Dear All,
2022 was our first year of operation. It was in December, 2021 that we had put out a call for volunteers to the student body at the National Law School, Bangalore. In this year, we began putting our conviction that every disabled person should have equal access to the digital marketplace to work. We: · Secured the first of its kind judgment in India, holding that private service providers are duty-bound to make their digital platforms disabled friendly. · Got registered as a Section 8 company and received our first significant financial donation. · Made meaningful progress in prompting platforms providing vital public services to work towards becoming disabled friendly – platforms which had displayed years of inertia and resistance. · Gave talks at universities ranging from the University of Oxford to NUJS, Calcutta; · Secured our first paid retainership, with a well known delivery app in India. We grappled with profoundly challenging questions about our financial sustainability, avoiding any conflicts of interest and defining our scope of operation. We have only begun scratching the surface of the problem of digital inaccessibility and know that we have a long road ahead. Below is a detailed overview of our work in 2022. If our work appeals to you and if you agree with us that even one day of inaccessibility is one day too many, please consider making a donation. We need your support to be able to continue doing this vitally important work. The details of our bank account are at the foot of this email. *As you are aware, our work consists of 3 strands, what we like to call a 3-legged stool: sensitization, grievance redressal and capacity building.* *Sensitization:* *a. **Public-facing events:* · *I spoke at the Rhodes Tech and Society Forum in London, where I shared the stage with Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s Global Head of Accessibility.* · *Amar, Turab and I spoke at the Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi.* · *I spoke at NUJS, Calcutta on “Digital Accessibility as a Right for the Disabled”.* · *I held an infosession on Mission Accessibility at Rhodes House, University of Oxford and also delivered a talk on the initiative at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford.* · *Amar, Turab and I conducted a session at Gargi College, University of Delhi.* *b. **Aimed at people with disabilities:* · *Amar and I spoke at the National Disability Dialogue, organized by NCPEDP.* · *Amar gave a talk at the DAISY Forum of India.* · *Amar gave an interview to Radio Udaan, a radio station for the blind in India: *RADIOUDAAN BADALTA DAUR WITH MR. AMAR JAIN ON MISSION ACCESSIBILITY - YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAp-sZKzXPQ>. · *Amar, Turab and I conducted an open house session with Eyeway, to respond to questions from the blind and visually impaired about the challenges faced by them in accessing apps and websites: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSIrx70Enhs*.* · *Turab and I spoke at a conference organized by I-Stem, an organization that develops digital accessibility solutions for the disabled.* *Grievance Redressal* · We obtained a victory against Practo Technologies, to make their health consultancy app more disabled friendly: Practo asked to make its website, app fully accessible for the disabled - The Hindu <https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/practo-asked-to-make-its-website-app-fully-accessible-for-the-disabled/article65814497.ece> . · We obtained a favourable order to make the Income Tax Portal of the Government of India more disabled friendly and helped effectuate several changes to the platform to that end. · Filed complaints against MakeMyTrip, PayTM and Ola and have obtained favourable interim directions against MakeMyTrip so far. · Submitted a list of 74 inaccessible apps and websites to the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities [file currently pending with their office]. · Filed a complaint against Saleem’s Restaurant and the Hyatt Regency Hotel, for their inaccessible point of sale devices. · We have written to 40+ service providers across different sectors urging them to make their platforms and technologies accessibility. *Capacity Building* · Conducted a workshop for Hotstar, attended by around 180 people, on ensuring end-to-end accessibility in their offerings. · Entered into our first retainership, with a well known delivery app [ongoing]. · Provided pro bono informal advice on digital accessibility to two leading banks, three leading streaming platforms, two leading newspapers [on their e-papers] and an instant delivery app. · I made a user manual for the judgments portal run by the eCommittee, Supreme Court of India, for visually impaired users. *Bank account details for donations:* Bank: HDFC account number: 50200075368529 IFSC: HDFC0001000 Account type: current. Name of account holder: Dhananjay Sanjogta Foundation. We thank you for your continued support in 2022 and look forward to the same in 2023. If you would like to be excluded from this mailing list, please indicate the same via return email. Thank you. Warmly, Rahul Bajaj Co-Founder, Mission Accessibility -- Regards, Mission Accessibility Email <[email protected]> | Twitter <https://twitter.com/MissionAccess_> | LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/company/mission-accessibility/> -- Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AccessIndia" group. 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