ACCESSIBILITY

The Journey

In 2024, Newslaundry became the first Indian news outlet to make its website and app fully accessible for people with disabilities. This transformation was inspired by a young reader who shared his frustrating experience navigating our site as a disabled user. His feedback revealed a broader issue—we were unintentionally excluding a significant portion of the population.

This insight launched a year-long effort involving extensive research, user surveys, consultations with accessibility experts and disabled users, and complex engineering work. We refactored our front-end code, revamped our tech stack, and conducted multiple rounds of beta testing with disabled users to ensure seamless accessibility.

Building accessibility into a product is easier when done from the start, but working with a decade-old tech stack—a mix of custom solutions and third-party SaaS—presented significant challenges. It required multiple iterations and extensive research to get it right.

Impact and Recognition

Today, over 60,000 users access our accessibility settings across the website and app. Following our launch, the Court of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities issued a suo moto notice to six leading Indian news websites for their inaccessibility. We've also been approached by other companies, including a major corporate group, for guidance on implementing accessibility.

Since the launch, hundreds of disabled users have written to us, sharing how, for the first time, they can properly access an Indian news website. This transformation has set a new standard, highlighting the urgent need for other platforms to follow suit.

Business Impact and Industry Influence

This overhaul has not only expanded the reach of our public-interest journalism to disabled users but has also given us a competitive edge. Hundreds of disabled users have subscribed to our platform, highlighting the tangible business benefits of making news accessible.

Our success has encouraged other publishers to consider accessibility, sparking a broader industry shift. It’s deeply rewarding to not only make news accessible to disabled users but also inspire change within the media landscape.