The accessibility problems we’ve known about since 2001, for 24 yrs
Hi there,
This is the forty seventh of D&T Special, a more in-depth view of topics that interest the Canvs team. Today’s topic – The accessibility problems we’ve known about since 2001, for 24 years.
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✍️ From the Canvs Research & Editorial Desk
The digital banking revolution in India has brought financial access to hundreds of millions, but for many disabled users, that access remains a promise rather than a reality. Behind sleek interfaces and seamless payment flows, there’s a story, one where screen readers announce “button” instead of “Pay Now,” where success states are shown but never spoken, and where a simple UPI pin reset can become an insurmountable maze.
This week the Canvs R&E team has spent some time pondering this concept, let’s dive into some details.
What makes this harder to accept is that none of this is new. The design failures showing up in Indian banking apps in 2025 were documented and named in 2001, by researchers studying a far more primitive internet. We’ve had the knowledge, the standards, and increasingly the tools. What we haven’t had, consistently, is the will to treat accessibility as a core design requirement rather than an afterthought.
Key takeaways from this read:
1. Old problems, new interfaces
The accessibility failures in today’s Indian banking apps aren’t novel, they mirror findings from a landmark 2001 Nielsen report almost exactly. Unlabeled controls, broken feedback loops, and disorienting navigation have simply migrated from websites to apps, largely unaddressed across two decades.
2. Accessibility failures are usability failures
Poor contrast, small tap targets, and confusing multi-step flows don’t only affect disabled users, they erode the experience for seniors, first-time digital users, and anyone in a low-attention moment. When the average Indian finance platform carries over 91 accessibility errors per homepage, everyone pays the cost.
3. Compliance isn’t the same as usability
India has frameworks, and the industry has WCAG standards, but ticking accessibility checkboxes and building products that work for real people in real conditions are very different things. Until accessibility is tested with disabled users rather than just audited by automated tools, the gap between guidance and lived experience will remain.
📰 In other news
✨ Product find of the week
Perplexity Computer operates the software stack just like a human co-worker would: by using it. Computer reasons, delegates, searches, builds, remembers, codes, and delivers. Start by describing an outcome. Perplexity Computer breaks it into tasks and subtasks, creating sub-agents for execution.
Some highlights from the past month of D&T
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