Solutions for Healthcare

Common Challenges

The web may be used in several different ways for Healthcare. Here are just a few examples of how web content is used:

• A health care provider may have a site that patients can use to find office hours or find answers to questions about services.
• A hospital or other service provider might use a third party source for answers to medical inquiries.
• Doctors or other healthcare professionals might use intranets to access medical records, check hours they are required to be on-call, etc.
• An HMO might have an area for members to check coverage, pay for services, etc.

In addition to the varied types of sites that exist in healthcare, all these sites are likely to be accessed by a wide variety of people. Some individuals might have a temporary or permanent disability or may be using an alternative device to view your site. In fact, the number of people with disabilities viewing healthcare websites is likely higher than those viewing a non-healthcare related site. Here are a few examples of people who would benefit from accessible web content:

• A person has suffered a temporary or recent injury.
• A doctor may want to access information about a patient or data about a specific condition may need to be accessed on an alternative device such as a handheld or Smart Phone.
• An individual who is blind is employed as a medical transcriptionist. He or she will need to be able to enter data into a web-based form.
• An older individual is looking for the hours that a clinic is open. He or she may have diminished vision, hearing, memory and/or cognition, and difficulty using a mouse or keyboard.

Possible Solutions

• When evaluating web content, the best place to start is probably with an evaluation. This can range from a short Executive Summary to a comprehensive evaluation of an entire site.
• If you are looking for a third party content provider or web designer, consider evaluating the accessibility of their current work, this will probably be a good indicator of the accessibility of their future work.
• Consider user testing specifically with users with disabilities. This can help you gain valuable insight when working to create an accessible site.
• Provide accessibility training to web developers and application developers.
• Depending on your level of involvement with US federal government, certification of Section 508 conformance can be valuable.

Contact WebAIM for more information about an accessibility solution for you.