Compliance with web content accessibility guidelines in ophthalmology social media posts

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Web Accessibility
• Ophthalmology Communications

Background:

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are crucial for ensuring digital content is accessible to individuals with disabilities, including visual impairments.
• Social media platforms are increasingly used for patient education, but their accessibility is often overlooked.
• Ophthalmology patient education relies heavily on visual content, making WCAG compliance particularly important.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the compliance of ophthalmology patient education social media posts with WCAG standards.
• To compare accessibility compliance between ophthalmology and non-ophthalmology social media content.
• To identify common accessibility barriers in ophthalmology social media posts.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional analysis of 100 social media posts (50 ophthalmology, 50 non-ophthalmology).
• Posts were evaluated using an adapted WCAG 2 checklist by three independent graders.
• Accessibility was scored using a validated scale (0-3, representing WCAG conformance levels).

Main Results:

• No significant difference in WCAG scores was found between ophthalmology and non-ophthalmology posts (p=0.80).
• 49% of ophthalmology social media posts demonstrated no WCAG compliance.
• Color and contrast issues were the most frequent reasons for non-compliance (39% of ophthalmology posts).

Conclusions:

• Ophthalmology social media patient education content generally exhibits low adherence to WCAG standards.
• Poor accessibility, particularly regarding color and contrast, may hinder access for individuals with low vision.
• Improving WCAG compliance in ophthalmology social media is essential for equitable patient education.