Accessibility compliance guides · India

SEBI accessibility compliance

On July 31, 2025 SEBI required every regulated entity to make investor-facing digital platforms accessible. Audits and remediation are due by October 31, 2026, with annual audits after that. The circulars do not stop at the largest houses.

Standards: WCAG 2.1 or latest, GIGW, and IS 17802
Audit and fix by: October 31, 2026
Auditors: IAAP-certified professionals, with usability testing by persons with disabilities required by SEBI

What it is

SEBI’s digital accessibility framework applies to regulated entities — stock exchanges, brokers, depositories, mutual funds, portfolio managers, alternative investment funds, investment advisers, research analysts, and other intermediaries. Investor-facing websites, portals, and apps are in scope.

The technical standards named are WCAG 2.1 (or the latest version), GIGW, and IS 17802. SEBI asks for accessibility audits by IAAP-certified professionals, and for usability testing by persons with disabilities. Entities are expected to name a nodal officer, keep senior accountability, run an accessible grievance process, and repeat audits annually. Procurement is supposed to weigh accessibility, so a vendor product is not a way around the circular.

After extensions, audits and remediation must be complete by October 31, 2026. The duty does not end that day. Annual audits and compliance reporting continue. If you are reading this after the date, the work is late, not cancelled.

Our audits are carried out by IAAP-certified specialists using NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver, alongside keyboard and zoom testing. SEBI also asks for usability testing by persons with disabilities. We will tell you plainly when a filing needs that additional session so the report matches the circular, rather than treating a scanner export as the audit.

Who needs to comply

If you hold a SEBI registration, assume the investor-facing platform is in scope.

Market infrastructure and intermediaries. Exchanges, depositories, clearing corporations, brokers, depository participants, KYC registration agencies, and registrar and transfer agents.
Asset and advisory businesses. Mutual funds and AMCs, portfolio managers, alternative investment funds, investment advisers, and research analysts.
Fintech platforms that are regulated. A modern app is not exempt because it is new. Investor journeys — onboarding, KYC, orders, statements, and complaints — are the audit.
Vendors to those entities. The circular pushes accessibility into procurement. If your white-label portal is what investors use, the regulated entity will ask you for evidence.

Timeline

October 31, 2026 is the remediation date. The annual cycle starts after it.

July 31, 2025. SEBI circular sets the digital accessibility framework for regulated entities.
October 31, 2026. Audits and remediation of investor-facing digital platforms, after the extensions SEBI allowed.
After that date. Annual audits, a nodal officer, accessible grievance redressal, and reporting through the channel SEBI and the exchanges specify.

What the rule requires

SEBI’s list is more specific than “be accessible.”

WCAG 2.1 or latest, plus GIGW and IS 17802. We test WCAG 2.2 AA as the latest practical web level and map findings to IS 17802 and the GIGW accessibility expectations.
IAAP-certified audit. Our founder is an IAAP Certified Web Accessibility Specialist, and team members hold WAS, CPACC, CPWA, and ADS credentials. The report names who tested.
Usability testing by persons with disabilities. The circular asks for this specifically. Assistive-technology testing by certified specialists is our core audit. When the filing also needs sessions with people with disabilities, we say so and scope that work instead of implying a scan covered it.
Nodal officer, grievances, and procurement. Someone accountable, a complaint path investors can use, and vendor contracts that carry the same standards. We test the grievance flow and can review the accessibility language you put in front of vendors.

How we help

We help regulated entities arrive at October 31, 2026 with a real audit and fixes, and then keep the annual cycle boring.

An IAAP-certified audit of the investor-facing site and app, prioritized around onboarding, KYC, transactions, statements, and complaints.
Remediation in the codebase, plus a report you can put in the compliance file with the nodal officer named and the open items listed honestly.
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 confirm which legal entities and which investor platforms are in the SEBI registration, and whether a vendor owns part of the journey.
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: RPwD Act, GIGW, IS 17802, and the SEBI mandate.

Frequently asked questions

We only want the audit report. Can you do that?

Yes. An audit of the existing platform is a valid engagement. We will also tell you whether fixing the current site is realistic before the filing, or whether parts of the journey need to be rebuilt. We do not publish a price list — we scope it from the platform.

Does an automated scan satisfy SEBI?

No. SEBI asks for certified professionals and for usability testing by persons with disabilities. A scanner finds a fraction of WCAG failures. We start with people and tools, not with a score.

What happens after October 31, 2026?

Annual audits and continued reporting. New features, new funds, and new portals need to be built accessible or they become next year’s findings. We can stay on for the retest.

Do you guarantee SEBI will accept the report?

We guarantee a careful audit by IAAP-certified specialists and fixes we can defend. Acceptance of a filing is SEBI’s and the exchange’s decision. We do not imply otherwise.

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

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