Accessibility Law in India

If you build websites in India, accessibility is not only good manners. It is part of the law. Government websites have their own detailed guidelines, and private companies that offer services to the public also have duties under the same Act.

In this lesson you will learn the main Indian laws and standards in plain English, see how they connect to the international WCAG standard, and add two small features that Indian government sites are expected to have. This lesson explains the rules for developers; it is not legal advice, so ask a lawyer about a specific case.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (often called the RPwD Act) is Act No. 49 of 2016. The President gave assent on 27 December 2016. It gives effect in India to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which India had ratified. The Act replaced the older Persons with Disabilities Act of 1995 and widened the list of recognised ("specified") disabilities, which now includes low vision, hearing impairment, specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia, autism spectrum disorder, chronic neurological conditions and more.

Three sections matter most for web developers:

Section 46 is the one many developers miss. A private bank, an online shop or an ed-tech platform that serves the public is a "service provider", so its website and app are expected to meet the notified standards. Section 89 also sets fines for breaking the Act or its rules: up to ₹10,000 for a first contravention, and from ₹50,000 up to ₹5 lakh for later ones.

The rules and IS 17802

The Act sets the duty; the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017 set the details. Rule 15 lists the accessibility standards that establishments must follow. For information and communication technology (ICT), an amendment in 2023 made the Bureau of Indian Standards standard IS 17802, "Accessibility for the ICT Products and Services" (Parts 1 and 2) the reference. Part 1 lists the technical requirements and Part 2 covers how conformance is checked. Its web requirements line up closely with WCAG, so if you meet WCAG at level AA you have covered most of what a web page needs.

In November 2024, the Supreme Court of India, in Rajive Raturi v. Union of India, held that the accessibility rules must set a mandatory minimum, not just a goal to work towards, and asked the government to make mandatory rules. In April 2025, in a case about digital KYC for persons with disabilities, the Court linked digital accessibility to the right to life and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution. The rules are being revised after these judgments, so always check the latest version on the website of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) before an audit.

GIGW 3.0 for government websites

GIGW stands for Guidelines for Indian Government Websites and Apps. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) wrote the first version in 2009 and GIGW 2.0 followed in 2019. The current version, GIGW 3.0, released in 2023, was prepared together with MeitY's STQC Directorate and CERT-In. Key points:

• It applies to websites and apps owned by government organisations at every level: central, state, district and local bodies.
• For accessibility it targets WCAG 2.1 Level AA. GIGW 2.0 was based on WCAG 2.0; version 3.0 added the 17 new success criteria from WCAG 2.1, which help users with low vision, cognitive or learning disabilities and mobile users.
• It also covers quality (user experience, content and integration with platforms such as DigiLocker) and a cybersecurity chapter written with CERT-In.
• It is the basis for the STQC Website Quality Certification that government sites are expected to obtain.

If you work for a vendor that builds state or central government portals, your contract will usually require GIGW compliance and STQC certification before launch.

How the standards fit together

WCAG 2.2 builds on 2.1, so a page that meets WCAG 2.2 Level AA also meets WCAG 2.1 Level AA. In this course you will aim for WCAG 2.2 Level AA, which satisfies the web part of the Indian requirements and the most common international expectations.

Two features every Indian site needs

Many Indian websites mix English with Hindi or a regional language. Screen readers choose a voice and pronunciation from the lang attribute. If Hindi text is marked as English, a screen reader may read it with English rules and the user hears nonsense.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Lucknow Municipal Library</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Lucknow Municipal Library</h1>
  <p>The library is open from 9 am to 6 pm, Monday to Saturday.</p>

  <section lang="hi">
    <h2>हिंदी में जानकारी</h2>
    <p>पुस्तकालय सोमवार से शनिवार, सुबह 9 बजे से शाम 6 बजे तक खुला रहता है।</p>
  </section>

  <p><a href="/hi/" lang="hi" hreflang="hi">हिंदी संस्करण</a></p>
</body>
</html>

The page language is English, the Hindi section has lang="hi", and the link to the Hindi version is marked too. WCAG calls these "Language of Page" (level A) and "Language of Parts" (level AA).

The second feature is a clear route to accessibility help. Government sites usually offer a skip link, an accessibility statement and a way to report problems, and private sites should do the same.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Jaipur Water Board</title>
  <style>
    .skip { position: absolute; left: -999px; }
    .skip:focus { left: 8px; top: 8px; background: #fff; padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #0b5cad; }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <a class="skip" href="#main">Skip to main content</a>
  <header>
    <nav aria-label="Main">
      <a href="#">Home</a> | <a href="#">Pay bill</a> | <a href="#">New connection</a>
    </nav>
  </header>
  <main id="main">
    <h1>Pay your water bill</h1>
    <p>Enter your consumer number to see the amount due.</p>
  </main>
  <footer>
    <a href="#">Accessibility statement</a> |
    <a href="#">Report an accessibility problem</a> |
    <a href="#">Help</a>
  </footer>
</body>
</html>

Press Tab once: the skip link appears and jumps past the menu. You will write the full accessibility statement in Writing an Accessibility Statement.

Common mistakes

• Thinking only government sites are covered. Section 46 names private service providers too.
• Quoting old rules. Rules and standards change after court judgments. Check the official DEPwD and GIGW websites each time you start a project.
• Treating a certificate as the end. A site that passed an audit last year can fail after one careless update.
• Forgetting regional language content. Missing lang attributes break pronunciation for screen reader users.

Key points

• The RPwD Act, 2016 (Act No. 49 of 2016) requires accessible information and communication technology.
• Section 46 gives government and private service providers a duty to follow the notified accessibility rules.
• For ICT, the RPwD Rules point to the Indian Standard IS 17802, which closely follows WCAG for web content.
• The Supreme Court has said accessibility rules must be mandatory and has linked digital access to Article 21.
• GIGW 3.0 applies to government websites and apps and targets WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
• Building to WCAG 2.2 Level AA covers the web part of these requirements.

<footer>
  <h2>Accessibility</h2>
  <p>We aim to meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Read our
    <a href="/accessibility">accessibility statement</a>.</p>
  <p>Found a barrier? Email
    <a href="mailto:access@example.in">access@example.in</a>
    and we will reply within 5 working days.</p>
</footer>