Accessibility statement

Our commitment

Government welfare schemes exist to support every citizen — and accessing them shouldn't require perfect vision, hearing, motor control, or technical fluency. Bharat Benefits AI is designed to work for everyone.

What we do to support accessibility

WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance

The Platform is built to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. This includes:

• Minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text and UI components
• All interactive elements reachable and operable via keyboard alone
• Visible focus indicators on every interactive element
• Semantic HTML with proper heading hierarchy and landmark regions
• ARIA labels and live regions for dynamic content
• Form errors programmatically associated with their input fields

Keyboard navigation

• Tab and Shift+Tab move focus through all interactive elements in logical reading order
• Enter and Space activate buttons and links
• Escape dismisses modals and dropdowns
• Arrow keys navigate within composite widgets (menus, tab lists)

Screen reader support

The Platform is tested with major screen readers including NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver. Dynamic content changes (notifications, search results, loading states) are announced via ARIA live regions.

Mobile and touch

• All touch targets are at least 44 × 44 CSS pixels on mobile
• No horizontal scrolling required on screen widths from 320px to 2560px
• Text resizes properly up to 200% zoom without loss of content

Motion and animation

We respect the prefers-reduced-motion setting. If you have reduced motion enabled in your operating system, animations on the Platform are disabled or shortened.

Multilingual support

The Platform is available in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi. Thelang attribute is set correctly so screen readers pronounce content in the right language.

Voice assistant

For citizens who prefer or need voice interaction, we offer a voice-based AI assistant that supports speech-to-text and text-to-speech in all six platform languages.

Known limitations

We continuously improve accessibility, but some areas may have limitations:

• Some scheme content imported from PDF sources may not be fully reformatted
• AI-generated responses may occasionally use complex language; we're actively improving plain-language output

Feedback

We welcome feedback from citizens who experience accessibility barriers. If something doesn't work for you, please email us at accessibility@bharatbenefits.ai. We commit to responding within 5 business days and fixing critical issues as quickly as possible.

Standards we follow

• WCAG 2.1 Level AA
• Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act
• EN 301 549 (European accessibility standard for ICT)
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (India)