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Local, state COVID-19 vaccine sites not accessible for people with disabilities, company claims

PITTSBURGH — For those living with disabilities, getting access to online COVID-19 information and vaccine appointments can prove challenging.

“We can’t manipulate the website like most people can,” said Mike Hingson, who has been blind since birth.

Hingson said many government-run COVID-19 sites and vaccine registration portals across the country are not accessible for those with disabilities, and are thus violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

He cited a Kaiser Health News study, which found instances of sites flouting disability rights laws in every state.

Compliance all comes down to coding, Hingson said. He personally uses software that can read aloud what’s on a website, but only if that website is coded properly, he said. Similarly, an improperly coded website may not account for someone who is paralyzed and uses a keyboard rather than a mouse. A noncompliant site may also have flashing or blinking images that could trigger someone with epilepsy to have a seizure.

“Those are all things that website owners need to address, because it’s the law,” Hingson said.

Hingson serves as the Chief Vision Officer for a company called AccessiBe, which has a free tool where users can enter a link and see whether or not the site is compliant.

We entered the Allegheny County Health Department’s COVID-19 site along with the state Department of Health’s vaccine provider map, and both were noted as non-compliant, according to the site.

“It isn’t that people are maliciously avoiding making their websites accessible,” Hingson said. “For the most part, it is that people don’t think about it.”

AccessiBe provides software to help websites get compliant, by creating an “overlay,” he said. Right now, the software is being offered free of charge to any COVID-19 related site.

But, he hopes lawmakers step in too.

“I think Congress is going to have to make tougher regulations regarding accessibility ... we should be mandating inclusion throughout the internet and throughout everything that we do.”

Channel 11 reached out to the PA Department of Health for comment and received this statement:

The PA Department of Health website is accessible for those with vision impairment who are using a screen reader and the website can be translated into 100 languages.

The Google map used on the website was built with accessibility in mind, and accessibility information is provided on the map itself.

Additionally, the Department of Health continues to offer support through the PA Health Hotline at 1-877-PA-HEALTH. We continue to build supports for those who cannot access the internet or are not able to access the resources to do so online.”

The Allegheny County Health Department sent Channel 11 a statement:

“We have provided the audit report to the Department of Information Technology and have asked that they begin to address some of the issues outlined if our current website is capable of accommodating those changes. We will also take a closer look at other improvements.

We take accessibility (and access more generally) very seriously. We have worked hard to make coronavirus and vaccine information available to all in our community, and will continue to do so.”