India’s Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities has called for accessibility to become a coordinated, measurable priority across government rather than an isolated responsibility assigned to one department.
The message was delivered at Sugamyata Ka Sankalp, a national consultation held at the India International Centre in New Delhi to review the progress of the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan and consider priorities for its next phase.
Manmeet Kaur Nanda, Additional Secretary at DEPwD, said accessibility could not be treated as an afterthought. She called for coordinated action across ministries, departments and different levels of government, working in partnership with civil society.
For India’s prosthetics and orthotics community, this is particularly relevant. Providing a prosthesis, orthosis or wheelchair does not automatically create accessibility. A technically appropriate device can only achieve its intended purpose when the user can also reach healthcare, enter buildings, use transport, access education and employment, obtain repairs and participate in community life.
Accessibility begins before the device is prescribed
The consultation emphasised that accessibility affects education, healthcare, employment, transport, financial services, digital information and public infrastructure.
These sectors are closely connected throughout the P&O rehabilitation pathway.
An individual requiring an artificial limb may need to travel repeatedly for assessment, casting or scanning, trial fitting, gait training, review and maintenance. A child receiving an orthosis may require regular appointments as growth or clinical presentation changes. A wheelchair or walking-aid user must be able to enter the rehabilitation centre and move safely within it.
If accessible transport, pathways, entrances, examination rooms, toilets and digital appointment systems are unavailable, access to the device itself becomes only one part of an incomplete service.
This is why accessibility should be considered from the beginning of healthcare planning rather than introduced later through expensive alterations.
A whole-of-government responsibility
The Sugamyata Ka Sankalp consultation was organised by DEPwD under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in partnership with the Association of People with Disability and in collaboration with Ipsos.
Participants included representatives from the ministries responsible for education, health, road transport, information and broadcasting, and statistics. Prasar Bharati, the Airports Authority of India, state governments, State Commissioners for Persons with Disabilities, researchers, academics and disability-sector organisations also participated.
This breadth matters because DEPwD can lead national policy and coordination, but it does not directly manage every hospital, school, transport service, railway station, workplace or digital platform.
Each responsible ministry, state authority and service provider must incorporate accessibility into its own planning, procurement and performance measurement.
The official DEPwD framework identifies three principal areas under the Accessible India Campaign:
- The built environment
- Transportation
- Information and communication technology
The campaign’s goal is to create an enabling, barrier-free environment in which people with disabilities can live independently and participate fully in society.
What this means for P&O clinics
Accessibility within a prosthetic and orthotic facility should be considered part of clinical quality, not simply a building-compliance exercise.
An accessible P&O service should examine:
- Step-free access from the road or parking area
- Door widths suitable for wheelchairs and walking aids
- Safe ramps, lifts and handrails
- Accessible reception and payment counters
- Adequate turning space within clinical rooms
- Height-adjustable assessment and casting equipment
- Accessible toilets and changing areas
- Safe parallel-bar and gait-training spaces
- Seating suitable for people with different mobility needs
- Clear signage and wayfinding
- Accessible websites, forms and appointment systems
- Communication support for people with visual, hearing, intellectual or cognitive disabilities
Accessibility should also extend into workshops. The layout must allow patients to attend safely for adjustments without encountering machinery, dust, trailing cables or other fabrication hazards.
New facilities have the advantage of embedding these considerations during design. Existing clinics may require an accessibility audit followed by a prioritised improvement plan.
Measuring accessibility, not merely declaring it
A major focus of the consultation was the need for reliable information.
One roundtable examined challenges associated with collecting and using accessibility data. A second considered how accessibility should be measured across sectors and what would be required for a credible, practical measurement framework.
This represents an important shift. Accessibility programmes cannot be evaluated only by counting how many ramps, accessible toilets or altered websites have been delivered.
Within rehabilitation, meaningful indicators could include:
- The percentage of patients able to reach a centre independently
- Average travel distance and cost
- Waiting time from referral to assessment
- Availability of accessible transport
- Percentage of facilities passing a recognised accessibility audit
- Accessibility of appointment and patient-information systems
- Device delivery, repair and follow-up times
- Patient-reported barriers to using services
- Return to education, employment and community participation
- Differences in access between urban and rural populations
The involvement of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is therefore noteworthy. Consistent data could help identify regional gaps, guide investment and show whether infrastructure changes are producing tangible improvements.
CPOs should contribute to accessible design
Certified prosthetists and orthotists understand how mobility devices interact with real environments. This experience should be used when hospitals, rehabilitation centres and public spaces are designed or audited.
A ramp may technically exist but remain unusable because of its gradient, surface, width or approach. An accessible toilet may be too small for a wheelchair user wearing a long-leg orthosis. Seating may not accommodate a person who cannot flex the knee. A security scanner or reception counter may be difficult to use with crutches or a prosthesis.
CPOs can contribute practical knowledge about:
- Mobility with prostheses, orthoses and walking aids
- Manoeuvring space required by different devices
- Fall risks and surface selection
- Seating and transfer requirements
- Fatigue and walking-distance limitations
- Access during device failure or repair
- The needs of children and people with complex disabilities
However, professional expertise must complement—not replace—the direct participation of people with disabilities. Users should be involved in design, audits, monitoring and decision-making.
Accessibility should enter procurement
Government procurement has an important role in converting policy into practice.
Tenders for hospitals, rehabilitation centres, public transport, digital systems and assistive technologies should include measurable accessibility requirements. Suppliers should be required to demonstrate compliance rather than merely state that a product or facility is accessible.
For prosthetic and orthotic services, procurement should also recognise the full rehabilitation pathway. Purchasing components without funding assessment, fitting, physiotherapy, training, follow-up, repairs and replacement may reduce the value of the investment.
Similarly, centralised procurement must account for geographic access. A low device price offers limited benefit if patients must make repeated, expensive journeys to a distant fitting centre.
From accessible buildings to accessible lives
Launched in 2015, the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan established accessibility as a national priority across buildings, transport and information technology. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 subsequently strengthened the legislative foundation for accessibility.
The next phase must connect standards, implementation and measurable outcomes.
For the P&O sector, the central lesson is that mobility cannot be delivered by a device alone. A well-fitted prosthesis is less valuable if its user cannot board a bus. An effective orthosis cannot support education if the school remains inaccessible. A wheelchair cannot enable independent healthcare access if the clinic has steps at its entrance.
The goal should therefore extend beyond accessible infrastructure to complete, usable and dignified rehabilitation pathways.
If accessibility is embedded into planning, procurement, clinical services and data systems from the outset, Sugamya Bharat can move closer to its ultimate purpose: enabling people with disabilities to exercise their rights and participate fully in Indian society.
- PIB: DEPwD Calls for a Whole-of-Government Approach to Sugamya Bharat
- DEPwD: Accessible India Campaign
- DEPwD: Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan
- Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities: Harmonized Accessibility Guidelines
- DEPwD: Creation of a Barrier-Free Environment