The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently challenged young innovators to build technology for people with disabilities. At its fourth Hackathon Live Show, held in Abuja on August 26 and 27, 2026, contestants developed solutions under the theme "Technology Without Barriers." Their entries included AI-powered speech-to-text, real-time sign language translation, voice-enabled complaint systems, accessible customer care services, image-to-voice navigation, and inclusive employment platforms.

Some of the barriers faced by people with disabilities genuinely require specialised technology to overcome. Yet the hackathon takes place against a problem Nigeria has been documenting for years: many of the digital platforms people are expected to use remain inaccessible.

The scale of that problem matters. The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) estimates that about 35 million Nigerians are persons with disabilities. For this population, an inaccessible digital platform can become a barrier to applying for jobs, accessing financial services, registering for education, obtaining identification, or using government services that are increasingly delivered online. Nigeria's legal framework speaks to this population as well: the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, signed in 2018, prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability and established the NCPWD itself, but its provisions have not translated into accessible digital services on the scale the audits describe.

An accessibility benchmark that remains inaccessible

Nigeria is not without standards. The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)'s Standards and Guidelines for Government Websites state that government websites "shall provide equal access to information and functionality to all users." The guidelines require government institutions to adopt the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and specify that accessibility-related applications and downloads should be tested to ensure they work with assistive technologies. WCAG, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is the international reference standard for web accessibility, so Nigeria's framework is built on the same benchmark that governments and companies elsewhere are measured against.

NITDA's regulatory framework describes its published standards and guidelines as minimum benchmarks for the development and implementation of information technology in Nigeria, and says the agency monitors compliance with them.

In July 2024, Communications Minister Bosun Tijani announced a plan to create a national web design system for ministries, departments, and agencies, including guidance and code to help government institutions build accessible websites. The project later became the Nigeria Web Design Standards initiative, developed with NITDA and the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation.

When the project was launched in July 2025, Tijani said a Web Design Standards Toolkit would be available within 8 to 10 weeks for public feedback before proceeding through NITDA's rule-making process and Federal Executive Council approval.

But in August 2026, FIJ reported that the promised toolkit could not be found publicly, and that there was no publicly available evidence that a final standards document had received FEC approval or that the standards had begun to be implemented across government agencies.

A review of NITDA's current public resources, the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy's published materials, and publicly available information on the Nigeria Web Design Standards project similarly found no trace of the promised toolkit or evidence of its rollout. At the same time, the ministry's 2025 Year in Review still lists the launch of the Nigeria Web Design Standards as an achievement and states that the project established shared principles for accessibility, clarity, and consistency across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

A recurring, well-documented problem

In July 2024, FIJ assessed the websites of all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory against NITDA's government website guidelines. It found that 26 states had not complied with the guidelines and that 14 websites were deemed unusable for people with disabilities. Among the problems identified were websites without text alternatives for images, making information inaccessible to some screen reader users.

The problem is not confined to government websites. In June 2025, TechCabal's investigation into digital accessibility found barriers across government portals, banks, fintechs, e-commerce platforms, telecoms, and other digital services. Users reported problems including unlabelled buttons, missing alternative text, inaccessible forms, and poor screen reader compatibility.

Nor has the problem disappeared with time. A May 2026 TechCabal partner investigation of eight Nigerian public websites examined sites including the University of Lagos (UNILAG), the Lagos State University (LASU), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) — now known as the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) — the Lagos State Government, and the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities. It reported that none of the audited websites had implemented what it described as baseline accessibility features.

Assistive technology and its limits

The distinction matters because assistive technology and accessibility are not the same thing. Screen readers such as JAWS and TalkBack are what allow many users with visual disabilities to access much of the digital environment independently. They read the text, links, buttons, and other elements that a website makes available, enabling users to navigate pages, fill out forms, and complete tasks without seeing the screen.

But a screen reader can only work with the information a website exposes to it. If an image has no useful alternative text, a button has no accessible name, or a form is badly structured, a user may know that something is on the page without knowing what it does or how to use it. That is why accessibility needs to be considered at the level of the original product, not only through tools designed to work around it.

Nigeria increasingly relies on biometric systems to access essential services, but they do not work equally well for everyone. In 2024, The PUNCH reported on the experiences of people with disabilities who struggled to obtain their National Identification Numbers (NINs) because fingerprint scanners could not capture their fingerprints. One man who had lost both hands said he could not obtain a NIN despite repeated attempts. Without one, he could not open a bank account or apply for a loan, so he resorted to using his son's account for transactions.

These experiences show that accessibility is not only about whether someone can navigate a website or application. It also affects the systems used to establish identity and authorise access to services. A service cannot be fully accessible if the authentication system required to use it excludes the people it is supposed to serve.

The distinction is important for the NCC's hackathon. Some of the solutions being developed by contestants address problems that genuinely require specialised technology. An accessible USSD service, for example, can make a service available to people who cannot use conventional interfaces — a meaningful consideration in a market where feature phones and USSD remain widely used for services such as banking. A tool that translates Nigerian Sign Language can address a communication barrier that ordinary web design cannot solve.

But other barriers do not require another product. They require the existing product to be built properly.

When a government portal is inaccessible, one response is to build another tool that helps users navigate it. When a bank's application is inaccessible, an accessibility layer can be developed around it. When a university portal is not compatible with a screen reader, another service can make its information available in an alternative format.

Such workarounds may be useful. But they can also shift the burden of accessibility from the organisation providing the service to the person trying to use it. A user with a disability may need to know which platforms work with their assistive technology, which workarounds are available, whether they are affordable, and whether they allow the task to be completed independently. That is a different digital experience from simply opening a service and using it.

Building assistive tech is not enough

The NCC itself has acknowledged that people with disabilities continue to face barriers across communication services, education, healthcare, financial services, employment, and government platforms. At the 2026 hackathon, the commission said these challenges require solutions that are affordable, practical, and responsive to Nigerian realities.

That is true. But the evidence from Nigeria's existing digital platforms suggests that innovation cannot be the only response. As the regulator responsible for telecommunications, the NCC already holds compliance and consumer-protection powers over the connectivity and service layers of the same digital ecosystem where these barriers persist.

Nigeria needs assistive technologies for barriers that require specialised solutions. It also needs banks, universities, government agencies, and other digital service providers to build accessibility into the products they already offer.

The success of digital inclusion should therefore not only be measured by how many new assistive technologies Nigeria produces. It should also be measured by how many of the digital services Nigerians already depend on can be used without requiring another technology to make them accessible.

The NCC is building tools to help people navigate the digital world. Nigeria also needs to ensure the digital world itself is built to accommodate its people.