On the occasion of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), Shri Magesh Ethirajan, Director General, C-DAC inaugurated first Train-the-Trainer Workshop as a part of “Knowledge & Resource Centre for Accessibility in ICT (KAI)” initiative of C-DAC for 2 days (19^th and 20^th May 2022) in presence of Col. Asheet Kumar Nath (Retd.), Executive Director- Corporate Strategy & C-DAC Pune, Dr. N. Subramanian, Senior Director (Corporate R&D) and Shri S. Ramakrishnan, Former Director General, C-DAC.

With above as the goal, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) & C-DAC had been engaged in formulating an ICT Accessibility standard along with STQC & BIS. Accessibility for ICT Products and Services Part I Requirements (IS 17802 Part 1): 2021 standard and IS 17802 (Part 2):2022 Accessibility for the ICT Products has been gazetted and published by BIS in the month of on December 2021 and May 2022 respectively.

Through publication of the standard, this will facilitate standards-based hardware and software products, create opportunities for development of innovative assistive technologies for start-ups, industry and R&D. This standard also facilitates seamless access of ICT services and content over Mobile and Web for wider populace. This shall enable the adoption of ICT accessibility solutions by differently abled communities in making their life easier and very effective.

C-DAC is also engaged in conducting various awareness creation, capacity development and Train-the-Trainer events towards proliferation, adoption and implementation of the standards.