2016 Road ahead…
In India, 2015 has ended with the launch of Accessible India Campaign by the Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment. This leads to a great beginning of 2016. Accessible India Campaign has 3 core sections to address:
- Physical Infrastructure
- Transportation System
- Information and Communication Technologies
Accessible India has a solid plan and targets and documented on About Accessible India Campaign page. This includes milestones like to make a few most important government offices accessible by July 2016 and several by July 2018. As we write this post, Accessible India Campaign is hiring for two positions:
If someone wish to be an auditor, Ministry is looking for individual and organizations those who would like to be auditors and details can be found on their notification page (PDF document).
So 2016 would be a remarkable year in terms of building inclusion in India.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG-WG) of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published WCAG 2.0 Extensions requirements document and there is going to be some incredible work in this area.
There are some vibrant discussions happening on Accessibility in India Community Group; do join and participate.
Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) 2016 is happening from 3rd February – 6th February, 2016. This is a great place to meet most of the assistive technology providers.
Techshare India, one of the biggest bi-annual accessibility conference and assistive technologies exhibition will be happening on March 3rd and 4th, 2016 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. There are going to be several interesting presentations and exhibition stall and moreover, this would be a big event in India to network with accessibility enthusiasts from diverse sectors.
31st Annual International Technologies and Persons with Disabilities Conference will be held between 21st to 26th March, 2016 at Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego. This is one of the largest accessibility events around the world.
This year Global Accessibility Awareness Day will be marked on May 19th. This will be great opportunity for anyone who has passion for accessibility to raise awareness and spread the word.
More to follow but looking forward to a great 2016.
More to follow
