Earlier this year, we made our website accessible. After almost a year of development, research, testing and iterations, our website and app were finally accessible to everyone, without discriminating against any person with disabilities.
The product overhaul brought in a string of changes, from screen reader compatibility and different contrast themes to podcast transcripts and voice search features. Six months down the line, we have more than 50,000 users using our accessibility settings and controls across the website and app.
We are grateful for the support we’ve had from our subscribers and from persons with disabilities. Accessibility requires rigorous testing across screen readers, apps and devices. We never had the testing and quality assurance team that product companies boast of – but we did have support from our communities, who took the time to test our product and share copious feedback. Huge shoutout out to Dr Shubhanku Kochar, Uttam Dantavasi and Masoom Reza, who went above and beyond to help us out with critical feedback and suggestions.
India is a market where news products are infamous for being inaccessible. We’re happy we created a tiny ripple by, at the very least, starting a conversation on accessibility. The coverage of our work, from Niemen Lab to the WAN-IFRA Report, has the potential to push media executives across India to consider making their products accessible too. Earlier this year, the court of the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities, set up under the Indian Disabilities Act, issued suo motu notice to six of India’s leading news websites for not being accessible. This is a step in the right direction – we hope it pushes more news platforms to account for diverse needs.
What’s been most heartening is how our push towards accessibility has expanded the reach of our public interest journalism. We welcomed new readers into our fold, with many telling us they subscribed because our platform is now accessible. Like Ronak, our subscriber all the way from the Netherlands, who said he relies on a screen reader and so he’s finally able to enjoy our work. He even got his friends to subscribe, showcasing that accessibility doesn’t just mean a better product, but means good business too.
But our journey isn’t over. Like any product iteration, we’re in a state of constant evolution. Since our launch in April, we’ve pushed a couple of app updates that fixed accessibility gaps and bugs that disabled users caught. And we’ll keep building further.
If you’re a person with disabilities, or use any of our accessibility controls and settings, do write to us at chitranshu@newslaundry.com. We would love to hear from you and find out how we can do better and better.
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