Accessibility of health information on the internet to the visually impaired user

Web sites containing health information should be accessible to visually impaired persons.

139 web sites containing medical information addressing laymen or patients were evaluated with respect to their accessibility. A quantitative checklist which is based upon the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was used.

Only 18% (15 sites) achieved WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) level A or AA. WAI level AA was reached by only 1% (1 site) of the web sites. None of the web sites reached level AAA; 82% of the assessed web sites offering consumer health information are not fully accessible to visually impaired persons.

The accessibility of web-based health content to visually impaired users should be improved. Health information on the web should at least meet the requirements of priority 1 (level A), preferably priority 2 (level AA) of the W3C guidelines.