Government websites to be made accessible to visually impaired

The Information Technology and Electronics (ITE) department of the West Bengal Government has decided to undertake a drive soon to make government and public-sector websites accessible to visually impaired people. This initiative will be conducted by the government in association with the State Welfare Department. The ITE Department has come up with a plan to make websites interactive, i.e. the websites will read the content out to help the visually challenged people access the websites. The ITE department is currently holding talks with Webel to carry out the plan. A senior official of ITE department said, "Read Aloud extensions on internet browsers like Google Chrome can be an option as well. These 'Text-to-Speech' extensions are often free and offer themselves to customization (slow or fast reading speeds). We are also ready to assist any private company on making their websites friendly for the visually impaired”.