Download an Easy Read version of this research.
We have just released research showing that online cancer screening information is not accessible for people with intellectual disability.
Our researchers say that the inaccessibility of information is putting people with intellectual disability at risk of having worse health outcomes than other people.
We asked lead researcher Dr Maryann Barrington to tell us more about this important work.
What did you do in your research?
We wanted to know how accessible cancer screening information is on Australia state and federal government websites.
Accessibility refers to how easy government health websites are to use, and how easy information on the websites is to understand
We looked at information about the three national cancer screening programs for bowel, breast, and cervical screening.
We tested how easy websites and documents are to read and use and whether accessibility features are used in videos.
What did you find?
We found that online cancer screening information is not very accessible.
- Information is written in a way that is very hard for people with intellectual disability to understand.
- Videos often miss accessible features such as captions and transcripts.
- Websites have broken links, which can be very confusing.
- Websites have features that make them hard to use with devices such as screen readers.
These factors made it hard for everyone to understand, whether they have an intellectual disability or not.
Why are your findings important?
We know from past studies that people with intellectual disability are less likely to participate in cancer screening.
If people with intellectual disability cannot access information about cancer screening, they may not know these services are available or how to access them. They are therefore at risk of having worse cancer outcomes than other people.
What do think needs to change?
Government health services need to make accessible information a priority.
We think cancer screening information should be codesigned with people with intellectual disability and their support networks.
Also, healthcare professionals should be aware that cancer screening information is not accessible, and that they may need to actively engage in conversations about screening with patients with intellectual disability.
Accessible information formats such as Easy Read, plain English, and visual information should all be standard in government health information.
Greater resourcing and better training for health professionals is also needed. Better training could help health professionals communicate in a way that is more accessible for people with intellectual disability, cognition issues and low language skills.
What difference do you hope your work will make?
It’s important to recognise that cognitive accessibility is not easy. International web standards do not provide detailed guidelines on how to guarantee online information is accessible for people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities.
Even at the Centre, we find online accessibility an ongoing challenge.
But it’s important that we all keep trying, keep refining and improving.
We hope this work will bring awareness to policymakers and healthcare services about the currently inadequate state of accessible information about cancer screening.
We hope to encourage greater consultation with people with intellectual disability for health programs and campaigns, so that we can ensure accessibility is considered from the outset.
Find out more
- Read the published article: Accessibility of Australian government online cancer screening information for people with intellectual disability. Journal of Public Health, doi.org/10.1007/s10389-025-02426-z
- Download an Easy Read version of the research.
- Find out more about our research work
