Accessibility compliance guides · India

IS 17802 and GIGW compliance

IS 17802 and GIGW are the two Indian documents people cite next to WCAG. GIGW tells government websites how to be built and run. IS 17802 is the Bureau of Indian Standards’ accessibility standard for ICT, harmonized with EN 301 549.

GIGW: Guidelines for Indian Government Websites, version 3.0 (2023)
IS 17802: BIS accessibility requirements for ICT products and services
Shared core: Both sit on WCAG. IS 17802 is harmonized with EN 301 549.

What it is

GIGW 3.0 is mandatory for Indian government websites. It is broader than a WCAG checklist: it covers quality, security, lifecycle, and content practices as well as accessibility, and its accessibility expectations align with WCAG. A government site that only passes an automated WCAG scan can still miss GIGW.

IS 17802 is the Indian Standard for accessibility of ICT products and services. It is harmonized with EN 301 549, so a product that has been tested properly against the European standard is most of the way to IS 17802 for the same clauses. SEBI’s circular names IS 17802 alongside WCAG and GIGW. The RPwD Act’s practical standards point here too.

We do not treat the two documents as interchangeable. A ministry website is a GIGW engagement. A broker’s investor app is an IS 17802 and WCAG engagement. A vendor selling the same product into India and the EU can use one WCAG 2.2 AA test, mapped to IS 17802 and EN 301 549, with GIGW added only if a government site is in scope.

Who needs to comply

The document you need depends on who operates the site.

Government website owners. GIGW 3.0 applies. Accessibility is one chapter of a broader guideline. We focus on the access requirements and flag lifecycle issues that block them, such as inaccessible PDFs uploaded after launch.
SEBI-regulated entities. The circular names WCAG, GIGW, and IS 17802 together. Investor platforms need the IS 17802 / WCAG test even when the organization is not a department of government.
Product companies. If the contract or a tender says IS 17802, we test the clauses that match the product: web, documents, or software.

Timeline

These are standards, so they apply when a law, a circular, or a contract incorporates them.

GIGW 3.0 (2023). Current government website guidelines. Older GIGW versions are not the target for a site being updated now.
IS 17802. The BIS standard to cite when a regulator or tender asks for the Indian ICT accessibility standard. It tracks EN 301 549 rather than inventing a separate WCAG.
October 31, 2026. The date matters for SEBI-regulated entities, who must meet these standards on investor platforms. Government GIGW duties are already in force.

What the rule requires

Conform to WCAG AA, then account for the extra expectations each document adds.

WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA. The web core of both documents. We test 2.2 AA and report 2.1 conformance within it.
GIGW quality and content practices. For government sites: consistent publishing, accessible documents, and a site that stays conformant after the communications team uploads the next circular.
IS 17802 clause scope. Web is not software is not hardware. We list the parts of the standard that apply so the report is not a wall of irrelevant clauses.
Bilingual and document reality. Indian public sites often fail in PDFs, Hindi and English alternatives, and scanned notices. We include the documents people must read, not only the HTML shell.

How we help

We scope GIGW and IS 17802 correctly, test them, and fix the templates that keep producing failing pages.

A written scope that says GIGW, IS 17802, or both, before testing starts.
Remediation of the CMS templates and the document workflow, so the next notice is published accessibly.
Manual testing with NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver, plus keyboard-only use and browser zoom. The failures these rules care about are often invisible to an automated scan.
Remediation in your production code by our developers, so the fix lives in the product and not only in a report.
An accessibility statement and, where a buyer or regulator expects one, a VPAT-based Accessibility Conformance Report grounded in the audit.
Training for the people who publish pages, documents, and campaigns after the audit.
A retest after major releases, so a later deploy does not quietly undo the work.

Web accessibility audit and remediation

Our process

Confirm what applies to you. We decide whether this is a government GIGW site, an IS 17802 product, or a SEBI platform that names all three, and we drop the clauses that do not apply.
Audit the live experience. We review the pages, flows, documents, and apps people actually use, with assistive technologies as well as automated checks, and map each finding to the standard this rule points to.
Fix the barriers that block access. Our developers remediate structure, keyboard access, forms, contrast, names, and media in your codebase, starting with the journeys that gate a service.
Document what was tested. You receive the findings, what we fixed, and the statement or conformance report your team, counsel, or procurement office needs on file.
Keep it from slipping. We train publishers and retest after significant releases so new content does not reopen the same gaps.

Longer background: India’s RPwD Act, GIGW, IS 17802, and SEBI.

Frequently asked questions

If we meet WCAG 2.2 AA, do we meet GIGW?

You meet the accessibility core. GIGW also expects government sites to follow quality, security, and lifecycle practices. We will tell you which findings are WCAG failures and which are GIGW publishing failures.

Is IS 17802 different from EN 301 549?

It is harmonized with EN 301 549, not a rival checklist. We test once and map the report to the Indian citation and, if you need it, the European one.

Does a private company have to follow GIGW?

GIGW is for government websites. A private company follows it when a regulator tells them to (SEBI names it) or when they operate a site on behalf of government. Otherwise IS 17802 and WCAG are the more relevant pair.

Can you audit Hindi and English together?

Yes. Language of the interface is part of the test. Alt text, labels, and error messages have to exist in the languages the site actually serves.

Related guides

This page is general information from Peradeo Technologies Inc., not legal advice.

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