Digital Inclusion for Access to Information: A Study on Banking and Financial Institutions in India

Banking and Financial Institutions (BFIs) show the growth of development of a country. Digital literacy and its development in a country depend on its use by the citizens of a country. In India, they have recently made strides in using digital technology due to fast development in the Internet techn...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: P. J. Mathew Martin, Manukonda Rabindranath
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2017-09-01
Series:SAGE Open
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017720479
Description
Summary:Banking and Financial Institutions (BFIs) show the growth of development of a country. Digital literacy and its development in a country depend on its use by the citizens of a country. In India, they have recently made strides in using digital technology due to fast development in the Internet technology. The recent “World Report on Disability” by World Health Organization (WHO) puts the disabled populations in the world at 15%. There are 26.81 million Indians who suffer from some form of disability. This research study critically probes the two determinants of the digital divide: (a) the accessibility of websites of banks and (b) the accessibility of financial and banking information on their websites. United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) guidelines has been ratified by Government of India in 2007. The websites of 103 BFIs in India were used for the study. The research study work started on December 3, 2013; it being the World Day of the Disabled. The study aimed for evaluating the websites in terms of media tool for communication, information, services, accessibility, design, and interactive participatory features for persons with disabilities. The study showed that 26% of the websites under study and 5% International BFIs in India offered information in vernacular medium, while only seven websites of the BFIs in India passed markup validation test.
ISSN:2158-2440