With recognition of (1) unmet health information needs of persons with disabilities; and (2) anticipated growth of the persons with disabilities population, we seek to better understand the relative general accessibility of health information on popular, highly ranked health websites. That is, instead of examining the efficacy and impact of specific types of health message appeals, the present investigation assesses the functional performance of specific content platforms of health websites. We examine the components of accessing and understanding health information through the lens of web and language accessibility, readability, and mobility. A total of 139 health-focused websites were randomly sampled from the Alexa® “Top Sites” global ranking system which uses web traffic data to rank the most popular websites. The sample was processed using computer aided software (e.g., WEB AIM, Web FX & Google Test My Site.) We found 91.3% of sampled home pages had detectable accessibility failures. The most common accessibility failures were low contrast, empty links, missing ALT text, empty buttons, and missing form labels. Most websites offered neither an accessibility policy statement nor an option for automated language translation service, likely impacting those with limited English proficiency (LEP). The implications for these findings are reviewed with discussion and limitations provided.

认识到 (1) 残疾人的健康信息需求未得到满足；(2) 残疾人人口的预期增长，我们寻求更好地了解流行的、排名靠前的健康网站上健康信息的相对一般可访问性。也就是说，本调查不是检查特定类型的健康信息呼吁的功效和影响，而是评估功能表现健康网站的具体内容平台。我们通过网络和语言的可访问性、可读性和移动性来检查访问和理解健康信息的组成部分。从 Alexa®“热门网站”全球排名系统中随机抽取了 139 个以健康为重点的网站，该系统使用网络流量数据对最受欢迎的网站进行排名。该样本是使用计算机辅助软件（例如，WEB AIM、Web FX 和 Google Test My Site）处理的。我们发现 91.3% 的样本主页存在可检测到的可访问性故障。最常见的可访问性故障是低对比度、空链接、缺少 ALT 文本、空按钮和缺少表单标签。大多数网站既没有提供无障碍政策声明，也没有提供自动语言翻译服务的选项，可能会影响那些英语水平有限 (LEP) 的人。对这些发现的影响进行了审查，并提供了讨论和限制。