March 08, 2025 • By KWD

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From Bold to Inclusive: How to define digital accessibility law in Kuwait?

On February 23, 2014, the House of Representatives approved the Law No. 20/2014 regulating electronic transactions in Kuwait. In considering this development, it is helpful to review what has been done elsewhere and to ask: what do ICT experts in Kuwait need to know about alternative content standards for persons with disabilities?

What accessibility is and why it is important?

Digital accessibility refers to a set of measures designed to make the Internet accessible to people with disabilities. These measures include videos featuring text descriptions of images, captions for audio files, screen readers, and much more. Currently, there are more than 59000 disabled people living in the Kuwait. People who are blind, deaf, or have mobility issues can benefit from accessible technology. It is crucial that the Kuwaiti government and organizations pass laws that mandate digital accessibility as a part of improving social conditions. Doing so will help improve the quality of life for people with disabilities by having improved digital experiences and provide essential accessibility. It will also increase the number of opportunities and accessibility services available to disabled people.

Notable Examples of Digital Accessibility

Based on the industry and clientele it serves, the following features must be present in every digitally accessible website or app:

gives any non-text content text or audio alternatives.
includes information that can be conveyed in a variety of ways without losing its meaning, context, or organization.
allows full keyboard functioning, rather than only using a cursor, if necessary.
not constructed in a manner that is known to cause seizures.
includes tools to aid users in finding content, navigating, and locating themselves.
gives users with visual impairments the ability to analyze a webpage using screen readers.
includes videos with closed captions for those who have hearing loss.
For people with vision difficulties, add "alt text" to the photos.
allows people who may not be able to use a mouse to navigate using the keyboard (by using the Tab key).

What are the four principles of digital accessibility?

Digital accessibility law is defined by four principles as taught at university. These include: providing alternative formats for data and media; making media and data available to users with disabilities; providing flexible user interface options; and providing equivalent information or functionality for all users.

Basics of digital accessibility law

Accessibility law is the law that people with disabilities use to access programs and services. When creating a website, for example, one must think about digital accessibility policy and accessibility statement and make use of the accessibility resources. Making the website accessible means that people with disabilities will be able to access the content. Digital accessibility law includes laws that ensure individuals with disabilities have equal access to technology with accessibility solutions and digital products. There are existing laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act with can provide good insights. Such laws require organizations to meet the needs of people with disabilities by adopting web accessibility initiative and provide effective digital accessibility journey. Although these laws don’t specifically apply to websites, they do refer to organizations that provide public services. These public entities must provide equal access to all members of the public by providing a minimum accessibility on a website as they define accessibility and provide web accessibility directive.

Why digital accessibility law needs to evolve?

Digital accessibility laws should be more flexible. Presently, they are rigid and inflexible, which is not healthy for advancing innovation. The current legal framework is outdated when concerning digital accessibility. It fails to account for many of the technological advances that are altering the way the world communicates. To evolve, digital accessibility law needs to include flexibility. The law should concern itself with meeting certain objectives rather than specific actions. The law should specify desired end results. For instance, the law could state, “The end product should be accessible to people with disabilities.” Thus, it should be flexible and allow innovators to determine how to meet those objectives, provide accessibility definition or a statement, and make web and reality a better world for all.

Digital accessibility laws around the world

In 2018, the first comprehensive national digital accessibility law in the United States took effect. It is called the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). It applies to any company that offers subscription services to the public for $10 million or more. It requires these companies to ensure that their services are accessible for people with disabilities. For example, the law includes closed captioning, audio description, and onscreen text descriptions on video programming and have accessibility website. The law does allow companies to offer alternative formats instead of audio description which makes digital accessibility important. Therefore, companies do not have to create audio description for all programming. They must also provide customer support to assist people with disabilities with accessing their services.

The challenges of enforcing digital accessibility laws

What challenges do individuals and companies face when attempting to enforce digital accessibility laws? First, digital accessibility laws are relatively new and have a learning curve. Therefore, there is no precedent set regarding enforcement procedures. It is challenging for individuals and businesses to know how to proceed if authorities request records or if a lawsuit is filed. Second, even if individuals know their rights, they often do not know the requirements. In other words, it is difficult to adequately implement digital accessibility laws without guidance from government authorities. Third, some violations are difficult to identify. For example, it is difficult to identify a website or app that does not comply with accessibility laws. Fourth, determining penalties is difficult. How do companies determine who is to blame? Do fines need to be adjusted based on company size, revenue, and other factors? Fifth, there is a lack of accountability. For example, many websites and apps do not comply with accessibility laws. However, it can be difficult to hold individuals responsible for website maintenance failures.

Dr. Zainab AlMeraj who teaches at Kuwait University's Information Science Department and works for Tech Connect Co. as a recognized expert in digital accessibility and usability elucidates in an article at London School of Economics's Middle East Center Blog conducted a survey and discovered that awareness, skills, training, and time restrictions were the top perceived hurdles to implementing accessible principles. Given the nature of the quick-paced software design and development industry, these findings are common. The majority of interviewees admitted that they had not gotten any training from their jobs in the targeted fields. However, some people had started their own training on their own initiative for personal and professional growth. It's interesting to note that empathy and ethical ideals were scored higher by individuals who were aware of accessibility and usability. In general, the low rates of accessibility knowledge and experience found in the investigation can be attributed to two main reasons: a lack of exposure to the disabled community and inadequate user-focused content in professional training and certification paths as well as higher education curricula. This emphasizes the necessity for better testing and training in the future to make sure that everyone in the ICT area is taught the fundamentals of software usability and accessibility.

Digital accessibility in government websites in Kuwait

In a study conducted in 2019 by Iyad Abu Doush and Dr. Zainab AlMeraj, "Evaluating the Accessibility of Kuwaiti E-government Websites" to assess the Web accessibility challenges that affect Kuwaiti citizens with disabilities in an effort to pinpoint issues, raise government awareness, and encourage inclusion. They employed automatic and expert evaluation on the top 17 E-government services used in Kuwait in 2018 to gauge the accessibility of those services. The acquired results suggested a major flaw in most of the tested websites' adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 level A standards, since 13 of the evaluated E-services were difficult to use. The study also emphasizes the need of using a task-based approach for assessing the accessibility of websites because switching between pages while completing each assignment can assist in identifying further accessibility problems.

The future of digital accessibility law

The future of digital accessibility law is bright. It is potentially limitless. Many countries already have laws regarding accessibility. In fact, Canada has a law that mandates accessibility of websites to all Canadians. One country is taking accessibility a step further. Brazil recently passed a law that requires accessibility for all websites as they create web solutions and tools web needs. This means that any website, regardless of country of origin, must operate at the same level in Brazil. Since Brazil borders many countries, this new law affects other countries as well. It is only a matter of time before similar legislation is enacted in other countries. For this reason, the future of digital accessibility law is bright. Laws may expand to require not only accessibility, but also usability. If a website is not usable by everyone no matter the disability, the site would be in violation of the law. However, some believe the law goes too far. Some believe that instead of forcing companies to follow accessibility laws, they should be required to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The WCAG are international guidelines that ensure accessibility. These guidelines do not force companies to make their websites accessible; they provide specific standards. The guidelines are helpful, but they do not hold companies accountable for complying. Regardless, the future of digital accessibility law is bright. More countries will enact laws to ensure accessibility and some will even go as far as enforcing strict requirements.

What do the experts say on the topic?

Michael Stein, Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria Faculty of Law, and Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School talks about "Ensuring Digital Accessibility through Process and Policy" that,

Lazar, Goldstein, and Taylor are a particularly qualified trio since they combine knowledge of corporate accessibility policies, human-computer interface, and legal responsibility. It is critical to focus on the theoretical and practical insights into the reasons for and methods for ensuring accessibility in the digital age, as well as the cultural shifts required to bring about full inclusion.

In an article published at LSE, Dr. Zainab AlMeraj states that

Stakeholders should start developing a strategic accessibility plan and choose a maturity evaluation model to aid in upskilling, effective onboarding of newcomers, regulating third party collaborations, and providing a measurable foundation from which to sustain efforts while waiting for adoption by the government and private sectors and the establishment of laws and policies at the national and organizational levels. It's interesting to note that many organizations governed by accessibility legislation around the world nevertheless struggle to develop and maintain accessible software and frequently seek advice from international organizations. Modern platforms for prototyping and development are easing the way for the production of useable and accessible software. While waiting for barriers to be removed, stakeholders are urged to approach their work with a universal design perspective and include a wider range of users, especially PWD, in user testing early in the SDLC. Increased client satisfaction and loyalty are essential for any organization to succeed.

In order to realize the "Kuwait Vision 2035 for the disabled," Kuwait forged agreements with the Supreme Council for Planning and Development and UNDP, according to Kuwait's permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim.

The authority's efforts to increase the participation of the disabled in telecommunications and information technology are emphasized in the vision, which also aims to improve access to healthcare and education. In addition, he applauded the UN's Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility's visit to Kuwait, which promoted the rights of those with special needs. According to Al-Ghunaim, the government had revised the criteria for identifying the kind of handicap a person has. In collaboration with the UNDP, it also provided training sessions on the subject. He also mentioned that the authority established a committee to ease disabled people's access to and movement throughout various national governmental institutions.

Summary:

It is imperative and high time for the Government to bring into enforcement the digital accessibility law in the State of Kuwait to provide the equal and fair treatment of people with disabilities and to help the internal market work more effectively and to remove and avoid obstacles to the free flow of accessible goods and services