In their plea, the petitioners said there was no way for persons with disabilities to communicate their additional needs to Rapido while booking a ride, like requesting a little extra wait time or help with finding the location. The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the stand of the Centre and bike taxi service provider Rapido in a plea to make app-based bike taxi services accessible and friendly for persons with disabilities (PwDs). A single-judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad issued notice to Rapido, Union of India through the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and listed the plea for hearing on December 20. The plea filed by advocate Rahul Bajaj highlights the daily commuting needs of the petitioners who rely on the Rapido app and says it fails to cater to the accessibility needs of disabled individuals. The plea points out various flaws in the app, including that on the iOS platform, the option to cancel a ride is inaccessible, there are several unlabelled buttons, including the names of the vendors through which payments are to be made for a ride, and the option to message the driver is inaccessible, as on November 5. The plea claims that there is no way for the petitioners – a disability rights activist who has been blind since birth and a banker who is visually impaired – to communicate their additional needs as persons with disabilities to Rapido while booking a ride, such as a request for a little extra wait time, help with finding the location, etc. The plea claims that one of the petitioners was denied a ride by a captain when he learnt that he had a disability. Such experiences undermine the dignity of persons with disabilities, making them feel like second-class citizens, the plea said, bringing to light the violation of provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 and RPwD Rules, 2017. According to the RPwD Act, all service providers, both public and private, are legally obliged to ensure that their digital platforms are fully accessible to individuals with disabilities, the plea says. The plea states that it also shows the failure of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to put in place a mandate that cab aggregators ensure functional and digital accessibility of their offerings for persons with disabilities. Among various reliefs, the plea seeks directions to the Centre to in turn direct Rapido to take steps to ensure that the rights and accessibility of PwDs are safeguarded, to provide accessibility training for staff and to improve the app’s features within a strict time frame of one month. It further seeks directions to the central government to put in place a strong legal mandate and operational guidance on all app-based aggregators to ensure that their digital offerings and functional processes are disabled-friendly. It also seeks imposition of penalty on Rapido for failing to make their app accessible despite repeated attempts by the petitioners to address the same.