Economic and Legal Aspects

Hello all, welcome back to our course on digital accessibility. And today we will discuss about some economic and legal aspects of accessibility and related issues. So while digital accessibility is kind of an in significant untapped economic market and it has a competitive advantage and we need to yet kind of understand uh the economic um uh advantage that one can get uh if you want to enter into this niche because it's majorly not explored particularly in uh countries where the compliance and mandates are still coming around. It is uh still a lot there's a a lot of scope. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. So especially if you are thinking of possible um problem areas for you to start a new company or if you're of course looking at a career move. This kind of a topic where you can build your startup or where you can um kind of add that accessibility advantage to your resume is definitely going to help you in the career and give you a competitive advantage in terms of the economic aspects of it and for companies as well. It definitely brings in that value because as uh mentioned earlier it is largely untapped and there are lot of open-ended problems which we have discussed in the previous sessions um which remain unanswered and there is the technology available today definitely can fulfill those gaps but the uh expertise to even understand empathize with those problems and uh to make the products uh compatible with those problems address those issues in your products you need to understand have that empathy for these gaps and I think something of course you are attending this course to get the same uh ideas and get the same information so that is great um in essence building an inclusive design inclusive digital ecosystem in India is no longer just a social responsibility and it is now a legal mandate in a lot of areas like SEBI has recently mandated we will talk about it in the upcoming slides uh that all banks and related platforms to banking have to be WAC compliant uh and there was a recent um mandate regarding it and we will have a discussion about it uh and it's definitely a sound business decision not just from a compliance perspective but also from the fact that it definitely will enhance and uh enlarging your user base and hence increase profitability margins. Just employing inclusive design pr principles in your um product itself enhances usability, enhances user experience even for people who are not uh people with permanent barriers. It definitely increases quality of experience in general and hence the trust the adaptability of those products will definitely see an uptick thus reflecting in your profit margins and your economic aspects of the company. So it's no longer like a utopia saying that yes we want to do something good uh for the society that's why let's do some accessibility work in our company. it's not the case anymore. Uh so let's look at it from a profitability aspect as well and not just a a utopian uh let's do something good for the society aspect. Additionally, the legal framework um is now becoming robust and evolving moving from voluntarily guidelines to mandatory standards backed by the recent Supreme Court judgment. Uh so then this was back in April uh 2025 where there was so we we there was a case where it was mandated and it was the judgment was given by Supreme Court that uh accessibility to digital in infrastructure is no longer uh mayor policy or choice. It has to be there. It's part of a right uh right. So basically it's a human right and it has to be catered to uh so engineers, designers and companies have to now kind of look at it uh in order to embibe it in their product design. So let's dive uh a little bit deeper into the economic aspects and what are the various um things which are related to the economic aspects. So as we mentioned earlier that this is large this is a large market and it is not a very much tabbed market still considered niche in terms of um um you know the features which the companies are building around their digital products in terms of um you know even looking at those gaps particularly. So but it is not a small market. So just to give you some numbers with over um 26.8 million people just in India who have uh disabilities and this is uh the 2011 census. I'm sure the numbers are much higher and we will get to see the re uh more recent numbers in the upcoming census. and a global market of 1.3 billion people, accessible platforms can reach a massive often overlooked customer base. Uh so it definitely is um you know profitable in terms of numbers and in terms of being untapped in terms of revenue generation. businesses lose substantial revenue when potential customers abandon uh inaccessible websites or apps. So basically if it is uh not accessible or even if they were using it they were using it but I think we have discussed about temporary uh or situational disabilities or with age for example they uh they acquire certain disabilities or limitations uh and they eventually even the loyal customers who have been uh you know very loyal to your product or apps uh eventually if they find that they're not able to um interact with the technology in the similar manner. They're not going not getting the same experience uh when they have some temporary disability or they have some acquired uh um you know barriers because of age or any other situational aspect. Uh so they tend to abandon the product because of inaccessible features. And there was a study which found out that um 71% of customers with disability will leave an inaccessible website and um because it's not accessible they are not able to garner any information from it. Uh thus creating uh accessible platforms will help retain these customers and thus increase market share. So basically we're losing out on people who want to use your product but there are some because of all of these accessibility issues. They're not able to use it. So why not make the product accessible to them so that they are able to use and hence they you know you will see an uptick in your uh revenue. Then cost savings. So inaccessible design increases operational and support costs. So if the design the core model the core product itself doesn't have a lot of accessibility features people may tend to either you know either this one the they abandon the technology or if they don't have a good alternative they might turn to your support system a lot more. they may call your support bases a lot more uh and you know the operational costs of those support teams is much higher than actually fixing uh digital features and digital um issues. So basically if they're not able to uh get accessible features they often have to rely on alternative more resource inensive channels like call centers or physical branches where they can go and ask for help uh in order to understand the platform or in order to turn on some accessibility features which are not clearly visible or all of those aspects are there. Then um of course adding accessibility can enhance innovation and brand image uh for your company. So designing for accessibility often leads to broader usability improvements benefiting all users. Right? So I think we have had discussed in this in several sessions uh before this that um you know for example captions not just help uh people who are hard of hearing but also help people who are interacting with the technology in a noisy environment. Thus bringing in the same again the same concept of situational barriers or situational impairments and uh thus uh you know looking at that we cannot ever assume that any user for that matter is capable with all all his or her abilities at all times. Right? So when we design for such users, we are automatically designing the system making it more accessible for people who are permanently uh impaired or who have permanent impairments. And thus this also enhances brand's reputation. It also enhances uh um uh brands trust amongst uh its c customer base. It enhances the experience overall for not just people who are permanently disabled but also people who are uh who may face situational barriers or temporary disabilities. So just to give you a little bit more perspective uh so it's like 1.3 billion people worldwide according to the World Health Organization uh 16% of the global population lives with a disability. It can be physical, it can be sensorial, it can be cognitive uh or it can be um you know some motor disability all of those including so 16% is a very big number. So assuming that uh most of our users are uh you know ablebodied uh it's not really the case and then also we have you know we will we have discussed that even those remaining um uh you know 84% they are not always abled then uh $18 trillion globally spending power. So all of these uh 1.3 billion people worldwide uh they have uh a good spending power. It's it's really an untapped market. So it's not it's a good e economic opportunity as well. Not just for uh companies to make their tailor their pro projects and products to persons with disabilities but also for upand cominging uh uh startups. This is a very interesting niche area where uh people can you know just attempt to start a company and try to solve problems. 70% customers prefer digital banking services and u you know there's there's a large shift in uh per you know personal user choices and preferences over the past decade and people now want to access say banking services or other services online or on digital platforms with a wider um reach of internet with a wider read reach of u uh smartphones, smartphones becoming cheaper by the day. So the technology is now accessible. But is the digital product riding on those technologies or using um uh you know internet bandwidths and all of those things. If that is not accessible then it becomes useless. Right? So and so basically based on these numbers more than 70% people want to use for example digital bank banking services but if the banking app itself is not accessible then it is a very big issue they're not able to do it and also I think we've all we we have we are now seeing a a shift that okay I mean uh maintaining physical branches hiring physical uh you know hiring people on those physical branches is and for people and customers also to go to those physical branches. There's a lot of uh resource intensive uh aspects which can get eliminated if uh everyone is able to switch to uh digital banking services. They're more transparent. They are more reliable. They are more efficient in all ways. Right? So the only aspect which remains unanswered to some extent is um the accessibility. 96% web pages still fail basic accessibility. So this clearly a mismatch where say we are saying a majority customers want to use digital platforms want to use digital products but then here we are saying majority of the websites are failing accessibility compliance guidelines right almost 100% almost all of them are failing accessibility compliance so then this is a very interesting ing good starting point especially for innovators especially for designers, engineers and entrepreneurs who are interested and looking for uh you know possible um aspects where they can start their companies. So I think this is a very uh good problem to start on and we are not saying that accessibility is it's not equal to utopia right so we are not saying uh that you just do it because it's like good for society and all of those things. So the purpose of inclusive design is often to eliminate the barriers and exclusion right so so that the products and services uh could meet diver as many kinds of needs diverse needs as possible rather than actually tailoring it for uh some special use cases or people with special needs we are making it as diverse as possible. So these are the principles. Uh this can be done by using the principles that we have had a discussion about in some earlier sessions. You can refer back to them uh if you wish to in order to understand how we can make uh technologies more inclusive. What are the various aspects of doing it? U rather than just you know thinking about tailoring it to persons with special needs. So it may appear that um um to be like a utopian ideal an incidental charitable or a welfare act but for most part it is not the case and now with you know recent mandates it's actually um you know every person's right to demand accessible content, accessible platforms, accessible services and as companies, as engineers, as designers, as innovators, it is our now part of uh the duty to deliver it to them. So as we discussed in previous slide also for most part the internet internet is inaccessible for people with disabilities. Almost the entire web is inaccessible. Uh and some of the common most common accessibility failures um is are these. So which is like low contrast, missing all text, empty links and buttons, missing form input labels, missing document language. So I think these are some very basic and very common issues. I think in one of the uh sessions we have had a discussion about these as well uh when we were talking about um the automated accessibility uh evaluation tools and the same uh you know common errors came there as well and these can be very easily fixed that is what we've found found out uh so all it needs um is intent for action and then most of uh it would can get resolved. So most companies think that accessibility and inclusion may take up time, effort or additional money. Um to some it's just an alien concept. So the result is an interconnected web created by a few people for a few people like them or you know just like an abled set of people so mostly young urban uh upper class abled uh English speaking economically well off so uh or cisgendered male right so I mean that is the most common uh um you user base which they are making it for. So now internet companies are finally turning a corner in terms of inclusive design although very slowly uh but some of them are leading the change u Microsoft, Google and Apple being uh one of them. Some examples transcription and captioning in PowerPoint and automatically suggesting all text for images. So in every image there is an option a dialogue box where you have to fill uh the all text auto assistance in maps like Google maps. So it is uh it is telling you take a right take a left or take a slight right and all of those things which is um almost very helpful if particularly you're unable to see then there is iOS assistive touch where there is like a kind of a magnifying glass on your screen so all of these and of course there are many more such features which you can you might be coming across uh in your dayto Today engagement with such technologies which are popular ones and the reason why they are so popular and now maybe you are able to understand is that they are able to cater to a wider set of audience with um all of these uh inclusive design um aspects and thus uh we in our work should also try to do the same. Then there is also some aspects of social inclusion where you know now some companies are allowing people to pick MX as a genderneutral honorific so it's not Mr. miss or rather just MX right um so this is an example from United Airlines so some more aspects of um the economic benefit so inclusion ends up making companies more money uh increase innovation via the diversity of thought and experience increases productivity um so when you serve for the underserved user First uh you create a product that is much better for everyone to use and there is um some some are very common examples that we might be seeing today is autocorrect or autofill. So the um example is that adaptics um adaptex is uh was developed by founder Sanjay Patel over a decade ago. uh to help his brother interact with a keyboard on a smartphone which is like a Blackberry kind of a with like this kind of a keyboard uh with one hand after he lost an arm on a road accident. So you might have noticed that uh it is very difficult to type with just one hand if you don't have uh the other one on the keyboard. So um then he developed this algorithm this program where he um incorporated it in the keyboard itself uh where he could type and some of the initial letters and the algorithm would be able to predict or autocomplete those uh texts. So it was some early uh machine learning algorithms which were built and later Microsoft, Apple, Google, everyone developed this features as part of their default keyboards and now we it's some it's a feature which we cannot even imagine our interfaces without right so uh a lot of such inclusive designs which were initially made for persons who are permanently impaired have made their way into mainstream team interaction design and thus making uh usability more um um you know their products more usable for um everyone right because uh even a there may be situations where a lot of times we only are able to use our one hand and our other hand is occupied somewhere. So maybe one of the common examples that I can think of is uh probably when I am typing um while riding the metro train and I'm holding like a bar with one one hand and with the other I am able to type uh because the algorithm is able to autocomplete. So some of the companies are still stuck in the MVP versus the MLP debate. Um so while MVP means uh I'm sure you all might have heard is minimum viable product of so there's a race basically to get out the MVP uh before everyone else and they in that attempt um you know kind of keep aside the minimum lovable product or which a technology or a product which would be adapted by a large number of users or a wide variety of users is kind of kept aside in that race to make a minimum viable product. And this urgency has resulted in a lot of cluttered and confusing apps that exclude um some groups of users. So user satisfaction should be looked as one of the demands or needs itself while designing the product. So when you're when you're framing your product brief satisfaction or experience should be one of the topmost uh aspects where we are looking at. So disappointed customers who are losing trust in your company uh or gaining you know more uh trust in the competitors is is an economic loss right. So why there's a need to conceptualize an inclusive solution. So in terms of again we are again looking at some of the other uh economic aspects. So it is far more costly to retrofit an inclusive design. So it is important to start in the beginning and at the conceptual stage itself conceptualize an inclusive solution rather than uh you know be bound by u the the deadlines or uh you know the MVP uh definition and give out um a non-inclusive product design. So answering some of the key questions at the conceptualization itself will help um you know coming up with inclusive solutions. So for example, how similar or different are the people using this to me? Uh this would also help you in uh getting rid of personal biases. What other ways could people use this? So what are the different ways the people would adapt if it is not being used in the intended manner? So will people who buy a new phone be able to use the app without any help? So is the transition easy from one product to another product? If they change the brand of the phone or the interface like the basic OS changes still would my um um product be still be useful or not? I think uh or whether they'll be able to set it up again on board the system once again without anybody's help or not. Will our products support or harm vulnerable groups? This is one of the most important questions and if you ask it then probably you'll be able to uh get some answers in the very uh con in initial stages that is conceptualization itself. This is something which we have discussed earlier uh and because it is coming up again and again in this uh discussion of economic aspects I thought maybe it's a good time to kind of retouch upon it. Uh so we have had a discussion about something called permanent temporary and situational biases. Um we have talked something uh about uh something called permanent temporary and situational uh impairments or disabilities. So somebody who may have just one arm uh may have a permanent uh impairment, somebody who has an arm injury may have uh a temporary uh impairment of the similar kind. And there's somebody who's holding something somebody or some instrument or something in their one hand uh baby or somebody then it is a situational uh impairment. And in all three of these cases uh the user is only able to use one hand for any of the interaction that they are going to use. So again coming back to our example of adaptex and autocorrect or typing with one um hand on your phone. So does this the uh does the keyboard uh allow you to do it with ease or not uh is something that if you are able to answer you are helping not just this person but also all of these persons as well. And if you try to understand maybe when we think about disability we only when we only think about the permanent disabled people then their numbers are although the numbers are not as small but still their numbers are much lower right as compared to people who are so-called ablebodied but uh if we also include the temporary or the situational uh people there is a much much bigger user base which benefits from all the inclusive changes all the various aspects of accessibility that one may be incorporating to their design in order to address the permanent access permanent impairment itself. So it so for even if we say 1.3 billion people it is much larger um number of people who will benefit from inclusive design or accessibility features in your product. So that kind of justifies the economic costs put towards those um accessibility expertise bringing them in your team or in your company and thus it's really not like just a charitable work but it's also has a lot of economic potential which is really untapped and can benefit the company in several ways possible. So inclusive designs can benefit a much larger number of people and of course that would help you not just in building the profitability numbers but also trust among the customers. So let us now discuss some of the legal aspects of uh accessibility. So uh earlier this uh year in 2025 uh in a landmark judgment where Pragya Prasoon uh and uh others versus Union of India and Amar Jan versus Union of India and others. The Supreme Court declared that digital access is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right of to life and liberty under section 21 under section article 21 of the Indian constitution. And the does this uh um judgment actually makes digital inclusion a constitutional necessity rather than just a policy choice. And recently in this year itself there has been some more very integral um you know recent events. So of course one is uh the rights of persons with disabilities act of 2016. This has been discussed at length in one of the previous sessions of this course. Uh you can go back to that one to get details about about uh the specific details of the RPWD act of 2016. So I'll just summarize it right here. So RPWD act of 2016 is the principle legislation mandating that all government and private sector providers have to ensure that their services are accessible. uh under section 42 specifically addresses uh access to information and communication or ICT technologies under which most of our digital interfaces kind of come. So and then they have I think we've already discussed quite a lot about the WCAG guidelines or the GIGW guidelines which is the guidelines for Indian government websites. Um and um the law requires adherence to national as well as international standards. So this is WAG is the international standard and GIW is the national standard. Then there is also the BIS standard Indian standards on accessibility requirements for ICT products. This also we have discussed in one of the previous sessions. This is also a legally enforcable standard developed by the BIS which is Bureau of Indian Standard. So how that is now getting enforced? So all of these standards now are in place and the uh Supreme Court has said that yes it is part of um the fundamental right to life and liberty right that you have to have digital access right digital access is now a part of fundamental right just to kind of make you understand and then all of these uh benchmarks are also already in place after this the enforcement ment and the penalties come into picture. Whenever we talk about any law or mandate you a it tells you that why what it falls under is part of the constitution. Then there are guidelines or um uh you know standards up to which you know this any system should live up to and what happens if they are not doing it. So regulatory bodies like the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities Exchange Bank Board of India which is SEBI have issued directives mandating accessibility for all regulated entities. That means all banks of our country have to ensure uh that their digital platforms um and their digital products be the app or the net banking website all of this are compliant with the W CAG or GIW otherwise there can be uh penalties non-compliance can uh organization can face fines up to five lakh attack or other legal consequences and the chief there is a chief commissioner for persons with disabilities uh uh CCPD has begun enforcing these standards and imposing penalties for the same. So many countries like other other than India like the US and Canada have mandated incorporating WAG uh in their websites and apps. In the UK a website has to either meet the minimum criteria uh for accessibility uh and inclusion to be even allowed to go live. So it's not even their call even a private entity their call to even publish the website without getting uh meeting the minimum criteria and getting a accessibility clearance. So it has been a mandate for government websites. Now it is also a mandate for banking platforms which covers both government as well as private sector. Failure to comply can invite lawsuits and fines now in India as well. Um and now it is three times more expensive as well as time consuming to deal with the aftermath of non-compliance and there have been very serious lawsuits against companies big companies like Dominoes and Target etc. Uh so there are then accessibility this gives ways way to uh expertise requirement for making products and websites accessible. So as we were discussing about possible um consultancy and possible accessibility uh consultancy uh startup opportunities similarly there is a there's a company called Stark which makes software uh accessible which helps companies to make their software accessible or website or apps everything accessible. You can check their website out uh at this link. So but while we talking about compliance and the legal aspects WCAG which is the main benchmark is not comprehensive itself. So it only lists some basic accessibility standards although it is still a evolving document. Uh there are criteria which are being added very um every now and then the the document keeps getting updated. Uh the the techniques etc which we saw in the previous session which are there in the uh WAG listing they keep getting updated with uh all of these uh new platforms uh which are used for making websites and applications. They help in making digital tools um accessible but you know many of times even if they say that they are compliant uh they may not be really accessible right so a live audio only platform has no legal obligation under WAC to provide audio captioning uh WAC 2.0 O to provide audio captioning for the hearing impaired. Maybe you can have an assignment now to go and check whether the recent W CAG guidelines of 2.2 has this criteria or not. Then there are several government websites like um you know the coin app or even the IRCTC app which is majorly designed in uh English language. So they are by default seem to exclude uh the rural population the um people who do not understand English. So there's definite language barrier. There is also uh maybe technologically challenged people but um you know the the applications kind of seem to overlook those criteria. So to summarize, we had a discussion about um the economic benefits of inclusive design. Uh the legal aspects and compliance related aspects and what are the um things which are happening in India re in the recent times and how the um the compliance mandates have evolved recently. And uh there is also um uh you know mandates around conducting accessibility audits and you know via third party company. So maybe if required you can suggest the same at your own organization that let us get hire an accessibility auditor or an accessibility uh expert um organization in order to do a check of your uh digital products and let you and your team know that what are what are the various compliance issues that the product has so that you can be proactive in making your company and making your products inclusive before uh you know the mandates around all products hit the floor. So I think that is a very important key takeaway from today's session. Thank you for sticking around uh with our course on digital accessibility. Uh we'll see you again in the next session.