Our a11y coverage in 2016

More than 100 million people live with disability in India. When we started writing about technology that can help them (or tech that eludes them), it was only an experiment — mostly unplanned. However, we soon realised that our stories on challenges the disabled face while interacting with technology were far more important than we’d initially thought.
In 2017, we will strive to improve our reportage of accessibility (or the lack of it), technology for the disabled and its impact, and other issues surrounding disability in India. Moreover, we will try and make design and product changes that will make FactorDaily more accessible. Here are some of our best stories on accessibility from 2016.
PS: For those not in the know, the ‘a11y’ in our headline refers to a measure of a computer system’s accessibility to all people, including those with disabilities or impairments.
1. How does a disabled person in India get by if apps, mobile phones, television, the internet and even banking facilities are not accessible?

The moral imperative and business case for accessibility in technology

2. If professor B R Alamelu has overcome her disability to become a top academic today, she has much to thank assistive technology for it.

Tech ninja B R Alamelu beats blindness to be an admired academic

3. The Centre for Internet and Society, with the help of an independent researcher, reviewed 18 of the most popular government Android apps, and found that almost all of them are inaccessible for the visually impaired.

We tested 18 government apps, and most are not fully accessible to the disabled

4. Meet V Shakti, a social media star who battles disability daily.

What made V Shakthi India’s most followed accessibility activist

5. Did India ignore over 15 million visually impaired citizen in its demonetisation drive?

The demonetisation drive ignores India’s 15m visually impaired people