Organizations Offering Higher Education in India Moving Towards Digital Equality

Websites are today the face of an organization in the virtual world, with a global reach. Universities are organizations in India offering higher education. They use their websites for digital equality in education. The Information and Technology (IT) Act 2000 of India, is silent on the subject of Digital inequality of its educable population. However, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) guidelines, which has been ratified by Govt. of India, in 2007 of which Article 9.2 (g) & (h) lays down that, states should facilitate digital equality for Persons with disabilities (PWDs) for education, for new information and communication technologies, especially the Internet. One of the aims of National Assessment and Accreditation Council’s (NAAC) is to assess and accredit institutions of higher education in the country and lay special emphasis on upholding the quality of higher education in India. The websites of 137 Central and State Universities with NAAC accreditation were used for the study. The study aimed at evaluating the websites in terms of digital inequality in education, digital equality, career opportunities and interactive features for student population with disabilities. The study showed significant differences of digital equality features in their websites.