VA Accessibility Problems
Oracle, Cerner and the VA get taken to the woodshed in this article. Visually impaired users are virtually shut out of the systems. From Kaiser Health News via USAToday Oct. 2022
In Brief Summary
- Lack of magnification capability
- incompatible screen reader for text-to-voice
- Struggle to log in
- Struggle to enter basic information
- Oracle insists all fixes can be done “in short order”
- Situation first identified in 2015
- Multiple high resolution monitors required to display single record and that technology not often available
- “Deep inaccessibility plagues the burgeoning telehealth sector. A recent survey from the American Federation for the Blind found that 57% of respondents struggled to use providers’ proprietary telehealth platforms.”
Excerpt
Over 1,000 Section 508 complaints are in a backlog to be assessed, or assigned to Oracle Cerner to fix, Veterans Affairs spokesperson Terrence Hayes confirmed. That section is part of federal law guaranteeing people with disabilities access to government technology.
Hayes said the problems described by these complaints don’t prevent employees and patients with disabilities from using the system. The complaints — 469 of which have been assigned to Oracle Cerner to fix, he said — mean that users’ disabilities make it more difficult, to the point of requiring mitigation.
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