Updated 7/22/2024
Healthcare kiosks are a valuable tool for providing an effective patient care experience. The advantages for using kiosks in healthcare are numerous, like shorter wait times, streamlined check-in processes, streamlined patient education, and more. Kiosks can also save time and resources, allowing healthcare providers to obtain more information from patients while requiring fewer human resources.
Ensuring usability and accessibility for healthcare self-service devices improves patient care, and it also helps avoid litigation and costly settlements. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities regarding public accommodations, and the court has defined public accommodations to include service establishments, including healthcare facilities.
In 2024 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published regulations relating to accessible provision of healthcare programs and services funded by HHS. These regulations include digital accessibility requirements for healthcare programs and services provided through websites, mobile apps and kiosks, emphasizing the role that kiosks can play in ensuring accessible healthcare for people with disabilities.
Follow these four rules to make sure self-service devices are usable and accessible for patients with disabilities in any healthcare setting.
1. Make sure your kiosk is physically accessible
Healthcare kiosks must be designed to physically accessible to users with diverse needs. For example, wheelchair users need to be able to get close enough to the kiosk to be able to use it; controls must be located in a way that people can reach them and must be operable without excess physical effort. The ADA provides specifications for the height of operable parts, the viewing angle, and the approach area for accessing the kiosk. The approach area requires a clear path without stairs, uneven flooring, or objects to obstruct access.
2. Ensure your kiosk application can be used by patients who are blind or with low vision
For people who cannot see a screen, healthcare kiosks need a means to turn text into speech output, such as JAWS® for Kiosk. To provide a seamless experience for speech users while respecting privacy, provide kiosks with an an audio jack that automatically activates speech output when headphones are plugged in. Make sure that the kiosk application has been designed to follow accessibility guidelines so that speech output users have full access to content and information about the user interface.
3. Allow users to engage with your kiosk without using a touchscreen
Touchscreens may be difficult to operate by many people with disabilities, so an external input/navigation device is also useful to allow users to interact with a kiosk without using a touchscreen. Make sure that all content and functionality is reachable and operable using an alternative input device.
4. Protect patient privacy at every turn
In any healthcare setting, kiosks must provide an accessible and private user experience for all patients. In order to protect patient privacy, all patients with disabilities should be able to use kiosks without the need for third-party assistance. You can further protect patient privacy by providing a privacy screen that shields others from viewing the screen, implementing proximity switches that reset the kiosk when a user is finished, and clearing user data between each session.
TPGi can help you provide accessible healthcare kiosk experiences
We have a range of resources to help you learn best practices in creating accessible and usable kiosks for the healthcare industry.
If you need assistance, TPGi’s JAWS for Kiosk solution can help you provide accessible healthcare kiosks. Implementing usable and accessible self-service kiosks requires careful consideration and expertise. Experienced consultants can help you design, develop and implement inclusive healthcare kiosks, which maximize inclusion for patients and optimize efficiency for healthcare operations.