Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its recommendations on ICT for persons with disabilities.
Main recommendations
India should form a steering committee under aegis of Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities with members from DoT, MIB, MeitY, Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Ministry of Finance.
India should adopt measures suggested by ITU to address the ICT challenges for Persons with disabilities (PwDs).
India Government should mandate the device manufacturers / importers not to curtail the accessibility features available in popular operating systems in any manner from their devices manufactured or imported in India.
Telecom service providers (TSPs) should identify existing mobile / landline numbers of their customers who are eligible to be classified under PwD. There should be provision in the Customer Acquisition Form (CAF) for registering new customers as PwD. All such numbers should be assigned a special category.
TSPs, MSOs and DTH operators should have a special desk in their Call Centres / Customer support centres. Customer support centres should receive calls from PwDs using assistive technologies.
India should make provision for a special desk in each of the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) to accept the calls/SMSs/social media calls/SMSs from PwDs and provide them immediate assistance. This desk should have a relay center dedicated to requests coming from deaf and speech-impaired end-users. A call received from such numbers should be routed to the dedicated desk so that PwDs in emergency can be provided immediate assistance.
TSPs, MSOs/DTH and PSAP operators should ensure that the executives that deal with PwD customers have been given sensitivity training to understand and deal with the issues raised by PwDs.
DoT and MIB may instruct TSPs and DTH/MSOs to conduct frequent awareness campaigns regarding issues of accessibility, design, affordability and information pertaining to assistive products available to PwDs and the various government policies/schemes pertaining to accessible ICT that can be availed by PwDs.
Mobile manufacturer who produces 5 or more models of mobile handsets should provide at least one mobile handset satisfying the accessibility criteria for PwDs. This may be achieved by the end of 2020.
TV set top box manufacturers or importer should make/import at least one model in different variants of set top boxes in accessible format by 2020.
TRAI has also recommended additional PwD-friendly features for such phones and STBs.
India Government should create and maintain a database of devices and ancillary equipment which satisfy the accessibility standards for ICT for PwDs. This should be available on Govt websites in accessible format.
