Part of the government’s implementation of the Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy (NTS), Verhoeven said the MyHospital website was user-friendly and in compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. WCAG 2.0 sets guidelines and principles for making all content on the internet accessible to a wide range of people, including the vision and hearing impaired.
The MyHospital website is part of the government’s initiative to make health and hospital information accessible to the public. Part of making the information accessible to the public is to present online content that is in compliance with WCAG 2.0, so that people with disabilities can also access the information with the use of assistive technology.
Verhoeven told Government News that the challenge in making health data accessible to the public is to ensure information is consistent. The MyHospital database contains complex information across eight different state and territory governments and health systems, each of which present information differently.
She said the next step in making government websites more accessible is to agree upon “data governance” to create consistency in presenting information so that data can be compared.
It’s encouraging to see health websites as one of the first to transition to the web accessibility compliance under the NTS due to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) relevance to people with a disability. The data on the MyHospital website is based on the data collected by the AIHW.
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