Accessibility Review: Unique Disability Identity Card (UDID) Portal of Government of India

A while ago, Department of Empowerment of People with Disabilities has launched Swavlamban Card portal to provide disability certificate and Unique Disability ID to persons with disabilities. I have pleased to see there has been a lot of care taken towards ensuring accessibility of the portal. Some of the positive things done on this portal:

  • All elements have sufficient contrast between foreground and background
  • Alternate text is provided for all images
  • Lists are marked up correctly
  • Headings are marked up though they can be improved
  • Play / pause functionality is provided for carousal
  • Associated labels are provided for input fields (except a few)

Here are a few things that needs attention:

  • Combo box to select language does not have associated label; there is no apply button to select language; there is an auto apply provided but this would cause inconvenience to keyboard only users; User would not be able to navigate through available options as page keeps refreshing for every language and focus moves out of the combo box.
  • Search button does not have visible focus indicator
  • When “high contrast” theme is selected, it does not get applied to elements next to carousal (e.g. Apply for disability certificate and UDID card etc.,)
  • “previous, play/pause and next” elements appear and function like buttons but marked up as links
  • There are several links on carousal with screen name “Register now” and these links need to provide better context
  • Content under “Quick access keys” appear like a text content but marked up as links – need to remove hyperlinking.
  • Heading structure can be improved; structure went up to level 5; all level 5 headings can be marked up as level 2 and level 4 as well to level 2.
  • Department of Empowerment of People with Disabilities appears to have linked to a different URL – i.e. http://innovationclustersarchive.nic.in/content/index.php, Department of Empowerment of Persons

This is only a quick review of home page and not the complete assessment. Overall, I think there are some good steps taken and accessibility has kept in mind while building the portal.

Srinivasu Chakravarthula

Srinivasu Chakravarthula is an accessibility evangelist for 12+ years. Accessibility is not just his profession but something that is very close to his heart. Srinivasu believes that technology plays an important role to make lives of people with disabilities independent. Srinivasu is recipient of Yahoo! Ratna and NCPEDP MphasiS Universal Design Award. Srinivasu is Certified Web Accessibility Specialist by International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). Srinivasu is also an individual Professional member of IAAP. Visit his personal website to learn more.

Learn More →

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.