Independent GIGW 3.0 compliance audits for government ministries, departments, state portals, PSUs, and e-governance platforms — verified against the National Informatics Centre's updated accessibility and usability standard.
The Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) is the authoritative technical and accessibility standard for all government websites and web applications in India, maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
GIGW 3.0 is the third and most current version of this standard. It incorporates WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the baseline accessibility requirement and extends it with India-specific usability, multilingual support, and citizen service delivery requirements. All central and state government ministries, departments, and public-sector undertakings are expected to comply with GIGW 3.0 as a condition of digital service delivery under Digital India.
Non-compliance with GIGW 3.0 is not merely a technical oversight — it represents a failure of the statutory obligation to provide equally accessible public services to all citizens, including persons with disabilities, as mandated under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016.
GIGW 3.0 is a comprehensive standard covering multiple dimensions of government website quality. Its accessibility requirements are the most prescriptive element — but the standard addresses usability, content, architecture, and security as well.
GIGW 3.0 mandates full conformance with WCAG 2.1 at Level AA — the same standard referenced by the European Accessibility Act, ADA technical guidance, and Section 508. This means government websites must be:
Government portals serving national and regional audiences must provide content in multiple official languages with proper Unicode rendering, correct text direction, and screen-reader compatibility for non-Latin scripts including Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and others. GIGW 3.0 treats multilingual accessibility as an extension of the core accessibility requirement — not a separate concern.
End-to-end citizen service journeys — form submission, document upload, status tracking, grievance filing — must be fully accessible. GIGW 3.0 specifically addresses transactional flows, not just informational content. An accessible home page with an inaccessible e-form is a GIGW non-conformance.
All downloadable documents — circulars, notifications, tenders, reports — must meet WCAG-aligned PDF accessibility requirements. Tagged PDF structure, reading order, text searchability, and form field labelling in PDFs are testable requirements under GIGW 3.0. Scanned image PDFs without text layers are explicitly non-conformant.
GIGW 3.0 requires that mobile versions of government portals and mobile applications meet the same accessibility standards as their desktop counterparts. Given that a significant proportion of Indian citizens access government services exclusively through mobile devices, mobile accessibility is treated as a first-tier requirement.
Government websites are required to publish a current, accurate accessibility statement disclosing the site's conformance level, known accessibility limitations, and the mechanism by which users can report accessibility barriers. An accessibility statement published without an independent audit basis is a GIGW non-conformance.
Accord Compliance GIGW 3.0 audits serve a wide range of government and public sector organisations:
Central government ministries, departments, and attached offices
State government portals and department websites
National Informatics Centre (NIC)-managed web properties
Public sector undertakings (PSUs) with citizen-facing digital platforms
Smart City Mission platforms and urban local body portals
E-governance platforms and integrated citizen service portals
Statutory bodies, commissions, tribunals, and regulatory authorities
Digital India programme participants and government technology vendors
Technology Vendors and Cybersecurity Providers
A GIGW 3.0 compliance audit from Accord Compliance covers all digital touchpoints relevant to the government organisation's citizen service obligations. Audit scope is established during regulatory scoping and agreed before testing begins.
Websites and Web Portals
All primary, sub-domain, and campaign websites are assessed against the full WCAG 2.1 AA requirement set incorporated into GIGW 3.0. Testing covers desktop and mobile, across major browser and assistive technology combinations used in Indian government contexts.
e-Governance Service Flows
All citizen-facing transactional journeys — registration, application, payment, grievance — are tested as complete workflows. Accessibility failures in service flows carry greater compliance weight than informational page failures, as they directly impede citizens from accessing entitlements.
Mobile Applications
iOS and Android government applications are tested using platform-native accessibility services — VoiceOver and TalkBack — alongside keyboard navigation, switch access, and large text testing. Custom UI components are tested against the WCAG mobile-applicable success criteria.
PDF and Office Document Libraries
Government document repositories are audited against PDF/UA and WCAG PDF accessibility criteria. Findings are documented at the document type and category level, with remediation guidance structured for bulk correction workflows.
Multilingual Interface Testing
Interfaces in Hindi, English, and applicable regional languages are tested for correct rendering, screen-reader output, and Unicode compliance. Text in non-Latin scripts is tested with screen readers configured for the relevant language.
Accessibility Statement Review
Existing accessibility statements are reviewed for accuracy, currency, and conformance with GIGW 3.0 statement requirements. A compliant accessibility statement is prepared as a deliverable where none exists or where the existing statement requires update.
We work with your digital team to identify the full set of digital assets subject to GIGW 3.0 — websites, applications, document repositories, mobile apps — and establish the priority order for audit. For large government estates, a risk-based phasing approach is used to address the highest-impact citizen service touchpoints first.
Expert auditors conduct structured manual testing against all applicable WCAG 2.1 Level AA success criteria, supplemented by screen reader testing (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, TalkBack) and keyboard-only navigation. Each testable WCAG criterion is assessed against the current platform state — not proxied through automated scans.
Beyond WCAG, GIGW 3.0 includes India-specific requirements for content structure, language support, site navigation, and search functionality. These are assessed as a separate test pass against the GIGW 3.0 checklist — findings are flagged distinctly from WCAG failures to support precise remediation.
The audit report is structured to support both the technical team responsible for remediation and the compliance officer or ministry representative responsible for regulatory attestation. Deliverables include a full WCAG 2.1 AA conformance report, a GIGW 3.0 compliance summary, an evidence-backed non-conformance register, and a compliant accessibility statement draft.
For government organisations in India, GIGW 3.0 does not operate in isolation. It works alongside three other mandatory frameworks that together constitute the full statutory compliance picture:
The Bureau of Indian Standards standard for web accessibility, aligned with WCAG 2.1. IS 17802 provides the formal national standards specification that GIGW 3.0 implements. Together, they define both the what (GIGW) and the technical how (IS 17802) of government web accessibility.
The legislative basis that makes GIGW 3.0 compliance a legal obligation. Section 42 of the RPwD Act requires all government and public sector organisations to ensure accessible information and communication technology. GIGW 3.0 is the operational implementation of that statutory duty.
The STQC Directorate's quality certification process for Indian digital platforms explicitly includes accessibility evaluation — assessed against WCAG 2.1 Level AA, IS 17802, and GIGW 3.0. For government portals, GIGW 3.0 conformance is a direct component of STQC evaluation.
An organisation that is GIGW 3.0 non-conformant is, as a consequence, RPwD Act non-compliant and will fail STQC accessibility evaluation. These frameworks are not alternatives — they are cumulative obligations that apply simultaneously. A single, correctly structured audit produces compliance evidence for all four.
WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance audit report — per digital asset, with full evidence documentation
GIGW 3.0 compliance summary — requirements-mapped, with clear pass/fail status per criterion
Non-conformance register — severity-graded, prioritised by citizen service impact
Accessibility statement — compliant with GIGW 3.0 statement requirements, ready for publication
Multilingual testing report — rendering, screen reader output, and Unicode compliance per language
PDF accessibility assessment — document library findings with bulk-remediation guidance
Executive summary — compliance posture for ministry leadership, audit committee, or NIC review
Executive summary — compliance posture for ministry leadership, audit committee, or NIC review
Whether you are preparing for government review, aligning with GIGW 3.0 requirements, or strengthening accessibility across public digital services, our audit-led approach ensures clarity, compliance, and audit-ready documentation.
