Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud interacted with visually-challenged judicial officers and court officials of the District Judiciary during first-ever Digital Accessibility ICT training organised by the Supreme Court’s e-committee for visually-challenged judicial officers and court staff.
During the event, which was held on April 17 and 18 at Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi, the CJI interacted with the participants from various parts of the country, giving a patient ear to their suggestions and feedback on the Digital Accessibility training.
The CJI said making the digital infrastructure of the Indian judicial system more accessible to persons with disabilities was one of the core components of the e-Committee of the Apex Court.
The Chairperson of the e-Committee exhorted all High Courts to make their digital infrastructure accessible to all in conformity with the constitutional and statutory entitlements of people with disabilities.
He wrote a letter to the High Courts containing a series of structural interventions to be undertaken by them for the enhancement of digital accessibility.
As per the CJI, a significant milestone in the E-committee’s efforts towards this objective has made all High Court websites, the websites of E-committee and e-Courts, and the judgement search portal accessible to persons with disabilities.
He said digital accessibility training for the Differently Abled was part of the eCommittee’s ICT capacity-building exercise. The digital accessibility training will be spread to all categories of Disability among Judges and Court staff in a phased manner.
In the first phase, a first of its kind Digital Accessibility training was held for the visually-challenged judges and court staff.
The two-day event was earlier inaugurated by Justice Rajiv Shakdher, Judge of the Delhi High Court, In the august presence of Justice G.R. Swaminathan Judge of the Madras High Court,
Department of Justice Secretary SKG Rahate and Director General of IIPA S.N.Tripathi. Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, addressed the valedictory function.
The two-day training was held in two separate batches for six visually-challenged judicial officers and 14 visually-challenged court staff.
The hands-on training covered various assistive technologies like the accessible reading of court documents with a screen reader and instant reading device; accessible documentation and 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.
R Arulmozhiselvi, Member (HR), eCommittee, coordinated the programme with Er Manish Verma, Director NIEPVD and Dr Surabhi Pandey, from IIPA.