From hand washing signs to case number graphs, health information is often visual. How accessible is it to people with vision impairment? University of Melbourne PhD candidate John Paul Cruz is researching the accessibility of Australian digital health platforms.
Is health information accessible to Australians with visual impairment?
“My research is all about making health information accessible to everyone, specifically to visually impaired people,” says John Paul.
People with vision impairment use assistive technologies to navigate both physical and digital spaces. In digital spaces, they use screen readers, which speak out any text on the screen.
An estimated 450,000 Australians are blind or have low vision. And health information isn’t always accessible to them.
“For example, you have data visualisation for sighted people that looks really great. It’s easy for them to digest information with just one graph,” John Paul says.
COVID-19 reporting often used case number graphs at the height of the pandemic. For people without vision impairment, this quickly communicated the risk of infection.
“But for people who are visually impaired or use a screen reader, that visual representation of data needs to be converted into text to allow them to read the information with a screen reader,” John Paul says.
Everyone deserves access to information to help them make decisions about their health.
During his PhD, John Paul will check Australian health digital platforms against accessibility guidelines. He will also interview people with vision impairment to find out whether they find those platforms to be accessible.