A research report evaluating the digital accessibility landscape of the top 100 companies in the Indian financial sector including banks, insurance companies, payment gateway providers, investment firms and financial service aggregators, found the room wide open for improvement.

Steered by BarrierBreak and National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), the study sought to assess the readiness of these organisations in providing accessible digital products and services to customers with disabilities.

The home pages of the selected companies were analysed using an automated accessibility tool that tests against WCAG 2.2 - Level AA, followed by manual validation by accessibility experts. The results revealed an average of 91.55 accessibility errors per home page, with the insurance sector having the highest average errors (120.73) and international banks, the lowest (33.4).

The Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) is a globally recognised technical standard developed by World Wide Consortium to make web content more accessible. It defines how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG 2.2 has 13 guidelines organised under four principles namely POUR — perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

The most common accessibility errors were related to ARIA or Accessible Rich Internet Application (100% of pages), headings (97% of pages), images (96% of pages), colour contrast (91% of pages), and links (90% of pages). The findings serve as a baseline for the adoption of digital accessibility in India’s finance sector and emphasise the need for conscious efforts by organisations to promote financial inclusion and empower people with disabilities, says the report.

In February 2024, the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance notified the Accessibility Standards and Guidelines for banking sector. In August, 2024, the Ministry of Finance issued a notification regarding the accessibility standards and guidelines for infrastructure and services in insurance sector. Later, on October 11, 2024, the Reserve Bank of India issued guidelines for facilitating accessibility to digital payment systems for persons with disabilities.

Accessible platforms

It was found that 97% of the homepages had headings that were not defined or were not as per the correct hierarchy. Zerodha’s homepage stands out for its well-structured content and appropriately defined headings.

With respect to images it was observed that 77% of the websites have image links related issues and 51% of the websites have image buttons related issues. The Reserve Bank of India and Axis Bank’s homepages are notable examples where all images have been provided accurate textual descriptions. National Payments Corporation of India, IDFC First Bank, Bank of Baroda and BillDesk are among those that demonstrate how to use image links effectively by providing meaningful textual descriptions. Image buttons have been provided precise textual descriptions by LIC, Yes Bank and Aditya Birla Capital Health Insurance.

Poor colour contrast between text colour and background colour makes content illegible for all users. It was found that only 9% of the websites had good contrast. The homepages of American Express and MobiKwik illustrate the effective use of text contrast for readability and enhancing user experience.

Links are important to help users navigate to different pages within the website. They also help customers navigate the web. PhonePe, CSC Cloud and Cred are strong examples of homepages with descriptive links that clearly convey their purpose. Keyboard operability is one of the important requirements of accessibility. It ensures users can access any of the interactive elements such as links, buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes and drop-downs. HSBC India, ICICI Direct and Barclays India were found to support keyboard with all interactive elements. Barclays has ensured buttons, links and accordions are accessible using a keyboard. HSBC has made certain that even elements such as the chat widget and search input field are keyboard operable.