'Sugamya Bharat App' launched to ease accessibility issues faced by differently abled in buildings, transport system

Union minister Thaawarchand Gehlot virtually launched Sugamya Bharat App, a crowd-sourcing mobile application, and a handbook entitled Access - The Photo Digest on Tuesday to enhance accessibility.

The app will enable people with disabilities and even the elderly to register accessibility-related problems in buildings, in modes of transport or any infrastructure by uploading pictures on it. They can also receive information on accessibility-related issues through the app.

This mobile app will also address coronavirus-related issues faced by the differently abled.

The app and the handbook have been developed by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

"The Sugamya Bharat app — a crowd-sourcing mobile application is a means for sensitising and enhancing accessibility in the three pillars of the Accessible India Campaign i.e. built environment, transportation sector and ICT ecosystem in India," Gehlot said.

The app provides five main features, four of which are directly related to enhancing accessibility, while the fifth is a special feature meant only for people with disabilities for coronavirus-related issues.

"The accessibility-related features include the registration of complaints of inaccessibility across the three broad pillars of the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan, positive feedback of examples and best practices worth emulating being shared by people as jan-bhagidhari, departmental updates; and guidelines and circulars related to accessibility," the minister said.

He also said that in order to take accessibility to the public domain by involving the people, the prime minister envisioned a mobile application wherein the issues related to accessibility being faced by people with disabilities and others can be crowdsourced through ‘jan-bhagidhari’.

"This crowd-sourcing will serve two-fold purpose of generating sensitisation and awareness about the need for accessibility and also bring in a perceptible change in accessible features being provided in built-up spaces, the transportation sector and other services. Implementation of accessibility-related activities across the country would help towards the vision of creating an universally accessible and inclusive India under the Accessible India Campaign," Gehlot said.

The app has been provided with several user-friendly features like easy drop-down menus, videos in Hindi and English, along with sign language interpretation have been added demonstrating the process of registration and uploading complaints with photographs.

The mobile app is made accessible for ease of use for persons with disabilities also with features such as font size adjustment, color contrasting option, text to speech, and having an integrated screen reader in Hindi and English.

It is available in 10 regional languages, namely, Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil, Odiya, Kannada, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi, and Malayalam.

The app also has provision of easy photo uploads with geo tagging option of the premise where accessibility intervention is required.

The app has provision for providing notifications to the users at the time of registration, regular status updates as well as at the time of resolution and closure of the complaint.

The mobile app can be downloaded from Play Store by Android users. The iOS version of the app will be available by March 15, 2021.

Gehlot said the handbook entitled Access - The Photo Digest is a collection of photographs from across different states and Union Territories.

This book is envisaged as a tool and guide to sensitise stakeholders about 10 basic features of accessibility and related good-bad practices in easy to understand pictorial form.

The electronic version of this handbook will also be available on the app and the website of the department.