Supreme Court E-Committee Conducts First Ever Digital Accessibility ICT Training For Visually Challenged Judicial Officers, Staff

The E-Committee of the Supreme Court of India conducted the first ever Digital Accessibility Information and Communications Technology (ICT) ICT training for Visually challenged Judicial Officers and Court staff on April 17 and 18, 2023 at the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi. 

Digital accessibility training for the Differently Abled is part of the e-Committee’s ICT capacity-building exercise. One of the core aims of the Supreme Court e-Committee has been to make the digital infrastructure of the Indian judicial system more accessible to persons with disabilities. A significant milestone in the E-committee's concerted efforts towards achieving this goal has resulted in all High Court websites, the websites of the E-committee and e-Courts, and the judgement search portal being accessible to persons with disabilities.

The Digital Accessibility Training, on its part, is thus spread across all categories of Disability among Judges and Court staff in a phased manner. In the first phase, the training is held for the visually Challenged Judges and Court Staff, which is the first of its kind.

The Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, who is also the Chairperson of the e-Committee, interacted with the  participants from various parts of the Country and heard their suggestions and feedback on the training. The Chief Justice had exhorted all High Courts to make their digital infrastructure accessible to all in accordance with the constitutional and statutory entitlements of persons with disabilities. 

The two day program that was inaugurated by the Delhi High Court Judge Justice Rajiv Shakdher, in the presence of Justice G R Swaminathan of the Madras High Court, the Secretary Department of Justice, SKG Rahate, and the Director General of IIPA, S.N. Tripathi, was held in two separate batches for 6 Visually challenged Judicial officers and 14 visually challenged Court staff.

This two day 'hands-on' training focused upon covering various assistive technologies like the accessible reading of court documents with a screen reader and instant reading device; accessible documentation & note-making in a digital work environment; techniques and tools for scan and creating Digital Accessible format; using Internet and judgement searching with screenreaders; smartphone-based assistive technologies, the orientation of keyboard and input in regional languages, Artificial intelligence tools and techniques for visually impaired, digital office handling and usages. 

The two day program was coordinated by R Arulmozhiselvi, Member (HR),e-Committee, along with the Director of National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD), Manish Verma, and Dr Surabhi Pandey of IIPA. 

The Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Rajesh Aggarwal, addressed the Valedictory function.