FIX : IndianRail on the internet - issues

[Vaishnavi Jayakumar]

Hi all,

Was aware of the correspondence by many on the recently redesigned IRCTC website (beta) and so gatecrashed CRIS when in Delhi a few days back - they by the way (as I have been mentioning repeatedly) handle the world's largest online reservation system for IRCTC.

The person I contacted  out of the blue (S.J. Sinha) was supposed to be in charge of Passenger Reservation System (PRS) which is now run by Vinod Bhatia. S.J. Sinha heads Web Apps - all the 40+ subdomains of indianrail.gov.in, mobile apps etc. Anyway, the day I gatecrashed, Mr. Sinha was at Railway Bhavan and said someone else would meet me. That was Mr. Pitamber Verma - the Chief Project Engineer / Web Applications who was welcoming and helpful. Mr. Amit Jha from his team also joined us. However anything to do with the ticketing side of things is handled by the PRS team - Mr. Yogendra joined from that team. 

All I had grasped about the accessibility problems was the missing OTP option - so I mentioned that. Yogendra said it had been fixed a couple of days earlier. As I was stumped after that (and more importantly WAVE and aChecker couldn't run reports on either www.irctc.co.in or www.indianrail.gov.in ) I messaged Srinivasu and asked if all was well on the IRCTC booking front. He said it was not OK and promised to send inputs later that evening as he was travelling.

I then called Prashant from NAB. He briefly discussed some of the issues still preventing independent booking with Mr. Yogendra. He was not free to come over the next morning to fix things then and there with Mr. Yogendra but promised that someone else would come along with a screen-reading laptop. I bounced the idea of an understanding accessibility workshop with Mr. Verma - he was enthusiastic. I was less enthusiastic about mobile apps and said a responsive version of the website with offline functionality, and camera / GPS access was more than enough rather than the perpetual, expensive tweaking required by Android updates and glitches caused by enormous variation in device size, specs and UI skin.  

WEB APPLICATIONS
The next morning Mukesh Sharma from NAB and I reached CRIS to find that Mr. Yogendra was busy. He suggested we meet the GM/PRS - Vinod Bhatia. We first met S.J. Sinha who was familiar with GIGW. He was keen to have a training but said getting money would take time. As of now Mukesh has committed for a day workshop, the details of which need to be sent across. As Mr. Pitamber Verma had mentioned Shaswat's name came up (from Eye-D) - I think they have been in touch with CRIS about accessifying / access audit. As everything is handled inhouse at CRIS, I am guessing an occasional access report would suffice with detailed one-off training and refreshers for new staff. Anyway, over to Prashant on that front.

PRS

We then met with Mr. Satish, Yogendra's counterpart. They handle NGET - Next Generation E-Ticketing - IRCTC's CONCERT, counter sales and mobile app. 

First the following issues were flagged for fixes :

1) The banner ad that appears (Central Govt achievements etc) - no longer there, they have no control and have to carry it. Mukesh said an Escape gets rid of it, I think - whatever it is future interstitial ads can have a common instruction and deactivation key for screenreaders.

2) OTP checkbox was missing a label. 

3) Suggestions on station list dropdowns read only what is typed and not the actual list of stations. There was lack of familiarity with ARIA, Mukesh explained and said he'd send the code.

4) Calendar popup to be only on clicking the calendar icon specifically, now  it is obscuring the date fields manual entry.

5) Despite refreshing the screen, the content remained same for screenreaders - apparently another ARIA fix.

(Anything further than what was discussed above, Mukesh felt would require a detailed access audit report. These fixes were sufficient to enable independent booking again.)

CAPTCHAs

We went back and forth on CAPTCHAs. Apparently IRCTC has only ever had image and OTP CAPTCHAs. During Tatkal hours 8-12 noon, the image CAPTCHA is CRIS-provided, rest of the time there is Simpli5d's NLP CAPTCHAs a commercial party serving up ad-run image CAPTCHAs. OTP is available as an option during both Tatkal and Non-Tatkal timings. While logical CAPTCHAs - simple text-based math puzzles are available to be deployed it would require policy folks to enable the same. Audio CAPTCHAs they have had no experience of doing.

There was definitely less of a time lag after the noon switch, for SMS OTP delivery. Despite Mukesh insisting that a high priority option was available  for SMS delivery, Satish said that was handled by the provider and all SMS went with default priority to avoid partiality. I think a logical CAPTCHA needs to be pushed for so that screenreader users do not lose out during Tatkal hours because their choice is restricted only to SMS OTP.

BERTH ALLOCATION BASED ON DISABILITY

(I am not 100% sure that I have understood this correctly. Requires policy level change and a thorough understanding of logic used and weightage)

There are primarily 3 ticketing quotas - SC (senior citizen), GEN (general) and HP (handicapped - which now appears on the home page as Divyang). 

Let's assume that there are 4 quota seats allotted for disabled travellers per train. The basic logic employed over the years is that each disabled person is accompanied by an assistant / escort. The 2 lower berths are always for the disabled traveller, the 2 upper always for the escort. So assuming 4 disabled people travelling without escorts,  the first in queue will get a lower, the second an upper, the third a lower, the fourth an upper. 

Lower berth priority logic in general quota is extended to male above 60, female above 45 and pregnant woman - even in this preference is to those travelling alone. Even if 3 senior citizens are travelling together, if booked on a single ticket, at least 1 will be allotted an upper / middle berth. For further clarity, please read this Trainman page . 

That leaves the 'Book only if berth preference is confirmed' option - which Satish says is a sizeable chunk of ticket requests. 

It IS possible for logic and weightage changes in berth allocation - that will need to be negotiated with the railway board. Perhaps a meeting after studying some  data ( RTIed if need be) is in order.

I will be sharing contact details of the people contacted with a few people based in Delhi as well as the tech accessibility experts. Perhaps for streamlining communication we could route requirements via Prashant for web accessibility and Murali of NPRD for berth allocation negotiation. 

Hopefully the folks in Delhi will be able to troubleshoot issues directly now on a regular basis.

Vaishnavi

[Vaishnavi Jayakumar]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Vaishnavi Jayakumar <jayakumar...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon 9 Jul, 2018, 10:03 PM
Subject: Re: FIX : IndianRail on the internet - issues
To: Access Forum <acces...@accessindia.org.in>
Cc: Mukesh Sharma Access Delhi <mrmukes...@gmail.com>, Prashant Verma Delhi NAB <prash...@gmail.com>

Dear Vinod / BS Verma,

This whole email was regarding the login process! Have you checked this over the last 24 hours?

Again, I do not know the tech behind this, Mukesh Sharma can best clarify these doubts.

If the issues I'd mentioned in the email are still preventing IRCTC desktop login using a screen reader then do let us know so it can be addressed. Vinod, have not seen the mobile app, let's address that next stage? 

Re: [AI] FIX : IndianRail on the internet - issues

Vinod Benjamin Mon, 09 Jul 2018 04:42:01 -0700

Dear Vishnavi,

Thanks for that eloberate mail on IRCTC accessibility ,
really Appreciate it ,
it would be great the Login page is also addressed, have tried to
access the portel with  loging in by the sighted help still nothing is
accessible.

in Androyd version : it would be great if they could make the captcha
to be an OTP or accessible Captcha that would be effective at least.
all the other interphases are accessible in Androyd version, at least
to my knowledge ,
the only catch in the APK is tapping some were to login the IRCTC APK.
Regards,
Vinod Benjamin.

On 7/9/18, bhawani shankar verma <bsvermad...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The points you have mentioned will be encountered after login in to IRCTC.
> where is the login field? I could manage to login in IRCTC with sighted help
>
> and also got both login and booking OTP within 3 seconds. so, OTP is no
> issue for me. without opening the lock, how you can enter. I request you all
>
> to please simplify the procedure. in your message nothing about the login
> page. first rectify that login field. also request to please don't suggest
> to switch between screen reader as required. the website must be accessible
>
> across the screen reader. CCPD have sent notice to IRCTC, ministry of rail
> and railway board regarding the matter.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vaishnavi Jayakumar
> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2018 9:17 PM
> To: AccessIndia.org.in
> Subject: [AI] FIX : IndianRail on the internet - issues
>
> Hi all,
>
> Was aware of the correspondence
> <https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=accessindia%40accessindia.org.in&q=subject:%22%5C%5BAI%5C%5D+IRCTC+challenges%5C%21%22&o=newest>
> by many on the recently redesigned IRCTC
> <https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=acces...@accessindia.org.in&q=subject:%22Re%5C%3A+%5C%5BAI%5C%5D+IRCTC+new+website%2C+looking+confusing%2C+any+clue%5C%3F%22&o=newest>
> website (beta <http://pib.nic.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1533835>)
> and so gatecrashed CRIS
> <http://cris.org.in/criswebsite/crissite/index.jsp#about> when in Delhi a
> few days back - they by the way (as I have been mentioning repeatedly)
> handle the world's largest online reservation system for IRCTC.
>
> The person I contacted  out of the blue (S.J. Sinha) was supposed to be in
> charge of Passenger Reservation System (PRS) which is now run by Vinod
> Bhatia. S.J. Sinha heads Web Apps - all the 40+ subdomains of
> indianrail.gov.in, mobile apps etc. Anyway, the day I gatecrashed, Mr.
> Sinha was at Railway Bhavan and said someone else would meet me. That was
> Mr. Pitamber Verma - the Chief Project Engineer / Web Applications who was
> welcoming and helpful. Mr. Amit Jha from his team also joined us. However
> anything to do with the ticketing side of things is handled by the PRS team
> - Mr. Yogendra joined from that team.
>
> All I had grasped about the accessibility problems was the missing OTP
> option - so I mentioned that. Yogendra said it had been fixed a couple of
> days earlier. As I was stumped after that (and more importantly WAVE and
> aChecker couldn't run reports on either www.irctc.co.in or
> www.indianrail.gov.in ) I messaged Srinivasu and asked if all was well on
> the IRCTC booking front. He said it was not OK and promised to send inputs
> later that evening as he was travelling.
>
> I then called Prashant from NAB. He briefly discussed some of the issues
> still preventing independent booking with Mr. Yogendra. He was not free to
> come over the next morning to fix things then and there with Mr. Yogendra
> but promised that someone else would come along with a screen-reading
> laptop. I bounced the idea of an understanding accessibility workshop with
> Mr. Verma - he was enthusiastic. I was less enthusiastic about mobile apps
> and said a responsive version of the website with offline functionality,
> and camera / GPS access was more than enough rather than the perpetual,
> expensive tweaking required by Android updates and glitches caused by
> enormous variation in device size, specs and UI skin.
>
> *WEB APPLICATIONS*
> The next morning Mukesh Sharma from NAB and I reached CRIS to find that Mr.
> Yogendra was busy. He suggested we meet the GM/PRS - Vinod Bhatia. We first
> met S.J. Sinha who was familiar with GIGW. He was keen to have a training
> but said getting money would take time. As of now Mukesh has committed for
> a day workshop, the details of which need to be sent across. As Mr.
> Pitamber Verma had mentioned Shaswat's name came up (from Eye-D
> <https://eye-d.in/>) - I think they have been in touch with CRIS about
> accessifying / access audit. As everything is handled inhouse at CRIS, I am
> guessing an occasional access report would suffice with detailed one-off
> training and refreshers for new staff. Anyway, over to Prashant on that
> front.
>
> *PRS*
> We then met with Mr. Satish, Yogendra's counterpart. They handle NGET
> <http://pib.nic.in/newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=108681> - Next
> Generation E-Ticketing - IRCTC's CONCERT, counter sales and mobile app.
>
> First the following issues were flagged for fixes :
>
> 1) The banner ad that appears (Central Govt achievements etc) - no longer
> there, they have no control and have to carry it. Mukesh said an Escape
> gets rid of it, I think - whatever it is future interstitial ads can have a
> common instruction and deactivation key for screenreaders.
>
> 2) OTP checkbox was missing a label.
>
> 3) Suggestions on station list dropdowns read only what is typed and not
> the actual list of stations. There was lack of familiarity with ARIA
> <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/Web_applications_and_ARIA_FAQ>,
> Mukesh explained and said he'd send the code.
>
> 4) Calendar popup to be only on clicking the calendar icon specifically,
> now  it is obscuring the date fields manual entry.
>
> 5) Despite refreshing the screen, the content remained same for
> screenreaders - apparently another ARIA fix.
>
> (Anything further than what was discussed above, Mukesh felt would require
> a detailed access audit report. These fixes were sufficient to enable
> independent booking again.)
>
> *CAPTCHAs*
>
> We went back and forth on CAPTCHAs. Apparently IRCTC has only ever had
> image and OTP CAPTCHAs. During Tatkal hours 8-12 noon, the image CAPTCHA is
> CRIS-provided, rest of the time there is Simpli5d's NLP CAPTCHAs
> <http://nlpcaptcha.in/en/news_20.html> a commercial party serving up ad-run
> image CAPTCHAs. OTP is available as an option during both Tatkal and
> Non-Tatkal timings. While logical CAPTCHAs - simple text-based math puzzles
> are available to be deployed it would require policy folks to enable the
> same. Audio CAPTCHAs they have had no experience of doing.
>
> There was definitely less of a time lag after the noon switch, for SMS OTP
> delivery. Despite Mukesh insisting that a high priority option was
> available  for SMS delivery, Satish said that was handled by the provider
> and all SMS went with default priority to avoid partiality. I think a
> logical CAPTCHA needs to be pushed for so that screenreader users do not
> lose out during Tatkal hours because their choice is restricted only to SMS
> OTP.
>
> *BERTH ALLOCATION BASED ON DISABILITY*
>
> (I am not 100% sure that I have understood this correctly. Requires policy
> level change and a thorough understanding of logic used and weightage)
>
> There are primarily 3 ticketing quotas - SC (senior citizen), GEN (general)
> and HP (handicapped - which now appears on the home page as Divyang).
>
> Let's assume that there are 4 quota seats allotted for disabled travellers
> per train. The basic logic employed over the years is that each disabled
> person is accompanied by an assistant / escort. The 2 lower berths are
> always for the disabled traveller, the 2 upper always for the escort. So
> assuming 4 disabled people travelling without escorts,  the first in queue
> will get a lower, the second an upper, the third a lower, the fourth an
> upper.
>
> Lower berth priority logic in general quota is extended to male above 60,
> female above 45 and pregnant woman - even in this preference is to those
> travelling alone. Even if 3 senior citizens are travelling together, if
> booked on a single ticket, at least 1 will be allotted an upper / middle
> berth. For further clarity, please read this Trainman page
> <https://www.trainman.in/article/indian-railway-quota> .
>
> That leaves the 'Book only if berth preference is confirmed
> <https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-get-lower-berth-seat-while-booking-through-IRCTC>'
> option - which Satish says is a sizeable chunk of ticket requests.
>
> It IS possible for logic
> <https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/railways-extend-seat-quota-for-senior-citizens-females-pregnant-women/>
> and weightage
> <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/things-to-do/indian-railways-to-offer-unutilised-berths-to-women-first/as63080417.cms>
> changes in berth allocation - that will need to be negotiated with the
> railway board
> <https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/logistics/reservation-quota-for-senior-citizens-in-train-enhanced-by-50/article8390012.ece>.
> Perhaps a meeting after studying some  data ( RTIed if need be) is in
> order.
>
> I will be sharing contact details of the people contacted with a few people
> based in Delhi as well as the tech accessibility experts. Perhaps for
> streamlining communication we could route requirements via Prashant for web
> accessibility and Murali of NPRD for berth allocation negotiation.
>
> Hopefully the folks in Delhi will be able to troubleshoot issues directly
> now on a regular basis.
>
> Vaishnavi

[K Raghuraman]

Dear Vaishnavi Mam,
very important information and excellent efforts thanks for sharing
in my experience, i had tried to book a ticket online using my e card
and the result is that the id card no is not accepted in the field and
it merely says that its invalid and try again
this is not for me alone, but heard a friend of mine also experienced
so i still go directly to book tickets in spite of having an online card
regards
raghu

On 08/07/2018, Vaishnavi Jayakumar <jayakumar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Was aware of the correspondence

> <https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=accessindia%40accessindia.org.in&q=subject:"%5C%5BAI%5C%5D+IRCTC+challenges%5C%21"&o=newest>

> by many on the recently redesigned IRCTC

> <https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=acces...@accessindia.org.in&q=subject:%22Re%5C%3A+%5C%5BAI%5C%5D+IRCTC+new+website%2C+looking+confusing%2C+any+clue%5C%3F%22&o=newest>
> website (beta <http://pib.nic.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1533835>)
> and so gatecrashed CRIS

> <http://cris.org.in/criswebsite/crissite/index.jsp#about> when in Delhi a

> *WEB APPLICATIONS*

> The next morning Mukesh Sharma from NAB and I reached CRIS to find that Mr.
> Yogendra was busy. He suggested we meet the GM/PRS - Vinod Bhatia. We first
> met S.J. Sinha who was familiar with GIGW. He was keen to have a training
> but said getting money would take time. As of now Mukesh has committed for
> a day workshop, the details of which need to be sent across. As Mr.
> Pitamber Verma had mentioned Shaswat's name came up (from Eye-D

> <https://eye-d.in/>) - I think they have been in touch with CRIS about

> accessifying / access audit. As everything is handled inhouse at CRIS, I am
> guessing an occasional access report would suffice with detailed one-off
> training and refreshers for new staff. Anyway, over to Prashant on that
> front.
>

> *PRS*

> We then met with Mr. Satish, Yogendra's counterpart. They handle NGET

> <http://pib.nic.in/newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=108681> - Next

> Generation E-Ticketing - IRCTC's CONCERT, counter sales and mobile app.
>
> First the following issues were flagged for fixes :
>
> 1) The banner ad that appears (Central Govt achievements etc) - no longer
> there, they have no control and have to carry it. Mukesh said an Escape
> gets rid of it, I think - whatever it is future interstitial ads can have a
> common instruction and deactivation key for screenreaders.
>
> 2) OTP checkbox was missing a label.
>
> 3) Suggestions on station list dropdowns read only what is typed and not
> the actual list of stations. There was lack of familiarity with ARIA

> <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/Web_applications_and_ARIA_FAQ>,

> Mukesh explained and said he'd send the code.
>
> 4) Calendar popup to be only on clicking the calendar icon specifically,
> now it is obscuring the date fields manual entry.
>
> 5) Despite refreshing the screen, the content remained same for
> screenreaders - apparently another ARIA fix.
>
> (Anything further than what was discussed above, Mukesh felt would require
> a detailed access audit report. These fixes were sufficient to enable
> independent booking again.)
>

> *CAPTCHAs*

>
> We went back and forth on CAPTCHAs. Apparently IRCTC has only ever had
> image and OTP CAPTCHAs. During Tatkal hours 8-12 noon, the image CAPTCHA is
> CRIS-provided, rest of the time there is Simpli5d's NLP CAPTCHAs

> <http://nlpcaptcha.in/en/news_20.html> a commercial party serving up ad-run

> image CAPTCHAs. OTP is available as an option during both Tatkal and
> Non-Tatkal timings. While logical CAPTCHAs - simple text-based math puzzles
> are available to be deployed it would require policy folks to enable the
> same. Audio CAPTCHAs they have had no experience of doing.
>
> There was definitely less of a time lag after the noon switch, for SMS OTP
> delivery. Despite Mukesh insisting that a high priority option was
> available for SMS delivery, Satish said that was handled by the provider
> and all SMS went with default priority to avoid partiality. I think a
> logical CAPTCHA needs to be pushed for so that screenreader users do not
> lose out during Tatkal hours because their choice is restricted only to SMS
> OTP.
>

> *BERTH ALLOCATION BASED ON DISABILITY*
>

> (I am not 100% sure that I have understood this correctly. Requires policy
> level change and a thorough understanding of logic used and weightage)
>
> There are primarily 3 ticketing quotas - SC (senior citizen), GEN (general)
> and HP (handicapped - which now appears on the home page as Divyang).
>
> Let's assume that there are 4 quota seats allotted for disabled travellers
> per train. The basic logic employed over the years is that each disabled
> person is accompanied by an assistant / escort. The 2 lower berths are
> always for the disabled traveller, the 2 upper always for the escort. So
> assuming 4 disabled people travelling without escorts, the first in queue
> will get a lower, the second an upper, the third a lower, the fourth an
> upper.
>
> Lower berth priority logic in general quota is extended to male above 60,
> female above 45 and pregnant woman - even in this preference is to those
> travelling alone. Even if 3 senior citizens are travelling together, if
> booked on a single ticket, at least 1 will be allotted an upper / middle
> berth. For further clarity, please read this Trainman page

> <https://www.trainman.in/article/indian-railway-quota> .

>
> That leaves the 'Book only if berth preference is confirmed

> <https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-get-lower-berth-seat-while-booking-through-IRCTC>'

> option - which Satish says is a sizeable chunk of ticket requests.
>
> It IS possible for logic

> <https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/railways-extend-seat-quota-for-senior-citizens-females-pregnant-women/>
> and weightage
> <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/things-to-do/indian-railways-to-offer-unutilised-berths-to-women-first/as63080417.cms>

> changes in berth allocation - that will need to be negotiated with the
> railway board

> <https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/logistics/reservation-quota-for-senior-citizens-in-train-enhanced-by-50/article8390012.ece>.

> Perhaps a meeting after studying some data ( RTIed if need be) is in
> order.
>
> I will be sharing contact details of the people contacted with a few people
> based in Delhi as well as the tech accessibility experts. Perhaps for
> streamlining communication we could route requirements via Prashant for web
> accessibility and Murali of NPRD for berth allocation negotiation.
>
> Hopefully the folks in Delhi will be able to troubleshoot issues directly
> now on a regular basis.
>
> Vaishnavi
>

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best regards
raghu

[Mohammed Asif Iqbal (IN)]

Dear Vaishnavi,
I was part of the earlier project

from Ministry of Electronics and IT;
then Railway IT executive director Ms. U hazarika attended the meeting.
They did fix some accessibility issues and introduced OTP as
additional mechanism of authentication.
I strongly feel that accessibility needs to be driven by the top and
formal policy needs to be documented for accessibility in order to
prevent chaos in the future upgrade.
Please feel free to get in touch with me in ase if you need any
additional information in this regards.
Kind regards.
Asif

> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wethepwd/CAO-B-XM5BaJMPnU43oq_z2BvHzKRDdXcJbJbBHGn6bxUDKhaoA%40mail.gmail.com.

> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>


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Direct: +91 (0) 33 4404 3111 | Mobile: +91 (0) 98 3005 9830
Email: mohammed....@pwc.com
PricewaterhouseCoopers Private limited
56 & 57, Block DN
Sector V, Salt Lake
Kolkata 700091
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[Vaishnavi Jayakumar]

8 October 2018

Met with Vinod Bhatia, who heads Passenger Reservation Services (PRS) in CRIS. And with our future contact person on his team - Shashank. Yogendra and Satish from earlier were there too. They had mentioned that a group of people headed by Sachit Kumar Sahrawat from DRDO had visited a few days earlier and demoed problems using JAWS. They had till now been using Windows Narrator for testing screenreader access, and now post Sachit’s visit have er, laid their hands on a copy of JAWS as well.

For what it’s worth, I demoed with ChromeVox on Chrome browser and made them navigate with keyboard only. So they noticed the missing attributes and subsequent silence for form fields and the jump bypassing steps for the audio captcha.

Our contact person going forward is Shashank. Will share his contact direct with NAB team.

Discussed the earlier pending points :  

1) The banner ad that appears (Central Govt achievements etc) - no longer there, they have no control and have to carry it. Mukesh said an Escape gets rid of it, I think - whatever it is future interstitial ads can have a common instruction and deactivation key for screenreaders.

2) OTP checkbox was missing a label.

3) Suggestions on station list dropdowns read only what is typed and not the actual list of stations. There was lack of familiarity with ARIA, Mukesh explained and said he'd send the code.

4) Calendar popup to be only on clicking the calendar icon specifically, now  it is obscuring the date fields manual entry.

5) Despite refreshing the screen, the content remained same for screenreaders - apparently another ARIA fix

And a new request :

6) that the form details can be saved for disability reservation particulars - just as it is for senior citizens. Additionally for those with names larger than 16 characters, it is impossible to get a match vis a vis the Railways issued disability certificate for special rates.

Some points from our discussion :

A) Reason for the whole thing breaking is that it’s not just redesign, it’s a whole new technology. They have switched to a Google technology called Angular technology. Which is paradoxically giving them problems with Chrome.

B) They say they have fixed some of the issues and it is working with Mozilla (they tested on Firefox 62.0.3  version on Windows 10 desktop).and requested feedback on site trying the same. Internet Explorer they are NOT offering functionality - this came up when sharing Yogesh’s feedback.

C) CRIS also said that pop up ad instructions would have to come via IRCTC as that is not in their hands. Neither is the NLP Captcha widget. I have made contact with NLP’s Amit Mittal and his team is working on fixing things a their end.

D) Request for saving disability certificate particulars so as to select and autofill (instead of typing each time) has been noted. They will provide similar functionality as is available for senior citizens.

E) Disability certificate error when booking online concessional ticket -eg.  passenger name mismatch / card information not present. There is no quick fix for this but here’s the workaround : Essentially the medical officer may enter your full name, maybe in Hindi or English. Then the designated station operator (the ticketing people don’t have access) enters it into computer field which is fixed number of characters (16) and in English.

Unfortunately what is being written on your card is entire name. Users enter what's on their cards, and that's not what was entered into computer which could be Singh, Satender / Satendra / Satendar / S etc.  Similarly for id number, the computer field is 2 digits for zone code, 4 digits for station code, and then the identifier - 6 digit number. Zones with 3 or 4 letters, only the first 2 letters are to be entered.

So can go to any station with your card, ask operator how exactly your card is entered in system, note down short / misspelled name and id number and use those thereafter. Or tweet @RailwaySeva if you don’t mind that info made public. In Sameer’s case while his card had Sameer Chaturvedi, he could enter only 16 digits - Sameer Chaturved. Even that did not work. Finally the system revealed the following which worked :

CONC PSGN ID           - NRNDLS123456

CONC PSGN NAME    - S CHATURVEDI

So that’s the brief. I will share the contacts with NAB team. In meantime could someone please check out issues while using Mozilla and get back by 12th October please. If a screen capture can be done with audio and your voice over, that would be ideal.

Vaishnavi