Assessing the Accessibility of Health Web Sites During the H1N1 Pandemic

Health Web sites dramatically mushroomed following the arrival of the Internet in the 1990s. However, the accessibility of these Web sites must be continuously assessed to ensure consumers gain easy access to required health information. Accessibility becomes especially critical when information must be disseminated quickly, as in the case of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. This article will examine the accessibility of three government health Web sites providing information on H1N1. Findings suggest variation in the level of accessibility, with the U.S and Canadian Web sites fulfilling the most accessibility criteria and the Mexican Web site scoring the least. The accessibility assessment provides important preliminary findings for future research into information dissemination during a health emergency and has important implications for health Web page development.