Social Affairs Ministry ensures screen reader accessibility for the visually impaired

The Ministry of Social Affairs is committed to gathering aspirations from the visually impaired community and coordinating with the Ministry of Communication and Digital to ensure that screen reader features are implemented across various national digital platforms.

Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf stated in Jakarta on Wednesday that the Ministry is also intensifying discussions with disability associations to adapt information technology developments for the ease of accessibility for vulnerable groups.

“We are continuously discussing this with our friends in disability organisations, including those for the visually impaired. We will accommodate their aspirations and adjust the technology accordingly,” he said.

Saifullah explained that this step is part of the preparations for implementing derivative regulations of the Government Regulation (PP) on Concessions, as well as PP Number 39 of 2020 regarding Reasonable Accommodation for Persons with Disabilities, which covers eight priority sectors, including internet services and digital infrastructure.

“This includes how these regulations can be implemented across the eight sectors, one of which is internet services. While discussions are still ongoing, we will certainly discuss the aspirations of our visually impaired friends further with Komdigi,” he added.

In addition to promoting technological standardisation at the ministerial level, the Ministry of Social Affairs is also optimising assessment-based empowerment training programmes for the visually impaired.

Saifullah added that the Ministry is maintaining continuous communication with the Indonesian Blind Association (Pertuni) to formulate training modules for digital feature usage that are most relevant and suitable to the needs of those in the field.