accessibility

No Space For “Additional Charge”: Supreme Court Makes It Clear That only Full-Time Disability Commisioners Are Required

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Rajiv Raturi v. Union of India, W.P.(C) No. 243/2005 Order dated 29.07.2026 (Pardiwala and Viswanathan, JJ.) Introduction By the order dated 29th July,2026, a bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan in the long-pending Rajive Raturi matter pertaining to accessibility, directed the Union of India to fill the post of Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD), which has remained vacant since 2019, and directed ten States and […]

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When Disability Meets Caste: The Supreme Court’s Landmark Ruling on Horizontal Reservation for Persons with Disabilities

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Case: The West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Co. Ltd. & Ors. v. Dipendu Biswas & Ors.| Citation: 2026 INSC 330 | Civil Appeal No. 10262 of 2025 Decided on: April, 07, 2026 Introduction Can a candidate be “too disadvantaged” to compete in an open category? In a country as constitutionally complex as India, few legal

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Disability Rights and Administrative Rigidity: A Critical Analysis of Sudhanshu Kardam v. Comptroller and Auditor General of India

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Introduction The evolving jurisprudence on disability rights in India continues to expose the tension between formal administrative processes and substantive equality. The recent decision of the Supreme Court in Sudhanshu Kardam v. Comptroller and Auditor General of India (2026)[1] presents a compelling instance of this tension. The case traverses through the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT),

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Access to Hindi Digital Content: An Urgent Accessibility Imperative

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Mission Accessibility, in collaboration with a team of researchers and accessibility rights activists, conducted a multi-year, three-country research-in-action project titled “Accessibility, Language, and Tech for the People (ALT).” The project, supported by Whose Knowledge? a global campaign working to centre the knowledge of marginalised communities online broadly aimed to understand the collective experiences and challenges

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media accessibility

Delhi HC Pushes for Inclusive OTT Platforms: Accessibility as a Legal Imperative

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Introduction The Delhi High Court, through its order dated 1st September 2025, directed the Central Government to speed up the process of issuing guidelines to the Over-The-Top (hereinafter referred to as the “OTT”) to incorporate accessibility features on their respective platforms for persons with disabilities. The order was passed when Justice Sachin Datta was hearing

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Improving access to entertainment content

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As a cricket fan, I was eager to “watch” the film 83. I am blind since birth. When the movie became available on a streaming platform, I was disappointed to learn that it did not have audio description, thus making the movie inaccessible to me. As a blind Indian citizen, I have often been shut out from many life activities, including consuming entertainment content. Going to the movies helps us de-stress. But what happens when entertainment content is not designed with the needs of the disabled in mind?

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Weekly Newsletter for the Week of 28th of April

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On Tuesday 29th April, we had 5 hearings. First, Kabir Paharia’s matter was listed in the Supreme Court. On this date, we informed the Court that the latest medical assessment was in Kabir’s favour and therefore prayed that he may be accommodated in the next academic year at AIIMS Delhi by blocking a seat for

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Crowd in support

Defending disability reservations

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The recent controversy involving Puja Khedkar, who allegedly faked her disability and caste to obtain benefits, has ignited a debate on the reservations granted to persons with disabilities (PwDs). The issue gained further traction when a former chief executive officer of NITI Aayog tweeted that reservations for PwDs need to be reviewed. Although he later clarified that he was referring only to mental disabilities (thereby drawing an unnecessary and baseless wedge between physical and mental disabilities), his statement, along with similar comments from other civil servants, raises troubling questions about societal attitudes towards disabilities and reservation policies.

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Structured negotiation as a boost for disability rights

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Structured negotiation is a collaborative and solution-driven dispute resolution technique which is increasingly being used as an alternative to litigation. It typically involves inviting the defaulting service provider to the negotiation table and impressing upon them the benefits of complying with social welfare legislations. While its utility pervades sectors, structured negotiation has been most effective in settling disability rights cases in the United States, a development that one of us, Ms. Feingold, has played no small part in ensuring.

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