COVID-19 vaccine website accessibility dashboard

Grace Jo; Daniel Habib; Varshini Varadaraj; Jared Smith; Sabrina Epstein; Jiafeng Zhu; Gayane Yenokyan; Kara Ayers; Bonnielin K Swenor

doi:10.1016/j.dhjo.2022.101325

COVID-19 vaccine website accessibility dashboard

Disabil Health J. 2022 Jul;15(3):101325. doi: 10.1016/j.dhjo.2022.101325. Epub 2022 Apr 12.

Authors

Grace Jo¹, Daniel Habib¹, Varshini Varadaraj², Jared Smith³, Sabrina Epstein¹, Jiafeng Zhu⁴, Gayane Yenokyan⁴, Kara Ayers⁵, Bonnielin K Swenor⁶

Affiliations

¹ Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA.
² Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA; The Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA.
³ Institute for Disability Research, Policy, and Practice, Utah State University, 6807 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322, USA.
⁴ Johns Hopkins Biostatistics Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
⁵ Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA; University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH, 45229, USA.
⁶ Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA; The Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. Electronic address: bswenor@jhmi.edu.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated historical inequities for people with disabilities including barriers in accessing online information and healthcare appointment websites. These barriers were brought to the foreground during the vaccine rollout and registration process.

Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed to examine accessibility of U.S. state and territory COVID-19 information and registration centralized websites.

Methods: The Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center created a COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard compiling COVID-19 information and vaccine registration web pages from 56 states and territories in the United States (U.S.) reviewed between March 30 through April 5, 2021 and analyzed accessibility using WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE). WAVE identifies website accessibility barriers, including insufficient contrast, alternative text, unlabeled buttons, total number of errors, and error density. Web pages were ranked and grouped into three groups by number of errors, creating comparisons between states on accessibility barriers for people with disabilities.

Results: All 56 U.S states and territories had COVID-19 information web pages and 29 states had centralized state vaccine registration web pages. Total errors, error density, and alert data were utilized to generate accessibility scores for each web page, the median score was 259 (range = 14 to 536 and IQR = 237) for information pages, and 146 (range = 10 to 281 and IQR = 105) for registration pages.

Conclusions: These results highlight barriers people with disabilities may encounter when accessing information and registering for the COVID-19 vaccine, which underscore inequities in the pandemic response for the disability community and elevate the need to prioritize accessibility of public health information.

Keywords: Barriers to accessing information and registering for COVID-19 vaccine; COVID-19 vaccine; Disability inclusion; Health services for persons with disabilities; Website accessibility of public health information.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19 Vaccines
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Cross-Sectional Studies
Disabled Persons*
Humans
Pandemics
United States

Substances

COVID-19 Vaccines