Accessibility of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace websites.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandated that creation of online health insurance websites to ease the complex process of shopping for and enrolling into coverage. Ensuring that these sites are not only available but also meet digital accessibility standards is important so that individuals with disab...
| Published in: | Journal of Communication in Healthcare Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 316 - 324 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Dec2022
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=160848735&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 160848735 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 17538068 88TW jtl: Journal of Communication in Healthcare issn: 17538068 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2022 vid: 15 iid: 4 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 160848735 155635367 160848735 160848735 10.1080/17538068.2022.2046899 160848735 ppf: 316 ppct: 8 formats: tig: atl: Accessibility of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace websites. aug: au: Thornton, Michele Mushtare, Rebecca Rescigno, Francesca Brightman, Kaitlin affil: Health Services Administration, Department of Marketing and Management, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY, USA sug: subj: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Exchanges World Wide Web Health Services Accessibility Insurance Coverage Human Content Analysis Quantitative Studies Descriptive Statistics T-Tests Qualitative Studies Healthcare Disparities ab: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandated that creation of online health insurance websites to ease the complex process of shopping for and enrolling into coverage. Ensuring that these sites are not only available but also meet digital accessibility standards is important so that individuals with disabilities are able to access healthcare services and efficiently obtain insurance coverage. We evaluated each of the marketplace sites in 2020 to assess whether they are digitally accessible. We employed a custom audit tool based on a subset of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 and 2.0 AA and used content analysis to compare the site's accessibility statements with best practices. Nearly all of the ACA marketplace websites have significant room to improve their digital accessibility. Notable technical problem areas include lack of text equivalents for images, difficult site navigation, and lack of optimization for mobile use, particularly on those pages that provide instructions on how to get in-person help. Given that access to health insurance is a primary predictor of access to health care – sites must be easy to use and accessible to all individuals regardless of ability. Barriers to online enrollment, such as those identified in this work, may exacerbate disparities in quality of care, treatment continuity and affordability for individuals with mental and physical disabilities. Entities providing health-related online information & engagement should be aware of actionable opportunities to improve digital accessibility to optimize the enrollment process for both maintaining coverage and assisting those that remain uninsured. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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