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A Chronological Guide to SEBI's Digital Accessibility Circulars (2025-2026)

Published: October 2026 | Last updated: October 2026 | By EquiView Team | 9 min read

Quick answer: SEBI has issued six circulars on digital accessibility between May 2025 and July 2026, beginning with accessible digital KYC on May 23, 2025 and, most recently, extending the audit and remediation deadline to October 31, 2026 (circular dated July 31, 2026). Together they require every SEBI-regulated entity to make investor-facing digital platforms accessible to persons with disabilities. They also require audits by IAAP-certified professionals, a designated nodal officer, and a status report that was due by March 31, 2026.

The six circulars at a glance

Why SEBI introduced these rules

Investors now open accounts, complete KYC, read research and trade almost entirely online. For people with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive disabilities, an inaccessible app or portal can mean exclusion from the market altogether.

The regulatory push builds on India's Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and on a Supreme Court judgment in April 2025 that treated digital access as part of the right to life and liberty. SEBI's circulars turn that principle into specific obligations for the securities market.

Circular 1 (May 23, 2025): Accessible digital KYC

What it did: Directed intermediaries to make digital KYC and account opening inclusive for persons with disabilities.

Why it matters: KYC is the entry point. If a blind or motor-impaired investor cannot complete onboarding independently, nothing else in your platform matters to them.

What to check: Screen reader compatibility of KYC forms, accessible OTP and verification steps, alternatives to purely visual or gesture-based steps (such as some video KYC actions), and clear error messages.

Circular 2 (July 31, 2025): The core accessibility mandate

What it did: This is the central circular. It requires SEBI-regulated entities to make their digital platforms accessible in line with the RPwD Act.

Who is covered: Stock brokers, mutual funds and AMCs, portfolio managers, depositories, clearing corporations, KYC registration agencies, market infrastructure institutions and other registered intermediaries.

Standards referenced:

• WCAG 2.1 or the latest version (in practice, teams are moving to WCAG 2.2 AA)
• Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW)
• IS 17802, the Indian standard for accessible ICT
• The RPwD Act, 2016

Governance requirements:

• Nodal officer: appoint a person responsible for accessibility compliance, audits, remediation and grievances
• Accessible documents: tagged PDFs, logical reading order, alternative text for images

Circular 3 (August 29, 2025): IA and RA timelines and reporting channels

SEBI responded to requests for more time by extending timelines for investment advisers (IAs) and research analysts (RAs), and updated who receives compliance reports.

Reporting channels

• Stock brokers and depository participants report through their stock exchange or depository
• Investment advisers and research analysts report through BSE
• Most other regulated entities report directly to SEBI

Circular 4 (September 25, 2025): Compliance guidelines, milestones and reporting formats

This circular issued the consolidated compliance guidelines. It fixed the milestone dates and set out standard formats so submissions are consistent.

Milestones (as updated by the July 2026 circular)

What entities submit

• List of investor-facing digital platforms
• Details of the IAAP-certified auditor
• Initial audit report
• Final audit report after remediation

Why it matters: The formats cover platform details, audit scope, findings, remediation timelines and supporting evidence. A vague or incomplete audit report is now a compliance risk in itself.

Circular 5 (December 8, 2025): Clarifications, Investor Charter and SCORES

This circular refined the framework and added the investor-facing elements.

• Investor Charter: digital accessibility is now part of it, recognizing accessibility as an investor right
• Status report: entities must submit a readiness and compliance status report by March 31, 2026
• SCORES complaints: investors can raise accessibility complaints, and entities must resolve them as part of complaint closure
• Periodic audits: audits must be repeated by certified professionals

Circular 6 (July 31, 2026): Audit and remediation extended to October 31, 2026

Responding to representations from regulated entities and reviewing their compliance status, SEBI extended the deadline for conducting accessibility audits of digital platforms and remediating the audit findings.

• What changed: the combined audit and remediation deadline is now October 31, 2026. Earlier, the audit was due by April 30, 2026 and remediation by July 31, 2026.
• What did not change: all other provisions of the earlier circulars (dated July 31, August 29, September 25 and December 8, 2025) remain in force and mandatory.
• Why it matters: the extension is time to audit, remediate and validate fixes properly, not a pause on the framework.

Master timeline (2025-2026)

What these circulars mean in practice

1. Work to the October 31, 2026 deadline: both the audit and remediation of its findings must be complete by then, and the extension changed nothing else in the framework.
2. Inventory every investor-facing platform: websites, mobile apps, trading terminals, investor portals and onboarding flows, including those run by vendors on your behalf.
3. Use an IAAP-certified auditor: automated scans alone will not meet the expectation. Manual testing with assistive technologies is needed.
4. Remediate by severity: fix problems that block login, OTP, onboarding, orders and payments first.
5. Set up governance: a nodal officer, a grievance process and accessible documents.
6. Prepare for SCORES complaints: make sure your support team can log, escalate and close accessibility complaints with evidence.
7. Keep re-auditing: new releases can break accessibility, so build checks into your release cycle.

For help with the audit step, read our guide on how to find an IAAP-certified accessibility auditor and our comparison of accessibility audit vs VAPT.

How EquiView can help

EquiView helps SEBI-regulated entities with accessibility audits, remediation guidance, accessible document support and compliance documentation. If you are unsure where you stand against these six circulars, we can run a readiness review and give you a prioritized fix list.

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