Document Remediation

Digital versions of intake and consent documents — such as new-patient registration forms, medical history questionnaires, HIPAA authorisations, informed-consent agreements, and pre-surgery digital check lists — must conform to WCAG 2.1 AA standards when made available on a website or app (or via electronic submission). Under the HHS/Section 504 update, healthcare providers who receive federal funds must ensure that all web-based or app-based forms are perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for users with disabilities.

In practice, this means: every form field must have properly associated labels and instructions, error states must be clearly described (for example, “Please enter your date of birth” rather than leaving a blank), keyboard navigation must allow users to move through fields without a mouse, and the form layout must support screen-readers and assistive technologies. As a result, patients with visual, motor, or cognitive impairments can complete their intake independently, avoid delays at check-in, and ensure their consent and medical history are accurately captured.

Documents such as explanations of benefits, cost-sharing summaries or insurance payment notices that patients receive digitally must meet accessibility standards when posted on a website or in a patient portal. Because these documents often contain dense tables, numeric data, and payment-flow logic, ensuring accessibility is especially important for patients who rely on screen-readers or other assistive technology. In a remediation context this means: tables must be markup-tagged properly (headers identified, rows/columns navigable), PDF versions must be tagged and accessible, interactive portal workflows must provide keyboard and screen-reader support, and content must be understandable (plain language, clear headings). This ensures that patients with disabilities can review, understand and act on their benefit information—just like other patients.

Digital medical records, test results, diagnostic reports, and patient-accessible clinical summaries are part of a healthcare organisation’s digital infrastructure and thus fall within the scope of the new HHS rule (for federally-funded entities).

Accessibility best practices include: ensuring lab-result tables are screen-reader accessible, graphs or imaging summaries include text alternatives, patient portals support full keyboard navigation and assistive technology use, and narrative clinical summaries are written in clear, accessible language (with headings, landmarks, and lists). This enables patients with disabilities to access their health information independently, make informed decisions, and avoid reliance on a third party or caregiver.

Digital versions of insurance documents—such as benefit policy summaries, enrolment forms, plan-document disclosures, and claims submissions—must comply with accessibility standards when available online or in a digital portal. The insurance industry, particularly within healthcare, is already recognising this need: one vendor describes processing insurance document accessibility for large providers under WCAG 2.2 AA and Section 508.

For remediation, this means ensuring that policy summaries are provided in accessible HTML or tagged PDF, that form fields in enrolment applications are labelled and keyboard accessible, that navigation among sections is logical for assistive technology users, and that key definitions (e.g., “deductible”, “coinsurance”) are clearly explained. This supports patients with disabilities in understanding their coverage, completing forms, and submitting claims without barriers.

Brochures, fact sheets, infographics, video-based patient education modules, and other instructional content must be accessible when published online or in patient portals. Given the communication-critical nature of these materials, accessibility is not optional. The healthcare accessibility literature emphasises that inaccessible digital content can compromise privacy, safety, and patient engagement.

Remediation practices include: providing alt text for images, ensuring video content includes synchronized captions and audio descriptions, using sufficient contrast and readable fonts, organizing content with headings and lists, and ensuring download-able PDFs are tagged for screen-readers. This allows all patients—regardless of disability—to engage with educational content, make informed choices, and participate actively in their care.

Digital prescription information encompasses medication instructions, dosage tables, refill portals, pharmacy-provided digital leaflets, and medication management apps. Since this content often involves critical health-and-safety information, accessibility is non-negotiable.

From a remediation perspective: ensure medication instructions are presented in HTML or tagged PDF rather than image-only formats; dosage tables are tagged and navigable by assistive technology; interactive refill or management workflows (in websites or apps) allow full keyboard and screen-reader use; and all icons, warnings and dosage instructions use both visual and accessible text cues (so users with colour-vision or screen-reader reliance are not disadvantaged). This ensures patients with disabilities can safely manage prescriptions like any other user.

As in your example: billing statements, online billing portals/interfaces, cost-estimator tools, patient payment portals and explanations of benefits or payment options must also meet WCAG 2.1 AA when available digitally. The HHS documentation explicitly flags third-party portals as covered when affiliated with healthcare-funded programmes.

Key remediation actions include: structuring tables so screen-reader users can comprehend charges and payments row by row, ensuring payment interfaces are keyboard-accessible and correctly labelled, including error messages and validation feedback that’s accessible, and maintaining privacy/security in parallel with accessibility (since unseen accessibility barriers often lead to privacy breaches when users must rely on others). From a strategic standpoint, accessible billing supports patient autonomy, strengthens trust and reduces risk of non-compliance.