10 fixes your website needs before the HHS accessibility deadline

Nearly every website on the internet fails at least one basic accessibility check. When WebAIM scanned the top 1 million home pages this year, 95.9 percent had detectable failures, and the error count went up for the first time in six years. Medical practice websites, which are built from templates, third-party widgets and a lot of old PDFs, are not the exception.

That matters more now. HHS' Section 504 rule requires any organization that receives HHS funding, which includes practices that bill Medicare or Medicaid, to make its websites, mobile apps and kiosks meet WCAG 2.1 AA, the technical standard for accessibility. In May, HHS pushed the compliance dates back a year. Within two weeks, the National Federation of the Blind sued to undo the extension.

Most of the fixes are not expensive, and none of them require a new website. They do require someone to own the work and to start before a vendor's calendar fills up. Here are 10 places to start.