CHENNAI: Unrecognisable Captcha text, hard to navigate selections, poor colour contrasts, unlabelled boxes are some of the many challenges faced by Persons with Disabilities while accessing Chennai Corporation’s online services. The civic body is expected to roll out the redesigned public grievance redressal (PGR) portal this week, and has also planned to reach out to PwDs to fill the gaps on challenges faced by them and how accessibility can be improved.
The corporation has three primary channels for the public to register their complaints – the online PGR portal, Namma Chennai app, and 1913 helpline. According to corporation officials, they are designed to be accessible to everyone, keeping in mind varying levels of education of users.
Users with visual impairments pointed out the need to label text boxes on the PGR portal to make navigation easier. They also pointed out that screen readers often identify CAPTCHA as unlabelled text, making it difficult to proceed without assistance. Services-such as registering for the citizen portal, resetting password or downloading birth certificates require CAPTCHA verification. They suggested alternatives, such as OTP or “I’m not a robot” option or an audio play feature.
“While some features are accessible on the Namma Chennai app, others are not available on the website, and vice versa. For instance, when I tried to download my daughter’s birth certificate from the website, there was an in-built CAPTCHA that my screen reader could not recognise. When I tried the app, the date selection, which is done through three combo boxes on the website, is instead presented in a calendar format.
A simple date entry option would have been more accessible. The calendar-type date selection also affects the community hall booking process,” said R Raja, Thaaikarangal Trust founder, who also has visual impairments. Hearing and speech-impaired individuals have requested a video grievance service with a sign language interpreter.
“All government welfare schemes and grievance redressal systems, available online, benefits only those who are familiar with computers or mobile applications. For PwDs with limited education, accessing these services is a big challenge. This can be addressed by coordinating with sign language interpreters and documenting grievances as videos,” said S Abdul Latif, who has hearing impairment.
“The government should not only focus on differently-abled, but also consider elderly people with poor vision, providing them with font size, colour contrast features and other accessibility options which are absent in the PGR portal,” said Deepak Nathan, state president of the December 3 Movement.
The corporation agrees that the portal has gaps that need to be addressed to improve usability for PwDs, including font size, colour contrast for colour blindness, and screen reader access. “The developers have been asked to redesign the PGR portal, which is expected to go live on Tuesday or Wednesday. We will also arrange a meeting with differently-abled individuals to address any gaps in the online service or PGR portal,” a corporation official from the IT cell told TNIE.