Page 159 - Petelin, Ana, ur. 2021. Zdravje starostnikov / Health of the Elderly. Zbornik povzetkov z recenzijo / Book of Abstracts. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem/University of Primorska Press
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ital access to health information and e-health services tehnološke in ostale ikt rešitve | technological an ict solutions
for everyone
Boris Šimenc, Jelena Ficzko
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Introduction. Computerisation, digitisation, and automation have moved a lot of
health information online. Globally, the number of elderly people that are fac-
ing at least some form of disability is increasing. When ensuring the accessibility
and usability of websites that provide such information, it is necessary to think
about such people. With this research, we wanted to explore whether, and to
what extent, health-related online information and services are accessible to
people with disabilities. For this purpose, we assessed the accessibility of seven
selected Slovenian healthcare institution websites. The results were compared
to those reported by the authors of selected foreign articles.
Methods. We evaluated the literature using a descriptive method of work, go-
ing through Slovenian and foreign scientific literature published between 2010
and 2020. Eight articles were included. For the practical part of this work, sev-
en home pages of Slovenian healthcare institutions were selected for review.
We used a WAVE automated web tool to review the accessibility of the home
pages. The tool assessed accessibility according to WCAG guidelines 2.1.
Results. The analysis of all eight articles showed that majority of the reviewed
websites are inaccessible. The Authors of the studies reviewed a total of 1131
websites from 11 countries around the world. The most common discrepan-
cies were found in the principles of “perception” and “operation”. All web pag-
es in our survey contained errors. In the seven reviewed pages, the automated
online tool detected 70 errors, 123 alerts, and 182 contrast errors.
Discussion and conclusion. The authors of the studies identified a number of
shortcomings in ensuring the accessibility of websites. We came to similar con-
clusions in our research. The authors pointed out necessary changes to the de-
sign of websites and to national policies, in the monitoring and evaluation of
guidelines. Despite perceived discrepancies, we can say that the analysed Slo-
venian health institution websites and eZdravje are as good or more accessi-
ble in comparison to the global ones reviewed by the comparison studies. We
see our contribution as raising awareness and calling for greater accessibility to
health and other information that should be available online to everyone. It is
necessary to point out the limitation of our research, as the assessment of the
accessibility of home pages was performed for only seven healthcare institu-
tions using an automatic tool. We suggest a national analysis which would in-
clude, in addition to an automated tools review, an additional review by a web
accessibility expert in order to provide a clearer picture of the availability of
digital health information and services.
Keywords: ageing, digitalisation, automated web tool, web access
157
for everyone
Boris Šimenc, Jelena Ficzko
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Introduction. Computerisation, digitisation, and automation have moved a lot of
health information online. Globally, the number of elderly people that are fac-
ing at least some form of disability is increasing. When ensuring the accessibility
and usability of websites that provide such information, it is necessary to think
about such people. With this research, we wanted to explore whether, and to
what extent, health-related online information and services are accessible to
people with disabilities. For this purpose, we assessed the accessibility of seven
selected Slovenian healthcare institution websites. The results were compared
to those reported by the authors of selected foreign articles.
Methods. We evaluated the literature using a descriptive method of work, go-
ing through Slovenian and foreign scientific literature published between 2010
and 2020. Eight articles were included. For the practical part of this work, sev-
en home pages of Slovenian healthcare institutions were selected for review.
We used a WAVE automated web tool to review the accessibility of the home
pages. The tool assessed accessibility according to WCAG guidelines 2.1.
Results. The analysis of all eight articles showed that majority of the reviewed
websites are inaccessible. The Authors of the studies reviewed a total of 1131
websites from 11 countries around the world. The most common discrepan-
cies were found in the principles of “perception” and “operation”. All web pag-
es in our survey contained errors. In the seven reviewed pages, the automated
online tool detected 70 errors, 123 alerts, and 182 contrast errors.
Discussion and conclusion. The authors of the studies identified a number of
shortcomings in ensuring the accessibility of websites. We came to similar con-
clusions in our research. The authors pointed out necessary changes to the de-
sign of websites and to national policies, in the monitoring and evaluation of
guidelines. Despite perceived discrepancies, we can say that the analysed Slo-
venian health institution websites and eZdravje are as good or more accessi-
ble in comparison to the global ones reviewed by the comparison studies. We
see our contribution as raising awareness and calling for greater accessibility to
health and other information that should be available online to everyone. It is
necessary to point out the limitation of our research, as the assessment of the
accessibility of home pages was performed for only seven healthcare institu-
tions using an automatic tool. We suggest a national analysis which would in-
clude, in addition to an automated tools review, an additional review by a web
accessibility expert in order to provide a clearer picture of the availability of
digital health information and services.
Keywords: ageing, digitalisation, automated web tool, web access
157
