Web Accessibility of Health Information Websites for People with Disabilities
Author Information
Author(s): Xiaoming Zeng, Bambang Parmanto, Richard Appleyard, Suzanne Klein, David
Primary Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Hypothesis
There is a positive correlation between the degree of Web accessibility and the popularity of health information websites.
Conclusion
No health information website is fully accessible to people with disabilities, but government and educational sites perform better than others.
Supporting Evidence
- None of the 108 websites were completely accessible.
- Government and educational websites had significantly lower Web Accessibility Barrier (WAB) scores.
- The average WAB score across all sites was 9.31.
- The most frequently violated accessibility checkpoints included identifying the language of the text and providing alternative text for images.
Takeaway
This study looked at how easy it is for people with disabilities to use health websites. It found that none of the sites were perfect, but some types of sites were easier to use than others.
Methodology
A cross-sectional study evaluated 108 consumer health information websites for accessibility using an automated measurement framework.
Potential Biases
The traffic ranking data may skew towards users of Internet Explorer on Windows, potentially underestimating the traffic to sites accessed by other browsers.
Limitations
The study only assessed automatically detectable accessibility violations and did not include manual checks, which may overlook other important accessibility issues.
Participant Demographics
The study focused on consumer health information websites, not on specific demographics of users with disabilities.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.001
Statistical Significance
p<0.001
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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