Improvement of Accessibility in Medical and Healthcare Websites

Gloria Acosta-Vargas; Patricia Acosta-Vargas; Janio Jadán-Guerrero; Luis Salvador-Ullauri; Mario Gonzalez

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-79816-1_33

Improvement of Accessibility in Medical and Healthcare Websites

Gloria Acosta-Vargas, Patricia Acosta-Vargas^*, Janio Jadán-Guerrero, Luis Salvador-Ullauri, Mario Gonzalez

^*Corresponding author for this work

Faculty of Medicine

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Health information on the Web can make patients better informed about a disease, which according to several studies leads to better treatment results. However, the health information found on the Web is not accessible because it presents barriers that prevent people from easily accessing it because it does not comply with the standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Therefore, in this study, we present an analysis of the accessibility of the seven most visited health websites in the world. To analyze the accessibility of medical websites, we apply an automatic review method. The results show that health websites have frequent problems related to the lack of alternative text, empty links, and contrast errors. This research can contribute to future work related to accessibility in health and medical sites. Finally, we suggest designing a combined method to review each website’s accessibility barriers to complement the automatic review.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Advances in Human Factors and System Interactions - Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conference on Human Factors and Systems Interaction, 2021
Editors	Isabel L. Nunes
Publisher	Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages	266-273
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Print)	9783030798154
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79816-1_33
State	Published - 2021
Event	AHFE Conference on Human Factors and Systems Interaction, 2021 - Virtual, Online Duration: 25 Jul 2021 → 29 Jul 2021

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems
Volume	265
ISSN (Print)	2367-3370
ISSN (Electronic)	2367-3389

Conference

Conference	AHFE Conference on Human Factors and Systems Interaction, 2021
City	Virtual, Online
Period	25/07/21 → 29/07/21

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Funding

Acknowledgments. The researchers thank Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador for funding this study. The researchers thank Pontificia Universidad Cat?lica del Ecuador for funding this study.

Funders	Funder number
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador

Keywords

Accessibility
Assessment
Improvement
Medicine websites
WCAG 2.1
Web content accessibility guidelines

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-79816-1_33

Cite this

Acosta-Vargas, G., Acosta-Vargas, P., Jadán-Guerrero, J., Salvador-Ullauri, L., & Gonzalez, M. (2021). Improvement of Accessibility in Medical and Healthcare Websites. In I. L. Nunes (Ed.), Advances in Human Factors and System Interactions - Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conference on Human Factors and Systems Interaction, 2021 (pp. 266-273). (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; Vol. 265). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79816-1_33

Acosta-Vargas, Gloria ; Acosta-Vargas, Patricia ; Jadán-Guerrero, Janio et al. / Improvement of Accessibility in Medical and Healthcare Websites. Advances in Human Factors and System Interactions - Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conference on Human Factors and Systems Interaction, 2021. editor / Isabel L. Nunes. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2021. pp. 266-273 (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems).

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title = "Improvement of Accessibility in Medical and Healthcare Websites",

abstract = "Health information on the Web can make patients better informed about a disease, which according to several studies leads to better treatment results. However, the health information found on the Web is not accessible because it presents barriers that prevent people from easily accessing it because it does not comply with the standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Therefore, in this study, we present an analysis of the accessibility of the seven most visited health websites in the world. To analyze the accessibility of medical websites, we apply an automatic review method. The results show that health websites have frequent problems related to the lack of alternative text, empty links, and contrast errors. This research can contribute to future work related to accessibility in health and medical sites. Finally, we suggest designing a combined method to review each website{\textquoteright}s accessibility barriers to complement the automatic review.",

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author = "Gloria Acosta-Vargas and Patricia Acosta-Vargas and Janio Jad{\'a}n-Guerrero and Luis Salvador-Ullauri and Mario Gonzalez",

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doi = "10.1007/978-3-030-79816-1_33",

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Acosta-Vargas, G, Acosta-Vargas, P, Jadán-Guerrero, J, Salvador-Ullauri, L & Gonzalez, M 2021, Improvement of Accessibility in Medical and Healthcare Websites. in IL Nunes (ed.), Advances in Human Factors and System Interactions - Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conference on Human Factors and Systems Interaction, 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol. 265, Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, pp. 266-273, AHFE Conference on Human Factors and Systems Interaction, 2021, Virtual, Online, 25/07/21. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79816-1_33

Improvement of Accessibility in Medical and Healthcare Websites. / Acosta-Vargas, Gloria; Acosta-Vargas, Patricia; Jadán-Guerrero, Janio et al.
Advances in Human Factors and System Interactions - Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conference on Human Factors and Systems Interaction, 2021. ed. / Isabel L. Nunes. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2021. p. 266-273 (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; Vol. 265).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Improvement of Accessibility in Medical and Healthcare Websites

AU - Acosta-Vargas, Gloria

AU - Acosta-Vargas, Patricia

AU - Jadán-Guerrero, Janio

AU - Salvador-Ullauri, Luis

AU - Gonzalez, Mario

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Health information on the Web can make patients better informed about a disease, which according to several studies leads to better treatment results. However, the health information found on the Web is not accessible because it presents barriers that prevent people from easily accessing it because it does not comply with the standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Therefore, in this study, we present an analysis of the accessibility of the seven most visited health websites in the world. To analyze the accessibility of medical websites, we apply an automatic review method. The results show that health websites have frequent problems related to the lack of alternative text, empty links, and contrast errors. This research can contribute to future work related to accessibility in health and medical sites. Finally, we suggest designing a combined method to review each website’s accessibility barriers to complement the automatic review.

AB - Health information on the Web can make patients better informed about a disease, which according to several studies leads to better treatment results. However, the health information found on the Web is not accessible because it presents barriers that prevent people from easily accessing it because it does not comply with the standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Therefore, in this study, we present an analysis of the accessibility of the seven most visited health websites in the world. To analyze the accessibility of medical websites, we apply an automatic review method. The results show that health websites have frequent problems related to the lack of alternative text, empty links, and contrast errors. This research can contribute to future work related to accessibility in health and medical sites. Finally, we suggest designing a combined method to review each website’s accessibility barriers to complement the automatic review.

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KW - Improvement

KW - Medicine websites

KW - WCAG 2.1

KW - Web content accessibility guidelines

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BT - Advances in Human Factors and System Interactions - Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conference on Human Factors and Systems Interaction, 2021

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ER -

Acosta-Vargas G, Acosta-Vargas P, Jadán-Guerrero J, Salvador-Ullauri L, Gonzalez M. Improvement of Accessibility in Medical and Healthcare Websites. In Nunes IL, editor, Advances in Human Factors and System Interactions - Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conference on Human Factors and Systems Interaction, 2021. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. 2021. p. 266-273. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems). doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-79816-1_33

Improvement of Accessibility in Medical and Healthcare Websites

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this