As of 2024, nearly 60% of healthcare consumers use mobile devices to manage their health, from booking appointments to accessing medical records. Yet, despite this growing reliance on mobile platforms, over 70% of healthcare websites fail to meet basic accessibility standards, leaving users with disabilities at a significant disadvantage.
Navigating these digital healthcare systems can be frustrating and limiting for blind technology users like me, mainly when using touch-based screen readers on smartphones and tablets. In this post, I will explore the accessibility challenges of mobile healthcare websites and share insights on how these platforms can be improved to ensure equal access for all.
The following discussion will strictly apply to touch-based screen readers on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets.
Challenges Faced by Screen Reader Users on Mobile Healthcare Websites:
- High Mobile Usage: 60% of healthcare consumers use mobile devices for managing health-related tasks.
- Accessibility Gap: Over 70% of healthcare websites fail basic accessibility standards, affecting blind users.
- Key Challenges:
- Appointment Scheduling: Issues with date selection and navigation using touch-based screen readers.
- Pop-Up Dismissals: Privacy and cookie pop-ups often lack proper screen reader support.
- Insurance Information: Difficulties verifying details from uploaded insurance cards due to inaccessible graphics.
Scheduling Appointments
One of the most valuable features of online healthcare systems is the ability to book and change appointments without contacting a provider directly. Unfortunately, completing this task is often difficult when using a touch-based screen reader. A key issue I encounter is with date selection. The most common interface displays a visual calendar that shows all the days of the month in a table-like grid. While my screen reader usually speaks the days of the month correctly, making specific selections is often a challenge.
For example, using one-finger swipes to move through the calendar grid one item at a time doesn’t always work correctly. Instead of following the chronological order of the days of the month, the screen reader's focus jumps around randomly, landing on arbitrary dates in the calendar.
During one instance, I was swiping through a calendar grid and heard:
“Monday, July 1, Tuesday, July 2, Thursday, July 11, Saturday, July 6, Tuesday, July 16.”
Focus jumped erratically to different days in July, making it difficult to quickly and easily select an appointment date. Direct touch isn’t a reliable solution, requiring precise finger placement to choose the correct date.
Additionally, moving between months is often a hassle. Typically, each month is represented by separate calendar grids, but the screen reader will announce the month only for the first visible calendar. As I scroll down, subsequent grids announce only the day and date, not the month, complicating scheduling appointments for future months.
For more insights into accessibility challenges in appointment scheduling, check out Accessibility Challenges in Healthcare: Booking an Appointment.
Cookie And Privacy Notice Pop-Ups
Healthcare websites prioritize patient privacy and protection, leading to frequent pop-ups that require user interaction, such as dismissing cookie usage notifications. Unfortunately, ignoring these pop-ups with a mobile screen reader is often a challenging task.
A common issue is that the small “X” button to close the window is often unlabeled in the code, causing the screen reader to miss the button entirely or announce vague terms like “Image” or “Graphic.” In other cases, even if the button is located, activating it seems to do nothing, and elements of the privacy notice continue to interfere with navigating the main page.
Because pop-ups are prevalent on healthcare websites, special accessibility considerations must be given to them. All elements in the pop-up should be screen reader-interactable, and there should be a straightforward method to dismiss the window.
For more detailed advice on creating accessible pop-ups, read Pop-Up Accessibility and How to Make Pop-Ups More Accessible.
Uploading Insurance Information
Uploading insurance information is another critical part of online scheduling or changing healthcare appointments. On mobile healthcare websites, users can take a picture of a physical insurance card with their camera instead of manually entering the data. While this feature is convenient, it’s often unusable for screen reader dependents like myself.
After capturing an image of the card, the system asks the user to verify the extracted information, such as the plan number and patient’s name. Unfortunately, my screen reader cannot read back this information, likely because it’s embedded in a graphic that the screen reader ignores.
Since I can’t verify the accuracy of the information captured, I don’t feel comfortable submitting the insurance details. Even if I could hear the displayed data, the checkbox for confirming the information is also inaccessible to screen readers. These accessibility barriers make the photo upload feature of mobile healthcare websites inaccessible for screen reader users.
For additional design tips and examples on making healthcare websites more accessible, you might find Web Accessibility Design Examples on Healthcare Websites helpful.
Ensuring Mobile Accessibility in Healthcare Websites: Key Takeaways
The accessibility flaws affecting online healthcare systems differ significantly between mobile and desktop platforms. I hope the examples above help to illustrate the mobile side of these challenges. It’s essential to remember that mobile healthcare websites must be just as accessible as their desktop counterparts; the independence of individuals with disabilities depends on it.
For a more personal perspective on these challenges, see my earlier post, Healthcare Web Accessibility: My Experience as a Blind Patient.
TL;DR:
Mobile healthcare websites are increasingly essential, but many fail to meet accessibility standards for screen reader users. Common issues include difficulty with scheduling appointments, dismissing privacy pop-ups, and verifying insurance information. This post explores these challenges and emphasizes the need for fully accessible mobile platforms to support independence for all users.
Editor's Note: This is a post from our contributor, Michael Taylor. This post reflects his opinions and experiences. Read more blogs from Michael about his experiences online as a blind person who relies on a screen reader.
