GAAD and Covid-19

The covid-19 pandemic has forced us to change our lifestyle in an unprecedented manner, to survive and safeguard ourselves from the onslaught of this deadly Coronavirus. As wisely expressed by a prolific thinker, "We are facing the same storm but we are not in the same boat". 

 

The severity of issues faced by people at various dimensions of life differs drastically. This post attempts to throw some light on the pandemic and it's impacts on Persons with Disabilities, in the context of the tenth Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) which is observed on the 20th of May, 2021.

The objective of GAAD is to raise awareness about Accessibility, particularly in the digital ecosystem. Accessibility is a significant component of any civilized society that strives to provide equal opportunities to each one of its citizens and empower them to provide the fullest contribution. Persons with disabilities are the largest invisible minorities of the world. The United Nations statistics report that there are more than 1 billion persons with disabilities across the globe which is 15% of the global population. The physical and psychological problems faced by persons with disabilities are unique and only with an empathetic mindset, one can try understanding it. 

With the onset of the pandemic, people are now getting to know the crippling effect of lockdowns. For persons with disabilities, a significant chunk of their life is already in a kind of partial lockdown due to the non-availability of adequate accessibility mechanisms. On top of this, pandemic-induced complications really come very heavy on the life persons with disabilities.
 

Technology has always been a great enabler particularly for persons with disabilities. The World Wide Web and the associated digital tools have brought in significant positive impacts on the lives of persons with disabilities. However, if these websites and tools are not designed keeping in view of the accessibility requirements then there would be barriers in access for persons with disabilities.
 

For delivering services and communicating information to citizens, Governments across the globe are utilizing the Web platform. Particularly during this pandemic, Internet has turned into the operating system of our life. In this context, it becomes necessary to enhance the accessibility of this great infrastructure.
 

On a positive note, accessibility and its awareness are on the rise, particularly in countries such as ours. In comparison with where we were five years ago, today digital accessibility has really come a long way. However, still, there is scope for improvement, and here are few things that can be done:

• One of the important steps is building skilled human resources for enhancing digital accessibility. To do this, Digital accessibility shall be made as a mainstream subject for students of computer science and associated disciplines.
• Awareness on digital and physical space accessibility shall be made as a topic of discussion for school level students itself. 
• Building knowledge resources on digital accessibility, particularly in Indian languages can also be an important step in boosting the accessibility awareness. 
• Specific to the pandemic, it has to be made absolutely sure that the web platforms providing authentic information and services related to pandemic, are fully accessible, to enable barrier-free access. 

Accessible digital infrastructure is not going to benefit only the persons with disabilities. Fully accessible web resources designed as per the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) would be of great help to everyone. It brings in various other benefits such as better search engine rankings, optimal page load times.

Even a simple accessibility feature such as providing an alternative text for all non-text content shall make the resources better accessible to persons with disabilities. In this pandemic scenario, providing barrier free access to authentic information resources and services shall be of a great help to persons with disabilities.

If you are interested in learning about digital accessibility further, here are some resource links to start with : 

• https://www.opensourceforu.com/2020/03/is-your-website-accessible-and-inclusive/    (My article on Web Accessibility in Open Source For You Magazine)
  
• https://webaim.org/   (Web AIM resource)
  
• https://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/resources/  (GAAD Resources Page)
  

Lets enhance the accessibility of digital ecosystem together. Inclusion is the mantra to win over this pandemic.