Ministry wants Aarogya Setu app made disabled-friendly-THE HINDU-03-05-2020

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The government’s Aarogya Setu app to track COVID-19 cases was not accessible to persons with disabilities , particularly those with hearing and visual impairment, the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has informed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the app developer, the National Informatics Centre .

“The Aarogya Setu app needs to have a separate section with specific information for persons with hearing impairment with sign language interpretation/close captioning. So far as persons with visual impairment are concerned, provision for audio guide for navigation, audio description of colour used, proper colour contrast etc. need to be incorporated,” the DEPwD wrote, asking the NIC and MeitY to address the concerns. The app was found to be inaccessible, which was a violation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, she said.

On the “Your status”, “COVID updates” and “E-Pass” tabs of the app, the screen reader was not announcing the control type, so users did not know these were interactive tabs, the report said.