Accessibility of Canadian ophthalmology department webpages for the visually impaired

OBJECTIVE: We reviewed Canadian university ophthalmology department webpages to determine the extent of web content accessibility for users with visual impairment and color vision deficiency. METHODS: The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) were used to assess the accessibility of all 15 Canadian ophthalmology website homepages using automated assessment and manual assessment strategies. RESULTS: All department webpages had accessibility errors. The mean number of errors identified by each tool were: AChecker (13.3, SD = 9.4), ARC ToolKit (16.5, SD = 35.1), and WAVE (4.9, SD = 14). Forty-seven percent (7/15) of the websites had contrast errors, with the mean number of errors being 2.2 (SD = 3.9). Accessibility errors relevant to users with visual impairment or those that utilize screen readers included the absence of alternative text, explaining the content of images, hyperlinks without information regarding where the link navigates to, improper declaration of website language causing screen readers to read French text as if it were in English, and the duplication of the same element ID resulting in screen reader processing errors. CONCLUSIONS: The ophthalmology webpages of Canadian universities should be revised to better comply with the WCAG guidelines and enhance digital accessibility for users with visual impairment.