AUTHOR=Dror Amiel A. , Morozov Nicole G. , Layous Eli , Mizrachi Matti , Daoud Amani , Eisenbach Netanel , Rayan Doaa , Kaykov Edward , Marei Hesham , Barhum Masad , Srouji Samer , Avraham Karen B. , Sela Eyal TITLE=United by Hope, Divided by Access: Country Mapping of COVID-19 Information Accessibility and Its Consequences on Pandemic Eradication JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine VOLUME=7 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.618337 DOI=10.3389/fmed.2020.618337 ISSN=2296-858X ABSTRACT=

Many government websites and mobile content are inaccessible for people with vision, hearing, cognitive, and motor impairments. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted these disparities when health authority website information, critical in providing resources for curbing the spread of the virus, remained inaccessible for numerous disabled populations. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide comparatively universally accepted guidelines for website accessibility. We utilized these parameters to examine the number of countries with or without accessible health authority websites. The resulting data indicate a dearth of countries with websites accessible for persons with disabilities. Methods of information dissemination must take into consideration individuals with disabilities, particularly in times of global health crises.