times, this same technology also creates unintended barriers for many, including Persons with Disabilities. As a result, transportation is no longer ‘accessible’ or usable for them.

Persons with Disabilities regularly use technology — everything from a computer to a smartphone. There are dedicated utilities which help them operate these devices. For instance, an iphone has a utility called Voiceover which reads out the material displayed on the screen to persons living with blindness or low vision. Similarly, Persons with reduced dexterity may use voice commands to interact with phones. Curious? Watch the following videos:

These and other similar utilities/tools are commonly categorised as ‘Assistive Technology’. They are available on various Operating Systems such as IOS, Android, Windows, Mac, etc. These tools facilitate ‘digital accessibility’ or make apps and websites usable for Persons with Disabilities. What’s important to note here is that these assistive technology tools are able to function only if the apps and websites follow certain internationally accepted technical guidelines. The said guidelines are issued by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and are called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

WCAG 2.0 recommends that digital content follow 4 guiding principles:

1. Perceivable: people should be able to clearly perceive content using multiple senses, such as sight, sound, and touch.
2. Operable: users should be able to interact with content using a variety of adaptive devices, including keyboard, mouse, screen reader, etc.
3. Understandable: interaction with web content should be easy for as many people as possible to understand.
4. Robust: content should work well across browsers and platforms, including assistive technologies.

Unfortunately, a lack of awareness about the WCAG guidelines often results in development of apps and websites which can’t be used by Persons with Disabilities. When this happens in the context of transportation, Persons with Disabilities experience barriers throughout the trip chain such as:

1. Inability to independently plan a trip as transport operator’s apps and websites, online timetables, etc. may be inaccessible (unusable with assistive technology);
2. Inability to independently make reservation or book a ride as the booking/requesting mechanism may be inaccessible;
3. Inability to independently pay for the trip because the payment service, such as wallets, may be inaccessible.

So what’s the solution?

1. Make WCAG an integral part of the coursework in various educational and training programs, university courses, etc. Ensure that the students are tested on the theoretical and practical application of WCAG.
2. Include accessibility and compliance with WCAG as key success parameters for any new website or app development as well as maintenance of an existing one.
3. Engage with Persons with Disabilities throughout the product design and development process as well as during the regular maintenance and updating phases so that user needs and pain points are captured accurately.
4. If third party widgets or services are being used, ensure that they also comply with WCAG.
5. Don’t forget to test the websites and apps with actual users with disabilities and fix any issues identified.

By adopting these simple steps, India can ensure that transport services are ‘accessible’ or usable by a wider market including Persons with Disabilities.

Today I learnt (TIL) is a weekly series by OMI that brings you interesting nuggets of information that you didn’t know you needed.