Bridging the digital divide for people with aphasia: a study protocol for codesigning web accessibility tools and...

Aphasia is a language impairment that affects one-third of people who experience a stroke. Aphasia can impact all facets of language: speaking, understanding, reading and writing. Around 60% of people with aphasia have persistent language impairments 1 year after their stroke, requiring ongoing healthcare and support. In recent years, the internet has become a key resource for the self-management of chronic health conditions. Navigating web content, however, requires language use, and as such, people living with aphasia are more likely to be excluded from digital health and support services. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines exist; however, they do not fully address the unique and diverse needs of people with aphasia, and a significant proportion of websites (over 90%) do not fully adhere to them. This protocol paper describes the first two stages of the Bridging the Digital Divide project, which aims to codesign and develop (a) a web-browser extension to re-render webpages to an 'aphasia-friendly' (accessible) format, (b) training tools to help users and health professionals customise the web-browser extension and (c) guidelines for developing communication-accessible websites.

The research will be conducted using experience-based codesign. In Stage 1a, focus groups will be held with (1) people with aphasia, (2) family members or significant others and (3) health professionals working with people with aphasia. Participants will be asked to share their experiences of accessing (or supporting a person with aphasia to access) healthcare, information and support services on the web. The nominal group technique (NGT) will be used to identify priorities for improving web accessibility for people with aphasia. Focus group data will be analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, and prioritisation data will be analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis. In Stage 1b, eight codesign workshops will be held with representatives of the three key stakeholder groups to iteratively codesign and develop a web-browser extension, training tools and guidelines to support web accessibility.

Ethical clearance for Stage 1a and Stage 1b of this project has been approved by the University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee (Stage 1a approval number: 2023/HE000528, Stage 1b approval number: 2024/HE000721). The outcomes of this research will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences. A dissemination and celebration event will be held at the completion of the project.