Web for All: Digital Accessibility for Children with Disabilities

On 26 January 2025, Enable Education hosted an enlightening virtual conversation on the topic 'Web for All: Digital Accessibility for Children with Disabilities'. The session explored the crucial role of web accessibility in empowering children with disabilities to thrive academically and beyond.

Our expert for the event was Mr Arjun Mishra, Social Entrepreneur and  Co-Founder of NABET India and a passionate Web Accessibility Advocate

The event commenced as Mr Mishra shared his inspiration behind NABET India.  His intent was to  create easy accessibility solutions for the web and to make it accessible to people with disabilities. His outlook was to create sustainable interventions which can provide greater employment opportunities and help people with disabilities emerge as a vital human resource, in an increasingly digitalised society. As per data,  97% of web content on the internet still remains accessible. 

He shared his opinion of the significant barriers faced by people with disabilities when it comes to their access to digital content. Some of these barriers include  the lack of awareness about web accessibility and its importance along with a significant gap in the policy implementation and penalties for non compliance of the accessibility mandates. 

The solutions to these issues, as he elaborated, could include setting standards for authenticity for websites and strict crackdowns for non compliances under information technology rules and regulations. 

 He further touched down upon how technical  Knowledge can  empower children with disabilities and open doors to innovation and opportunities, we need to identify and compliance acceptability in tech. 

He iterated the need for a  benchmarking standard of web accessibility and the work policy makers need to do to streamline the process of making the internet truly accessible for children with disabilities and the role schools play in making their teaching and learning material for students with disabilities.  

Mr Arjun also stressed about the importance of the involvement of people with disabilities themselves partaking in their own accessibility choices and stepping forward to upskilling themselves in the digital accessibility spaces. This would not just help bring their issues to light but also create job opportunities for them. This would also act as an encouragement for competent authorities to make educational content for higher education accessible for students with disabilities.  

The session successfully raised awareness about the intersection of technology, education, and accessibility. Attendees left with a deeper understanding of how they can contribute to a more inclusive digital future for children with disabilities.