An Accessibility Evaluation of the Websites of Top-ranked Hospitals in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Hospital websites offer the potential to improve healthcare service delivery. They can provide up-to-date information and services to patients, at low cost and regardless of their level of abilities. This, in turn, can reduce overcrowding in hospitals and reduce spread of disease, especially in circumstances like the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is, therefore, imperative for designers to ensure the accessibility of hospital websites to the widest possible range of people. This study aims to evaluate the accessibility of the websites of topranked hospitals in Saudi Arabia using AChecker. The sample included the websites of the top ten hospitals from each of the public and private sectors. The results show that only 20% of the evaluated websites conformed fully to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. No significant difference was found in terms of the accessibility compliance between the websites of the public and private hospitals. The most frequently observed accessibility errors were related to the structure of information, non-text content, labels and instructions, headings, and keyboard access. The study concludes that Saudi hospitals are not doing an adequate job of meeting accessibility guidelines, thereby denying many of their web customers the ability to fully use their websites.

An Assessment of Accessibility and Usability of Saudi Online FinTech Services for People with Disabilities

“…In addition, the websites were generally below average with regard to usability due to excessive page size, the presence of numerous broken links, failure to include a search feature, and providing information in only one language. Most of these accessibility and usability violations are consistent with findings previously reported in the healthcare domain [ 54 – 57 ]. Prior studies found issues with links being empty, color contrast, alternative text for linked images, headings, and keyboard accessibility.…”