Assistive Technologies

Assistive Technologies are meant to cater to the needs of people with various impairments like Visual, Hearing, Mobility, and Learning impairment. An assistive technology helps differently abled people in rendering or viewing a webpage. Screen Readers are assistive devices that convert text into synthesized speech to facilitate visually impaired users to listen to and comprehend the content on a webpage. Following URL can be visited to get more information about assistive technologies and screen readers:

Viewing Information in Various File Formats

The information provided by this portal is available in various file formats, such as Portable Document Format (PDF), Word, Excel and PowerPoint. To view the information properly, your browser need to have the required plug-ins or software. For example, the Adobe Flash software is required to view the Flash files. In case your system does not have this software, you can download it from the Internet for free. The table lists the required plug-ins needed to view the information in various file formats.

Note: To view Microsoft Office 2007 files, install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack along with the respective viewer.

Document Type	Download
PDF content	Adobe Acrobat Reader
Word files	Word Viewer (in any version till 2003) Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word (for 2007 version)
Excel files	Excel Viewer 2003 (in any version till 2003) Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Excel (for 2007 version)
PowerPoint presentations	PowerPoint Viewer 2003 (in any version till 2003) Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for PowerPoint (for 2007 version)
Flash content	Adobe Flash Player
Audio Files	Windows Media Player

Screen Reader Access

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government Of India website complies with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 level AA. This will enable people with visual impairments access the website using assistive technologies, such as screen readers. The information of the website is accessible with different screen readers, such as JAWS.

Following table lists the information about different screen readers:

Screen Reader	Website	Free / Commercial
Non Visual Desktop Access (NVDA)	http://www.nvda-project.org/	Free
System Access To Go	http://www.satogo.com/	Free
Hal	http://www.yourdolphin.co.uk/productdetail.asp?id=5	Commercial
JAWS	http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws/	Commercial
Supernova	http://www.yourdolphin.co.uk/productdetail.asp?id=1	Commercial
Window-Eyes	http://www.gwmicro.com/Window-Eyes/	Commercial

Speech Recognition Support

The CMWSSB portal complies with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA. This will enable people with mobility impairments, people with visual impairments and senior citizens access the website using assistive technologies, such as speech recognition software.

Following table lists the information about different speech recognition software:

Speech Recognition Software	Website	Free / Commercial
Dragon Naturally Speaking	http://www.nuance.com/	Commercial
Windows Speech Recognition in Windows Vista	http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windowsvista/speech.aspx	Commercial
Speech Recognition in Windows 7	http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windows7/	Commercial

Accessibility Statement

We are committed to ensure that the CMWSSB portal is accessible to all users irrespective of device in use, technology or ability. It has been built, with an aim, to provide maximum accessibility and usability to its visitors. As a result this portal can be viewed from a variety of devices such as Desktop / Laptop computers, web-enabled mobile devices; etc.

We have put in our best efforts to ensure that all information on this portal is accessible to people with disabilities. For example, a user with visual disability can access this portal using assistive technologies, such as screen readers and screen magnifiers.

We also aim to be standards compliant and follow principles of usability and universal design, which should help all visitors of this portal.

This portal is designed using XHTML 1.0 Transitional to meet Guidelines for Indian Government Websites and also adheres to level A of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 laid down by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Part of the information in the portal is also made available through links to external Websites. External Websites are maintained by the respective departments who are responsible for making these sites accessible.

CMWSSB is working towards making its portal accessible for persons with disabilities, however currently Portable Document Format (PDF) files are not accessible. In addition, information provided in Hindi language is also not accessible.

If you have any problem or suggestion regarding the accessibility of this portal, please write to Us cmwssb[at]tn[dot]gov[dot]in to enable us to respond in a helpful manner. Do let us know the nature of the problem along with your contact information.