Healthcare Accessibility Services for Portals and Telehealth

Healthcare website accessibility means patients, caregivers, staff, and visitors can use healthcare websites, portals, forms, telehealth tools, documents, and mobile apps with assistive technology, keyboard navigation, zoom, captions, and accessible content.

Our packages are listed on the accessibility audit pricing page. A one-hour technical consultation (audit walkthrough, developer Q&A or live issue review) is $100; first conversations are a free 30-minute call. The Quick Audit is $500 for up to 5 representative pages with a top-10 issues report mapped to WCAG 2.2. The Complete Audit is $2,000 for larger portals or multi-flow HealthTech products (up to 25 templates or journeys, with a retest of fixed issues). Medical PDF remediation and VPAT documentation are scoped separately.

Under the HHS Section 504 rule for recipients of HHS funding, web content and mobile apps must conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. After the May 2026 interim final rule, recipients with 15 or more employees must comply by May 11, 2027 and smaller recipients by May 10, 2028 (HHS OCR announcement). Public hospitals and health departments may also have ADA Title II deadlines of April 26, 2027 or April 26, 2028. We audit to WCAG 2.2 AA so findings cover both the legal floor and the current W3C recommendation. Your counsel should confirm which rules apply.

Yes. Use our free needs assessment to describe your patient portal, telehealth platform, EHR workflow or HealthTech product. We recommend whether a $500 Quick Audit, a $2,000 Complete Audit, PDF remediation or a $100 technical consultation is the right next step. Prefer to talk it through first? Book a free 30-minute call.

Yes. We map findings to WCAG success criteria, prioritize patient-facing journeys, and support remediation and retesting so you can document progress toward HHS Section 504 and ADA Title II web requirements. Start with the $500 Quick Audit , book a free 30-minute call to scope the work, or book the $100 technical consultation if your team needs answers now. This is not legal advice.

Four services together give you evidence that holds up with compliance teams, regulators and procurement reviewers: a manual WCAG 2.2 AA audit of the real patient journeys, testing with screen readers and other assistive technology (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver and TalkBack), a retest that confirms each fix, and documentation such as a VPAT or Accessibility Conformance Report for portals you sell to other organizations. Ongoing monitoring then checks each new release. Automated scanners and overlay widgets cannot validate a portal on their own. Our $2,000 Complete Audit covers up to 25 templates or journeys with a retest, and the $500 Quick Audit is a lighter first check of up to 5 pages.

Yes. The 2024 Section 1557 rule (45 CFR 92.204) requires covered entities to make health programs provided through information and communication technology accessible to people with disabilities, unless that would cause undue burdens or a fundamental alteration. HHS defines that technology to include websites, mobile apps, telehealth interfaces, kiosks and electronic documents. For recipients of HHS funding, it also requires websites and mobile apps to comply with Section 504, which now points to WCAG 2.1 AA by May 11, 2027 or May 10, 2028. This is not legal advice, so confirm your obligations with counsel.

The Section 504 exceptions (45 CFR 84.85) cover archived web content, conventional electronic documents posted before your compliance date unless they are still used to apply for or get care, content posted by third parties who are not working under a contract with you, individualized password-protected documents such as one patient’s lab report, and social media posts made before your compliance date. The portal itself, appointment and intake forms, bill pay, telehealth and current patient forms are not exempt. If you rely on an exception, we can help you decide which content to archive, which PDFs to remediate and which to replace with accessible web pages.

No, but they have to be built carefully. The HIPAA Security Rule lists automatic logoff as an addressable safeguard and does not set a timeout length. Under WCAG 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable, a portal that times out should warn the user and let them extend the session with a simple action, with at least 20 seconds to respond. For sign-in, WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.8 means patients must be able to paste passwords and one-time codes, use a password manager and avoid puzzles; blocking paste or splitting a code into separate boxes that cannot accept a pasted code are common failures. We test both with screen readers and keyboard only.

Start small and fix what repeats. A $500 Quick Audit of the 5 templates patients use most shows the top issues; fixing the shared header, navigation, forms and colours then improves every page at once. Ask your EHR, scheduling and payment vendors for their VPATs, remediate the forms and PDFs patients need to get care, and plan a $2,000 Complete Audit with retest before your Section 504 deadline (May 11, 2027 with 15 or more employees, May 10, 2028 with fewer). Avoid overlay widgets sold as a cheap fix, because they do not make a site conform. Compare options in our accessibility audit cost guide , or book a free 30-minute call to plan the order of work.

Yes. We test the portal as your patients use it, including your branding, custom content, configuration and the third-party tools embedded in it, with keyboard, NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver and TalkBack. Each finding is labelled as something your team can fix in configuration or content, or a vendor defect to raise with the vendor, with WCAG references and steps to reproduce. Because the Section 504 rule covers content provided through contractual or licensing arrangements, we also review the vendor’s current VPAT or Accessibility Conformance Report against what we find. HalfAccessible is independent and not affiliated with any EHR vendor.

The HHS Section 504 rule and the ADA Title II web rule both require WCAG 2.1 Level AA. WCAG 2.2 is the current W3C Recommendation, and the W3C says content that conforms to WCAG 2.2 also conforms to WCAG 2.1, so we audit to WCAG 2.2 AA. That covers the legal requirement and adds the newer criteria for focus visibility, target size, redundant entry and accessible authentication, which matter in patient portals and intake forms. Your report shows which findings are WCAG 2.1 requirements and which come from WCAG 2.2.

WCAG compliance helps healthcare organizations provide equal access to digital services, reduce patient barriers, improve trust, support safer care, and strengthen compliance readiness.

In the United States, the Section 504 rule for recipients of HHS funding, such as many hospitals, clinics and community health centers, requires web content and mobile apps to conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. After a May 2026 interim final rule, recipients with 15 or more employees must comply by May 11, 2027 and smaller recipients by May 10, 2028 (HHS Office for Civil Rights). Public hospitals and health departments run by state or local governments are also covered by the ADA Title II web rule, which uses the same WCAG 2.1 AA standard. We audit to WCAG 2.2 AA, which includes every WCAG 2.1 AA requirement, so a single audit covers the legal floor and the current W3C recommendation. Your legal counsel should confirm which rules apply to your organization.

Yes. We audit authenticated patient portals for login, dashboards, appointments, forms, lab results, messaging, billing and document downloads using keyboard and screen reader testing (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver). Start with a $500 Quick Audit or review the sample audit report.

Yes. We can audit EHR and EMR interfaces, staff workflows, patient-facing integrations, dashboards, forms, tables, alerts, records, and secure workflows where access and scope are provided.

Yes. We test telehealth join flows, waiting rooms, video and audio controls, captions, chat, device permissions prompts and post-visit summaries against WCAG 2.2 AA on desktop and mobile. See pricing or request a free needs assessment.

Yes. We test appointment calendars, date pickers, time selection, provider search, location choice, confirmation dialogs, multi-step booking, error handling, cancellations, and rescheduling.

Yes. We review new patient registration, medical history, insurance, consent, referral, and pre-visit forms for labels, instructions, error handling, focus order, validation, and screen reader support.

Yes. We remediate medical reports, consent forms, insurance documents, discharge instructions, health education materials, lab reports, patient instructions, and brochures. Learn more about our PDF remediation services, or use our PDF accessibility guide for in-house teams.

Yes. We provide VPATs and Accessibility Conformance Reports for healthcare software vendors, HealthTech products, enterprise procurement, and government contracts.

Yes. We audit iOS, Android, native, hybrid, and responsive healthcare apps for screen reader support, touch targets, labels, zoom, orientation, forms, navigation, and workflow accessibility.

Healthcare platforms should be audited before major releases, redesigns, portal migrations, telehealth updates, procurement reviews, and periodically as systems, forms, documents, and workflows change.

Yes. With appropriate test accounts and access, we can test authenticated patient portal journeys including records, lab results, secure messaging, prescription refill, billing, and appointment workflows.

Yes. We support recurring audits, release checks, design reviews, staff training, remediation guidance, retesting, accessibility statements, VPAT updates, and governance programs.

Yes. We test healthcare forms with screen readers and keyboard navigation, including labels, required fields, validation errors, field grouping, focus order, progress indicators, and confirmation states.

Yes. We test lab results, medical records, charts, tables, download links, notifications, filters, historical results, and explanatory content for readability and assistive technology support.

Yes. We review prescription refill, medication lists, pharmacy search, refill requests, status updates, delivery options, confirmation messages, and error recovery.

Yes. We test doctor finder tools, hospital maps, clinic locations, parking information, accessibility details, directions, search filters, location cards, and map alternatives.

Accessibility can support safer digital care by making instructions, forms, records, medications, appointments, telehealth controls, and alerts easier to perceive, understand, and complete.

Yes. We work with internal healthcare teams, HealthTech vendors, agencies, EHR partners, telehealth providers, and development teams through audit, remediation, retesting, and documentation.

Yes. We help healthcare organizations build roadmaps across product design, procurement, development, QA, staff training, documentation, governance, and ongoing monitoring.

Yes. We test secure messaging for compose flows, labels, attachments, threaded conversations, alerts, notifications, focus management, and screen reader behavior.

Yes. Retesting confirms whether fixes resolve barriers in patient portals, telehealth, scheduling, forms, documents, mobile apps, and staff workflows without introducing regressions.

Book the free 30-minute call if this is your first conversation with us. We learn about your website, patient portal, vendors and Section 504 or Title II deadline, then recommend a package or send a quote. It is the right first step for most hospitals, clinics and HealthTech teams. Book the $100 one-hour consultation when you need a hands-on technical session now, such as walking through an existing audit, talking with your developers or portal vendor about specific fixes, or reviewing a live patient-facing issue on screen.

Every healthcare audit is led by founder Mohammad Shadab Saifi, who holds the IAAP CPACC, WAS and CPWA certifications, is a DHS Section 508 Trusted Tester and has 10+ years of accessibility audits, remediation and accessible development, including work at Deque Software and Pivotal Accessibility. He scopes the work, tests patient journeys by hand with screen readers and a keyboard, and reviews every finding before it reaches your team. Read the founder profile or check the format first in our sample audit report.

Run a public page, such as your home page or find-a-doctor page, through AccessibilityScore.in, our free WCAG accessibility scan powered by axe-core. It gives you a website accessibility score with issue-level remediation guidance. Treat it as a starting point: automated scans cannot reach logged-in patient portals or judge keyboard and screen reader use, so a manual audit is still needed for Section 504 evidence. The $500 Quick Audit covers up to 5 templates by hand, and the Complete Audit ($2,000) covers up to 25 templates or key journeys.