The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued draft Guidelines for Accessibility of Content on Platforms of Publishers of Online Curated Content (OTT Platforms) for Persons with Hearing and Visual Impairment for public consultation on 07.10.2025.

The draft guidelines have been published keeping in view the Constitutional guarantees enshrined under Article 14, India’s obligation under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD), 2016 and Code of Ethics under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media, Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 on 25.02.2021 under IT Act, 2000 (IT Rules, 2021).

The draft guidelines aim to ensure that audio-visual content on OTT platforms is accessible to persons with hearing and visual impairment. It also provides for a two-phase implementation schedule.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has already issued Accessibility Standards for Persons with Disabilities in Television Programmes for the Hearing Impaired dated 11.09.2019.

Part 12 of the said Accessibility Standards prescribes that the implementation of access service should be in a phased manner, first implemented by the public broadcaster (i.e. Prasar Bharati), and followed by private broadcasters and private news broadcasters.

This Information was submitted by the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Dr. L. Murugan in the Rajya Sabha today in response to questions asked by Smt. Sangeeta Yadav, Dr. Medha Vishram Kulkarni and Shri Deepak Prakash.

****

Mahesh Kumar