Automating Accessibility in Health IT – Part 2

The first article in this series, Disabilities and Accessibility in Health IT: The Need Is Constant, introduced the importance of designing web sites and other health care tools for many different types of people. In this article, we’ll look at how far you can go with the automation of web site accessibility. Automation and the human factor In most endeavors, computers can provide help while leaving tasks that require human intervention, a role for the computer that user interaction pioneer Doug Engelbart called “augmentation.” In making web sites accessible, we can ask which jobs are for a computer and which are for humans. Human intervention, in this case, calls for involving people from different disabled communities directly. They might join a focus group to engage in participatory design, or enter a lab to test interfaces. Caroline Jerome, the designer quoted in the previous article, believes that good design skills are more important than testing. Designing a good interface is not intuitive, but she has found that people who study design can anticipate visitors’ needs. She endorses the WCAG rules, which form the basis of many automated tools we’ll look at. Brandon Cooper and Jennifer Dunphy Bowers of Get Real Health are responsible for accessibility for a site used by about three million people, with government clients who require compliance with accessibility regulations and standards. Their web site includes a button for submitting feedba...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System accessiBe Accessibility Ada Axe-core Brandon Cooper Deque Systems Disability Doug Engelbart Dylan Barrell Fullscript Healthcare Autom Source Type: blogs