Professional team conducting digital accessibility audit

Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 — Digital Accessibility Obligations

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 is India's primary statute governing digital accessibility. It imposes enforceable obligations on government, public sector, and regulated private entities — and creates the legal basis for every Indian accessibility standard and mandate.

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What Is the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016?

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 replaced the earlier Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. Enacted to align India's domestic disability law with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) — which India ratified in 2007 — the RPwD Act significantly expanded the definition of disability, strengthened enforcement mechanisms, and for the first time, created explicit statutory obligations around digital accessibility.

The Act recognises 21 categories of disability and establishes rights and entitlements across education, employment, social protection, and public participation. The obligation to provide accessible information and communication technology (ICT) is codified in Section 42, making digital accessibility a matter of law — not policy guidance or best practice.

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Section 42 — The Digital Accessibility Mandate

Section 42 — The Digital Accessibility Mandate

Section 42 of the RPwD Act is the provision that directly creates digital accessibility obligations. It states:


"The appropriate Government and local authorities shall take measures to ensure that all existing and new websites and web services of the Government and governmental bodies are accessible to persons with disabilities in accordance with the accessibility standards laid down by the concerned standardisation bodies."


The implications of Section 42 are significant:

  • Scope extends to all government and governmental body websites — central, state, local authority, statutory bodies, PSUs, and regulated entities
  • "Existing and new" — the obligation is not limited to new platforms; all current government digital assets are within scope
  • "Accessibility standards laid down by concerned standardisation bodies" — this directly incorporates GIGW 3.0 (MeitY/NIC) and IS 17802 (Bureau of Indian Standards) as the operative technical standards
  • "Appropriate Government" — for central entities, this is the Union Government and relevant ministries; for state entities, the state government

Section 42 does not apply only to pure government bodies. The Act's broader provisions on equal access to public services extend its digital accessibility expectations to private sector organisations providing regulated services — including SEBI-regulated financial intermediaries, licensed healthcare providers, and educational institutions receiving government funding.

Who the RPwD Act's Digital Obligations Apply To

While Section 42 names government bodies explicitly, the RPwD Act creates digital accessibility obligations across a wider set of entities through its anti-discrimination provisions and equal access requirements:

Who the RPwD Act's Digital Obligations Apply To

Government and Statutory Bodies — Direct Section 42 Obligation

All central government ministries and departments

All state and union territory government departments

Local authorities — municipal corporations, panchayats, district administrations

Statutory bodies, commissions, and regulators

Public sector undertakings with citizen-facing digital platforms

NIC-managed e-governance platforms and Digital India initiatives

Regulated Private Sector — Anti-Discrimination and Equal Access Provisions

SEBI-regulated financial intermediaries (independently reinforced by SEBI circulars)

Healthcare providers and hospitals — particularly those receiving government funding under Ayushman Bharat

Educational institutions — universities, colleges, and schools receiving public funding

Employers above prescribed threshold sizes — obligation to provide accessible workplace ICT

Any private entity providing services open to the public

Organisations operating in regulated sectors should not interpret the RPwD Act as applicable only to government. The equal access framework — and the reputational, legal, and regulatory consequences of non-compliance — extends to any organisation providing public-facing digital services.

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Enforcement and Accountability Under the RPwD Act

Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities

The Chief Commissioner (central) and State Commissioners (state-level) are empowered to receive complaints, conduct inquiries, and recommend remedial action. Digital accessibility complaints — including inaccessible government websites — are within their jurisdiction. Commissioners can recommend penalties, direct corrective action, and escalate matters to courts.

State Commissioners and Grievance Mechanisms

Each state has a State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities with similar powers. Organisations with state-level digital service obligations face accountability at both state and central tiers. Grievance redressal mechanisms created under the Act require complaints to be addressed within a defined timeline — creating operational accountability for accessibility failures.

Judicial Enforcement

The RPwD Act provides for civil and criminal remedies. Courts have heard accessibility-related matters and the trend towards judicial enforcement of digital accessibility rights is consistent with international experience under comparable statutes such as the ADA and the Equality Act.

Why Independent Audits Matter for RPwD Compliance

In the context of a statutory obligation, self-assessed compliance carries limited credibility. An independent audit from an institution with no commercial interest in the platform provides a defensible record of compliance posture — applicable to regulator inquiries, Commissioner complaints, RTI requests, and judicial proceedings. Accord Compliance audits are structured for this standard of defensibility.

Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities

RPwD Act, WCAG, GIGW 3.0, and IS 17802 — The Compliance Stack

The RPwD Act does not prescribe specific technical requirements. Instead, Section 42 defers to the standards set by 'concerned standardisation bodies' — which in practice means:

WCAG standards — architectural reference

WCAG 2.1 / 2.2 (W3C)

The global technical standard for web and digital accessibility, referenced by all Indian national standards.

IS 17802 — architectural reference

IS 17802

The formalised national standard for web accessibility, aligned with WCAG 2.1; this is the Indian Standards body.

GIGW 3.0 — architectural reference

GIGW 3.0 (MeitY / NIC)

The operational guidelines for government websites that implement WCAG 2.1 requirements.

SEBI regulatory context — architectural reference

SEBI Circulars

Sector-specific application of RPwD digital obligations to SEBI-regulated intermediaries.

An organisation subject to the RPwD Act that achieves WCAG 2.1 AA conformance — verified through independent audit — is demonstrating compliance with the technical standard referenced by IS 17802, which is the standard named by Section 42. This is the compliance chain that makes WCAG audit results legally relevant for RPwD purposes.

View more about IS 17802View more about GIGW 3.0

RPwD Act and the Private Sector — What It Means Beyond Government

The RPwD Act's application to private sector organisations is often underestimated. Several provisions create direct or indirect obligations:

We conduct manual, expert-led accessibility audits for:

Equal Opportunities Policy

All private sector employers with 20 or more employees are required to formulate an equal opportunities policy. While this provision focuses on employment, it extends to internal digital systems and workplace ICT that employees with disabilities must use.

Access to Goods and Services

The Act prohibits discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the grounds of disability. For digital-first businesses — e-commerce platforms, digital financial services, SaaS providers, online healthcare — this creates an obligation to ensure their digital services are accessible. The enforcement mechanism may be less prescriptive than Section 42, but the legal exposure from a complaint mechanism or judicial challenge is real.

The SEBI Connection

SEBI's explicit accessibility circulars — which mandate WCAG-aligned digital platforms for all regulated intermediaries — are the financial sector's implementation of the RPwD Act's equal access framework. For BFSI organisations, RPwD compliance and SEBI compliance are operationally identical requirements.

RPwD Act Compared to ADA and EAA

For organisations operating across India, the US, and the EU, understanding how the RPwD Act relates to comparable international statutes helps scope multi-jurisdiction audit programmes:

Scope

The RPwD Act (India), ADA (US), and EAA (EU) all create digital accessibility obligations — but scope, technical specificity, and enforcement intensity differ by jurisdiction.

Technical standard

All three frameworks reference WCAG — the RPwD Act via IS 17802, the ADA via DOJ/WCAG guidance, the EAA via EN 301 549. WCAG 2.1 AA conformance is the common technical benchmark.

Enforcement

The ADA has the most active private litigation record globally, with thousands of digital accessibility lawsuits annually. The EAA introduces a harmonised enforcement regime from June 2025. The RPwD Act enforcement mechanism is currently Commissioner-and-court-based, with lower litigation frequency — though this is increasing.

Private sector

The EAA creates the broadest private sector obligation in EU markets. The ADA has been most frequently litigated against commercial websites. The RPwD Act's private sector application is growing but currently less prescriptive for non-regulated industries.

View more about ADA ComplianceView more about EAA Compliance

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Ensure Compliance with the RPwD Act

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