IndiaDraft Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Amendment) Rules, 2026, Proposed Rule 15(1)(c), Non-negotiable Accessibility Standards for Information and Communication Technology
An accessibility requirements rule binding private bodies.
As of .
What it requires
- This is a draft published for comments: it binds no one until the Central Government makes the final rules, which come into force on their publication in the Official Gazette (draft rule 1(2)).
- If you make websites, apps, software, digital content or electronic documents, or an information and communication technology based service, available to persons in India, make them comply with IS 17802 (Part 1): 2021 and IS 17802 (Part 2): 2022 and with any accessibility requirements your sectoral regulator notifies (proposed rule 15(1)(c)(B) and (C)).
- Meet the clauses of IS 17802 (Part 1) listed in Schedule I for websites, apps, digital content and services within one year of publication of the final rules if your turnover is five hundred crore rupees or more, and within eighteen months otherwise; Schedule II sets the same periods for hardware and consumer products (proposed rule 15(1)(c)(E)(1) and (2)).
- Comply with the standards in their entirety within two years of publication of the final rules (proposed rule 15(1)(c)(E)(4)); archived content clearly identified as archived is exempt from the scheduled timelines (clause (E)(2), Exception).
- Publish an Accessibility Conformance Report for each item on your website or app, in human-readable and machine-readable formats, and re-test and update it before deploying a major change and at least once every two years (proposed rule 15(1)(c)(D)).
- If you run a platform for user-generated content, give users the capability to embed captions, transcripts, alternative text, audio description and accessible formats, adding any missing capability within six months of notification (proposed rule 15(1)(c)(D)(6), Explanation).
- Designate a senior officer from your management as Grievance Redressal Officer and redress accessibility complaints within thirty days (proposed rule 15(1)(c)(H)(1) and (5)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
The draft makes a non-compliant establishment liable to fine as provided under the Act. Section 89 of the Act sets a fine that may extend to ten thousand rupees for a first contravention, and for any subsequent contravention a fine of not less than fifty thousand rupees that may extend to five lakh rupees; the cap shown is the maximum for a subsequent contravention. The draft would also let a sectoral regulator suspend or cancel a registration, certification, authorization or approval for continued non-compliance.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- INR
- Fixed cap
- 500,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Chief Commissioner or a State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, and the sectoral regulators (proposed clause (F))
What it reaches
Instrument type
a regulation made under an act
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- Any of
- Criteria
- a private establishment that manufactures, designs, develops, exercises decisive technical control over or makes available an item the clause lists to persons in India for public or consumer use, whether located in India or outside India; a Government establishment (section 2(k) of the Act) is not reached by this row
What this law does
The draft Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Amendment) Rules, 2026, notified on and published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary dated , would replace clause (c) of rule 15(1) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017. The draft is to be taken into consideration after thirty days from the day the Gazette copies are made available to the public, and the final rules would come into force on their publication in the Official Gazette.
The replacement clause would apply to every establishment that manufactures, designs, develops, exercises decisive technical control over or makes available websites, mobile applications, software, digital content, electronic documents, information and communication technology based services, hardware or consumer products to persons in India for public or consumer use, whether or not it is located in India.
Every such establishment would have to ensure that those items comply with IS 17802 (Part 1): 2021 and IS 17802 (Part 2): 2022, as amended from time to time, and with any accessibility requirements its sectoral regulator notifies, the more stringent requirement prevailing.
Establishments with a turnover of five hundred crore rupees or more would have one year from publication of the final rules, and other establishments eighteen months, to meet the non-negotiable clauses listed in two schedules, the first for websites, apps, digital content and services and the second for hardware and consumer products. Archived content that is clearly identified as archived and not intended for active public use or update would be exempt from those timelines.
Every establishment would have to meet the standards in their entirety within two years of publication, for the purposes of section 46 of the Act. An establishment would have to publish an Accessibility Conformance Report for each item on its website or app, in human-readable and machine-readable formats, and re-test and update it before deploying a major change and at least once every two years.
A platform for user-generated content would furnish the report for the platform rather than for each item of content, and would have to give users the capability to embed captions, transcripts, alternative text, audio description and accessible formats, adding any missing capability within six months of notification. Every establishment would designate a senior officer from its management as Grievance Redressal Officer, who would redress accessibility complaints within thirty days.
A non-compliant establishment would be liable to fine as provided under the Act, and the Chief Commissioner or a State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities could inquire into non-compliance and impose fines under section 89. An establishment found non-compliant would have to remedy it within ninety days of the order, and continued non-compliance could lead the sectoral regulator to suspend or cancel its registration, certification, authorization or approval.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app ships a consumer interface, ships a mobile app, distributes a software product or operates a social platform.