Close your eyes and read: section 508 and your hospital website
Here’s an interesting thought experiment: sit back for a moment and imagine how a blind person would navigate your website.
No clear answer? That’s ok, you’ve got until January 18, 2018 to figure it out. That’s when section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (read about it here) gets new teeth, and starts meting out penalties to hospitals that don’t have compliant websites.
Section 508 in laymans’ terms
At the risk of oversimplifying, section 508 states that a website must be accessible to persons with various impairments. Historically applied to federal government websites, hospitals and health systems have come under it’s purview and will be penalized for compliance starting next year.
The bad news is that your website is almost certainly out of compliance. The good news is that some hospitals and health systems will be in better shape than others. For instance, Smith and Jones’ clients are likely to have a a solid baseline in place to meet the new regulations. Minor tweaks will be the name of the game. Other hospitals that haven’t worked through a professional web overhaul will face a heavier lift.
Next steps for marketing directors and CMOs
As a marketing director, the first thing to do is understand the scope of the problem. Invest 3 minutes in reading the United States Access Board’s recent update. If you’re the curious type, run an analysis through a tool like tenon.io, but take the results with a grain of salt. Accessibility isn’t a binary yes/no state.
You should also ask your webmaster and your web developer(s) to re-familiarize themselves with technical documentation like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and how to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) published by the World Wide Web Consortium. Ask them to report back to you with their perspective on how deep the problem is and necessary steps to fix it. If you’re in good shape, this can probably be fixed with a little bit of budget and time investment.
If your website has been neglected for some time, it may be time to pull the trigger on a website rebuild and redesign (It’s worth it). If that’s the boat you’re in, it’s time to get educated. Start with something like our Website Anatomy 101 Guide. Then talk to your agency. They can help you understand the ins and outs of the project, and identify the appropriate processes and first steps. It can be a long process; starting now will give you the time to make good decisions and get things right.