How medical-centers.org/ Works for People With Disabilities
Healthcare access is a right under the law in every country we cover. This page sets out our commitment to accessibility on this site, the standards we work to (WCAG 2.1 Level AA), the assistive technologies we test against, the multi-country legal framework, the specific features we’ve built, the limitations we know about (including in healthcare-provider portals beyond our control), and how to tell us about a barrier you’ve encountered.
What’s on this page
1. Our Commitment
medical-centers.org/ is built so that anyone — using any device, any browser, any assistive technology — can find a hospital or medical center, understand its services, and reach the right contact without barriers. Accessibility is not an afterthought. It is part of every editorial template, every CSS rule, every navigation pattern. We test against assistive technologies on every major page template before publication and on a quarterly cycle thereafter.
2. Standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA
We work to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. This is the standard the U.S. Department of Justice has long used as the benchmark for ADA website accessibility, the UK Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 baseline, the Accessible Canada Act framework, and the Australian Government Digital Service Standard reference.
3. Legal Framework — United States
| Law | Citation | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| ADA Title III | 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq. | Prohibits disability discrimination in places of public accommodation — covers private hospitals, private clinics, and most private healthcare facilities |
| ADA Title II | 42 U.S.C. § 12131 et seq. | Covers state and local government — public hospitals, county hospitals, state-run health systems |
| Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act | 29 U.S.C. § 794 | Prohibits disability discrimination by federally-funded programs — covers Medicare- and Medicaid-funded facilities |
| Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act | 29 U.S.C. § 794d | Federal procurement standard; 2017 Refresh aligns Section 508 with WCAG 2.0 AA |
| 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) | Pub. L. 111-260 | Telecommunications and video accessibility |
4. Legal Framework — United Kingdom
| Law | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Equality Act 2010, s.20 | Reasonable adjustments duty for service providers, including healthcare providers and information services |
| Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 | WCAG-aligned accessibility requirement for NHS and other public-sector body websites |
| UK Government Service Standard | Mandatory accessibility standard for digital government services |
5. Legal Framework — Canada
| Law | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Accessible Canada Act (federal) | Federal duty to identify, remove, and prevent accessibility barriers in federally-regulated entities |
| Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) | Provincial standard requiring WCAG 2.0 AA for Ontario public-sector and large private organisations |
| Other provincial frameworks | Manitoba’s Accessibility for Manitobans Act; Nova Scotia’s Accessibility Act; British Columbia’s Accessible British Columbia Act; Quebec’s evolving accessibility framework |
| Canadian Human Rights Act | Federal anti-discrimination framework, including disability |
6. Legal Framework — Australia
| Law | Citation | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) | Cth | Prohibits disability discrimination in services, including online services |
| Australian Government Digital Service Standard | — | WCAG 2.0 AA mandate for Australian government digital services |
| State/territory anti-discrimination laws | Various | NSW Anti-Discrimination Act, Victorian Equal Opportunity Act, etc. |
7. Specific Accessibility Features We’ve Built
Semantic HTML
Proper heading hierarchy (Yoast manages H1; H2/H3 in our templates), <nav>, <main>, <article>, <section>, <footer> landmarks where applicable.
17px+ body text
Body copy is at least 17px on all pages — comfortable reading for most users without zoom.
4.5:1+ text contrast
All body text meets WCAG AA contrast (4.5:1) against its background; large text and UI components meet 3:1 minimum.
Keyboard-only navigation
Every link, button, form control, and interactive element is reachable and operable using Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, and Space.
Visible focus indicators
Focus outlines are not removed; the default browser focus ring is preserved on every interactive element.
Descriptive link text
Links describe their destination (“Massachusetts General Hospital” not “click here”). Each external link has rel=”noopener” and target=”_blank”.
Alt text on images
Every image carries a descriptive alt attribute; decorative images use alt=””.
Logical reading order
Source-order matches visual order; CSS layout never reverses, scrambles, or hides content from screen readers.
Responsive without zoom traps
Pages reflow at 320px width; pinch-zoom is not disabled; user-scalable=yes.
Form labels
Every form control has a programmatic <label> or aria-label; error messages are announced.
Reduced motion
The site respects prefers-reduced-motion and avoids gratuitous animation.
Plain-language drafts
Healthcare walkthroughs are drafted at roughly an 8th–10th grade reading level where the underlying technical content allows.
8. Assistive Technology Compatibility
We test against the following combinations on every major page template before publication:
- NVDA + Firefox / Chrome on Windows
- JAWS + Chrome on Windows
- VoiceOver + Safari on macOS
- VoiceOver + Safari on iOS
- TalkBack + Chrome on Android
- Narrator + Edge on Windows (smoke test)
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking — voice-only navigation smoke test
- Browser zoom at 200% and 400%
- High-contrast mode in Windows and macOS
9. Known Limitations
- Some third-party advertising units may not always meet our internal standards. We work with our advertising partners and reject ad units that fail material accessibility checks.
- Embedded videos from third-party platforms inherit those platforms’ accessibility features (or limitations); we link to transcripts or captioning where the source provides them.
- Embedded Google Maps have residual accessibility limitations on some screen-reader / browser combinations; we always provide the verified street address as text alongside the map embed so the address is reachable without map interaction.
- Some legacy facility-by-facility pages built before our current accessibility framework may have minor remaining issues — we are working through them on a rolling quarterly review and welcome reports.
10. Hospital Websites, Patient Portals, TRIM Notices & Healthcare PDFs Are Not Always Accessible
Hospital websites — and the patient portals and PDF documents they distribute (MyChart in many U.S. systems, NHS App in the UK, provincial patient portals in Canada, My Health Record in Australia) — are not always fully accessible. Common gaps include unlabelled form fields in patient-portal login flows, image-based scans rather than tagged PDFs, and visit-information PDFs that are difficult to navigate with a screen reader. This is not within our control. We document procedures on our own page in fully accessible HTML so that, in many cases, you can complete a procedure without ever needing to navigate a partly-inaccessible facility portal.
If you cannot use a healthcare provider’s online portal, appointment-booking tool, or patient-information PDF because of an accessibility barrier, you have rights under the laws set out above (ADA Title III for private hospitals in the US; Equality Act 2010 in the UK; Accessible Canada Act + AODA in Canada; Disability Discrimination Act 1992 in Australia). For US-based barriers, the U.S. Department of Justice ADA portal is at ada.gov. The U.S. Access Board provides technical assistance at access-board.gov. For UK barriers, the Equality and Human Rights Commission is at equalityhumanrights.com.
11. Reporting a Barrier
If you encounter a barrier — a page or feature that doesn’t work with your assistive technology, contrast that’s hard to read, a control that can’t be reached by keyboard, or anything else that gets in your way — please tell us. Reports drive our priority queue.
Email info@medical-centers.org with subject line “Accessibility issue”.
If you can, include:
- The page URL where you hit the barrier
- Your operating system and browser
- The assistive technology you were using (e.g., NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, TalkBack, Dragon)
- What you were trying to do
- What happened (or didn’t happen)
Acknowledge in 1–3 business days. Substantive response or fix within 14 business days for most issues. For severe barriers (e.g., unable to access important content or complete a critical task), within 5 business days.
12. Escalation
If you are not satisfied with our response, you have additional options depending on your country:
- USA — U.S. Department of Justice ADA portal at ada.gov; U.S. Access Board at access-board.gov; your state attorney general’s civil-rights division
- UK — Equality and Human Rights Commission at equalityhumanrights.com
- Canada — Canadian Human Rights Commission at chrc-ccdp.gc.ca; provincial human rights commissions
- Australia — Australian Human Rights Commission at humanrights.gov.au; state/territory anti-discrimination commissions
13. Review Cycle
This statement is reviewed quarterly. Page templates are re-tested against the AT combinations above on each review cycle. The “Last reviewed” date at the top reflects the most recent review.
Hit a Barrier? Tell Us.
Email us with subject line “Accessibility issue.” Acknowledge in 1–3 business days; fix within 14 business days for most issues, 5 for severe.
📧 info@medical-centers.org