Web accessibility issues are widespread and can hinder many areas of life for people with disabilities. Unfortunately, many are facing access barriers to COVID-19 vaccine information and sign-up webpages, which shows just how dangerous a lack of accessibility can be. A recent study by the nonprofit WebAIM and Kaiser Health News found nearly all state vaccine web pages had technological accessibility barriers. While some areas have since added updates, the issue is widespread and has garnered responses from advocates, government representatives, and others.
Some people with visual disabilities have had a particularly hard time getting information on vaccines. Many blind people work with assistance in some area of their lives and so cannot socially distance to the degree recommended during the pandemic, putting them at greater risk for the virus. All people, regardless of whether they can socially distance or have a disability, deserve to register for a vaccine easily, and are legally entitled to do so. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits governments and private businesses from engaging in disability- based discrimination. The ADA has been interpreted as applying to digital channels like websites and apps. Yet digital access issues remain prevalent.
Vaccine websites across the country fail to provide access
As numerous outlets have recently reported, federal, state, and local vaccine sign-up sites across the U.S. have had technical accessibility flaws. These include web images and text graphics without alternative text and low-contrast text, which can make information unavailable to screen reader users, people with low vision, and many others. Some states also listed vaccination center locations on color-coded maps alone instead of with scannable text, while other sites also had drop-down menus that screen readers could not navigate.
Multiple members of organizations led by or serving disability communities have struggled to use the vaccine websites and have spoken out about these issues. "A national emergency does not exempt federal, state, and local governments from providing equal access," President of the National Federation of the Blind, Mark Riccobono wrote in a letter to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department in December 2020 (Riccobono letter—PDF). And in March 2021, 13 U.S. senators wrote to the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services regarding these problems (senators' letter—PDF).
Responses to access issues for COVID vaccine websites
Some localities have updated their online vaccine sign-up pages after receiving complaints about access issues. In Arizona, the state's vaccine-finder site now offers a text-only list in addition to a map. Some states have added messages to their sign-up portals directing anyone with accessibility issues to use a call-in option. Johns Hopkins University launched an all-text Covid-19 Vaccine Prioritization Dashboard, which provides accessible vaccine eligibility information for all U.S. states and territories.
"Accessibility certainly has been an afterthought for a lot of the sites," Director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center Bonnie Swenor told Yahoo News. "This conversation around gaps and access, differences and prioritization, is a really call-to-action moment for us, for our community."
Recently, accessibility has been shown to still be an afterthought in many realms of life, from learning about presidential candidates to grocery shopping online. These harmful failures to provide access by businesses and web and mobile developers are also leading to an increasing number of digital-accessibility lawsuits. Albert Elia, a blind attorney who works on accessibility cases for the TRE Legal Practice in San Francisco, told PBS he thinks vaccine accessibility issues could lead to a new wave of these lawsuits.
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