Complaint Filed Against Make My Trip Before Chief Commissioner Under Disabilities Act For Being Inaccessible To Visually Challenged Users

A complaint has been filed before the Court of Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities against Make My Trip alleging that its website is inaccessible to persons suffering from blindness and is therefore in gross violation of several provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. 

The complaint has been filed by one Amena Kanchwala who is a person with blindness within the purview of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (Act)  and has also undertaken various initiatives for the empowerment of persons with disabilities in general and persons with blindness in particular.

Make My Trip launched its India operations in 2005. Headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana, MakeMyTrip offers online travel booking services such as airline, rail and bus tickets; domestic and international holiday packages; and hotel reservations and rail.

It has been alleged in the complaint that Make My Trip is in violation of Section 46 of the Act along with Rule 15 of the Rights of Persons With Disabilities Rules, 2017. 

Rule 15 stipulates that every establishment shall provide information and communication technology that caters to the needs of persons with disabilities. It further states that documents to be placed on websites shall be in Electronic Publication (ePUB) or Optical Character Reader (OCR) based pdf format. 

Furthermore, Section 46 of the Act enumerates that service providers whether Government or private shall provide services in accordance with the rules on accessibility formulated by the Central Government under section 40 within a period of two years from the date of notification of such rules. Pursuant to Section 40 of the Act, the Central government in consultation with the Chief Commissioner is under an obligation to formulate rules for persons with disabilities laying down the standards of accessibility for the physical environment, transportation, information and communications, including appropriate technologies and systems, and other facilities and services provided to the public in urban and rural areas.

Averments in the complaint 

It has been contended that the complainant is unable to effectively access the website of Make My Trio due to various accessibility barriers which inter alia include the following:

On the sign-in screen, talkback is not reading the associated email Id with the corresponding user's name. Users can have 2 email IDS configured in their mobile with the same name. So, in this situation, it is difficult for the screen reader users to select the desired email ID to sign in.

Roles are not defined for the controls on the home page. Screen reader users will be unable to know whether it is an interactive element or just normal text. This issue gets reproduced throughout the application.

Headings are not defined throughout the application. Screen reader users will be unable to differentiate between different sections. For  example, "Offers" should be defined in the heading.

Label is not defined for the hamburger menu. Screen reader users will be unable to know its purpose as talkback is not announcing its name. This issue gets reproduced throughout the application for several buttons. This makes the application inaccessible for screen reader users.

Calendar pickers are very inaccessible. Screen reader users are unable to select the desired date from the calendar picker while booking flights, buses etc. Because of this reason, screen reader users are unable to use "MakeMyTrip application" for booking.

The complaint further avers that the Act was brought into force on April 19, 2017 and that the Rules were notified on June 15, 2017. Thus, the last date of compliance with the relevant accessibility standards was June 14, 2019 which has not been done in the present case. 

Opining that Make My Trip (Respondent no.1) must face legal consequences for its failure to comply with statutory provisions, the complaint further states, 

"That the Respondent no. 1 has not complied with the aforementioned provisions, even though more than 2.5 years have elapsed since the expiry of the time period for compliance. The Respondent no. 1's continued failure to make MakeMyTrip accessible to blind users makes it liable to face the full panoply of legal
 consequences flowing from this statutory contravention."

The complainant had also addressed a series of representations to Make My Trip including a legal notice, however no action has yet been taken in this regard. Opining that the conduct of Make My Trip tramples upon the fundamental rights of visually challenged citizens of India, the complainant further averred, 

"That the said act of non-compliance by the Respondent no. 1 not only shows the willful disobedience with the codified laws of India, but also amounts to continued discrimination against the persons with disabilities at large, thus implicating the fundamental rights of visually challenged citizens of India."

Reliance was also placed on the Supreme Court judgment in Vikash Kumar v. Union Public Service Commission and ors wherein the Apex Court had underscored the private sector's obligation to make its offerings accessible to the disabled and to provide them reasonable accommodation. 

It was also averred that both Google in relation to Android and Apple in relation to IOS have specified design guidelines which the developers of any mobile application are expected to follow to ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities.

Accordingly, it was prayed that Make My Trip should be penalised for its continued non-compliance of the Act and the Rules and further be directed to conduct an accessibility audit across all platforms viz. Mobile, Tablet and Web and submit the Accessibility Audit report along with statement of remedial actions taken within a period of 3 months. 

Case Title: Amena Kanchwala v. MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited