UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Disabled citizens and the future of AI

Q1. The Supreme Court has located the accessibility rights of persons with disabilities within Article 21 of the Constitution. In this context, consider the following statements: Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. A person denied barrier-free access to a public service on account of disability can approach the Supreme Court directly under Article 32 to enforce this right.
  2. Article 15(1) does not expressly list disability among the grounds on which the State is barred from discriminating against citizens.
  3. Because the right flows from Article 21, it can be claimed only by citizens and not by foreign nationals with disabilities living in India.
  • A. 1, 2 and 3
  • B. 1 and 2 only
  • C. 1 only
  • D. 2 and 3 only

Q2. Consider the following statements: Which of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

  1. The Supreme Court has treated access to digital KYC processes for persons with disabilities as an enforceable fundamental right.
  2. Article 41 directs the State, within the limits of its economic capacity, to make effective provision for public assistance in cases of disablement.
  • A. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I
  • B. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct, but Statement-II does not explain Statement-I
  • C. Statement-I is correct, but Statement-II is incorrect
  • D. Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct

Q3. 'Relief of the disabled and unemployable' is an entry in the State List, yet Parliament enacted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 to give effect to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. With reference to the constitutional basis for such a law, consider the following statements: Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. Parliament may make a law on a State List subject when the law implements a treaty or convention that India has entered into with other countries.
  2. Such a law can be enacted only after the legislatures of the affected States pass resolutions requesting Parliament to legislate.
  3. Parliament's power here also extends to implementing decisions taken at an international conference, association or other body.
  • A. 1 only
  • B. 2 and 3 only
  • C. 1, 2 and 3
  • D. 1 and 3 only

Q4. With reference to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which replaced the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, consider the following statements: Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. It enlarged the list of specified disabilities compared with the 1995 law and empowers the Central Government to add further categories.
  2. It confines the government's accessibility obligations to the built environment and transport, leaving information and communication technology outside its scope.
  • A. 1 only
  • B. 2 only
  • C. Both 1 and 2
  • D. Neither 1 nor 2

Q5. With reference to the Supreme Court's November 2024 judgment on accessibility norms framed under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities framework, consider the following statements: Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. Since the parent Act itself uses mandatory language, the Court held that the existing accessibility guidelines were already binding and no fresh rule-making was needed.
  2. The Court found that norms resting on self-regulation through guidelines fall short of the compulsory compliance framework the parent Act contemplates.
  3. The Court required a baseline of non-negotiable standards that is distinct from broader guidelines, which may continue to exist alongside it.
  • A. 2 only
  • B. 1, 2 and 3
  • C. 2 and 3 only
  • D. 1 and 2 only

Q6. An Act states that the government 'shall' ensure public buildings meet prescribed accessibility standards. The rules framed under it, however, only issue guidelines that building owners may follow voluntarily, and a court finds the rules inconsistent with the Act. Which one of the following remedies is most consistent with both judicial review and the separation of powers?

  • A. Direct the executive to frame enforceable standards within a fixed period and keep the case under continuing supervision
  • B. Refer the rules to Parliament's subordinate legislation committee, since courts cannot review delegated legislation
  • C. Uphold the voluntary guidelines because the executive is free to choose the form its delegated legislation takes
  • D. Draft the detailed technical standards itself and notify them in the Gazette in place of the executive

Q7. A speech-recognition model is trained almost entirely on recordings of speakers without speech impairments. It reports high overall accuracy on a test set drawn from the same pool of recordings, and is then deployed on a voice-based government helpline. Which of the following inferences can be validly drawn from the above?

  1. The high overall accuracy does not establish that the system performs equally well for persons with speech disabilities.
  2. Callers with speech-related disabilities are likely to face higher recognition error rates on the helpline than other callers.
  3. The developers of the model must have intended to exclude persons with disabilities from the helpline.
  4. Adding consented speech samples from persons with speech disabilities, and measuring accuracy separately for them, would help detect and narrow the gap.
  • A. 1, 3 and 4 only
  • B. 2, 3 and 4 only
  • C. 1 and 2 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 4 only

Q8. Consider the following statements: Which of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

  1. AI-based assistive tools can help blind users read scanned documents and fill government forms that conventional screen readers are unable to read.
  2. Conventional screen readers can voice only text that is available in machine-readable form, whereas AI-based tools apply computer vision to interpret text and visual content presented as images.
  • A. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I
  • B. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct, but Statement-II does not explain Statement-I
  • C. Statement-I is correct, but Statement-II is incorrect
  • D. Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct