We're Tired of Repeating Ourselves.
So we built this newsletter instead.
Over the past several months, we have spoken with hundreds of regulated entities across India's financial ecosystem — AIFs, PMS funds, mutual funds, stock brokerages, investment advisors, research analysts, ESG rating providers, infrastructure trusts, and their associations.
We have sat across the table with large institutions managing complex digital ecosystems — multiple platforms, massive document libraries, layered workflows. And we have sat with small funds and brokers in their very first year, still building their systems from the ground up.
We have seen it all: public marketing websites, trading portals, back-office systems, wealth management platforms, mutual fund distribution tools, and research basket platforms used by IAs and RAs.
We have talked with compliance heads, IT heads, cybersecurity vendors, CS firms, and third-party tech providers.
And in every single conversation, we hear the same questions. The same confusion. Almost word for word.
It started feeling like we were a broken record. So instead of repeating ourselves in every call, every email, every meeting — we decided to write it all down, once and for all.
That is why this newsletter exists. Welcome to the clarity you have been looking for.
The Problem: SEBI Passed the Mandate. Vendors Pushed the Quotes. Then the Chaos Began.
SEBI released its accessibility circular. Vendors rushed to send quotes. And suddenly, everyone had a lot of questions and absolutely no answers.
Why? Because accessibility is genuinely new to India. SEBI's scope and requirements are not clearly defined in one place. Readiness cannot happen without understanding — and right now, that understanding is missing for most regulated entities.
The result is a market full of confusion, mispriced quotes, half-audits, and companies that think they are compliant — but are not.
The Questions We Keep Hearing
Here is a sample of what is actually being asked — across sectors, across sizes, across teams:
On Applicability
• Does this circular even apply to us? We are a small firm — are we exempt?
• We are a closed-ended AIF. Does that change anything?
• We don't have disabled investors. Why would this apply to us?
• Our website is static — surely it's already accessible?
• The deadline was extended — our auditor cancelled the appointment. Does the mandate still hold?
• We don’t give any facility to log in. Our website is just a marketing brochure.
On Scope
• Is this only about the public website?
• Are PDFs included? What about email attachments?
• What about our investor portal?
• What about third-party LP platforms?
• Trading dashboards? Back-office software? Calculators and eKYC flows?
• Does this apply to internal systems? ERP backends?
On Accessibility Itself
• What is accessibility? What is a WCAG audit? What is usability testing?
• How does a website actually become accessible?
• Will our charts speak out loud for a blind user? What changes on our platform?
• What do you actually do to buttons, graphs, tables, and charts to make them accessible?
• We installed an accessibility widget - we are okay now ? - a most common.
On Pricing
• Why do prices vary so wildly between vendors?
• We have 200 pages — does that mean a bigger bill?
• One vendor quoted 20 pages, another quoted all 200 — why the difference?
These are not bad questions. These are the right questions. And the fact that nobody has answered them clearly yet — that is the real problem.
What This Newsletter Is — And What It Is Not
This is not a marketing newsletter. We are not here to sell you an audit on every issue. We are here to close the gap between the mandate and the market - and most importantly, bring readiness and help you move with knowledge, confidence & clarity & certainly we will have fewer questions on these areas and therefore more productive time to focus on helping you.
We aim to incorporate legal citations, IAAP methodologies, and examples wherever possible.
Each issue will address one specific area of confusion — clearly, practically, and with real examples from what we see on the ground.
We will cover:
• Applicability — who this applies to, who is exempt, and how to determine your status
• Scope — what is actually covered: websites, portals, PDFs, trading platforms, third-party systems
• What accessibility means — in plain English, with real examples from financial platforms
• How audits actually work — templates vs. URLs, what gets tested, how long it takes, what the output looks like
• How Trading Charts, Tables, DropDowns, etc becomes accessible.
• Pricing — how it should be structured, why prices vary wildly, and what a fair quote looks like - please don’t reduce your website pages, it doesn’t help.
• Sector-specific realities — Each Regulated Sector have there own workflow operations, different styles of documents, and different UI/UX of the platforms.
What To Expect From Here
Every issue will be short, specific, and useful. No fluff. No jargon. No vendor-speak.
We will go deep on one question at a time. And by the time you have read a few issues, you will understand this space better than most compliance consultants in the country.
Because the companies that understand this first are the ones who comply correctly, avoid penalties, and build genuinely inclusive platforms.
Hit reply. Tell us: what is your biggest accessibility confusion right now? Your question might become the next issue.
Until next time,
Surya from the EnableUser Team.
enableuser.com
Making the complex, clear.