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Speakers at a programme on Tuesday urged the authorities concerned to make all the websites of different local organisations accessible to persons with disabilities.
They said all websites should be made compliant with web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.0-2.1) formulated by the World Wide Web Consortium to provide equal opportunity to persons with disabilities for using internet.
The call came at a virtual workshop on 'Web-Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities' organised by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), said a press release.
Visually Impaired People's Society (VIPS), Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), and Centre for Services and Information on Disability (CSID) were also the organising partners of the event.
ICT Division Senior Secretary N M Zeaul Alam addressed the programme as the chief guest while University Grants Commission (UGC) Additional Director Maksudur Rahman Bhuiyan, VIPS President Nasrin Jahan, Consultant on Disability at access to information (a2i) under the Prime Minister's Office Vashkar Bhattacharya also spoke at the event chaired by MJF Executive Director Shaheen Anam.
In his presentation, Mr Bhattacharya said the common barriers faced by persons with disabilities in accessing the websites are inaccessible keyboard, non-structural mark up, inaccessible PDF format of Bangla documents, images having no alternative texts, inaccessible security codes and captcha codes, empty label texts and lack of 'text resize' or 'colour change' options.
Besides, timer-based webpage, websites which are not synced with screen reader software, inaccessible tables and flow charts, difficulties in filling online forms are among other problems facing persons with disabilities, he added.
He also said government and other organizations should promote use of special mobile phones, screen reading software, screen magnifier, braille display, and special smartphone apps to ease daily hassles of persons with disabilities.