e-Accessibility: A Wiki Project
Envisaged and funded by the National Internet Exchange of India, and executed by the Centre for Internet and Society, a Wiki site pertaining to issues of disability and e-accessibility has recently been launched.
Such a project is most timely as India has a large percentage of disabled persons in its population— estimated to be over seven per cent as per the Census of 2001. Taken in figures, this amounts to roughly 70-100 million persons with disabilities in the territory of India. Out of this number, a mere two per cent of persons with disabilities residing in urban areas have access to information and assistive technologies.
Regrettably, there still remains a lack of awareness on how information and services can be best delivered to persons with disabilities. Parents, teachers, government authorities and society at large remain equally unaware of the options technology today presents to enable persons with disabilities live independent and productive lives. Therefore, the wiki aims foremost to serve as a resource for persons with disabilities and their families, NGO’s, as well as the members of education and legal communities--providing valuable information surrounding disability and electronic accessibility.
Covered in 125 article wiki project includes a broad collection of articles pertaining to topics of accessibility for users, developers, organizations, developments in India, and accessibility for nations. With hopes of expansion, wikipage can be accessed and edited collaboratively at http://accessibility.cis-india.org.
Author
Rebecca Schild
Rebecca Schild worked as an intern with the Centre for Internet and Society for a period of one year from 2009 to 2010. She is now based in Toronto and works with CIS for the LexUM project.
