The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday said that the State government on its own may issue a circular asking even private bus operators, who ply buses across the State by taking permits, to install audio-alerts/voice-based announcement system to help visually-challenged persons.
The court also asked the State’s public transport corporations to take further steps to make their app visually-challenged friendly based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which defines how to make web content more accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit passed the order during the hearing on a PIL petition filed by N. Shreyas, a visually-challenged lawyer, who personally argued his petition.
When the public transport corporations have been asked to ensure installation of audio-alerts/voice-based announcement system, it would be a fair and reasonable approach if the State government asks the private bus operators to install such facility in their buses.
Earlier, the petitioner pointed out that the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation has an app for passengers and it would be of great help for the disabled, if it was upgraded as per WCAG.
Following this, the Bench asked Mr. Shreyas to give a detailed representation to the transport authorities for making the app WCAG compliant and asked the authorities take further steps in this regard.
Meanwhile, the Bench granted time to the BMTC and the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation to provide detail on buses having audio-alerts/voice-based announcement system.
