Springfield Clinic

A patient couldn't get to her own medical records. The DOJ forced the clinic to rebuild.

A visually impaired patient of Springfield Clinic in Illinois couldn't use the patient portal to access her medical records, schedule appointments, or read test results — the screen reader software couldn't navigate the site. She complained to the DOJ. The DOJ investigated and reached a 2024 settlement.

The clinic paid $5,000 directly to the patient and was forced to make its website, patient portal (FollowMyHealth), records system (CIOX), and mobile apps fully WCAG 2.1 AA compliant. Healthcare digital accessibility is now an explicit DOJ enforcement priority — and the dollar amount isn't the point. The required engineering work is the real cost.

Settlement

$5K

Court

Central District of Illinois (via DOJ settlement without trial)

Case

United States v. Springfield Clinic (DOJ Settlement Agreement)

N/A — DOJ settlement agreement, not docketed as civil suit

Outcome

DOJ settlement — $5,000 to complainant; Springfield Clinic must conform all digital properties to WCAG 2.1 AA; must hire independent web accessibility consultant within 3 months

What went wrong on the site

Each visual below shows what visitors with disabilities actually experienced.

Failure: Not screen-reader readable

</div>

No button role. Screen readers skip it entirely.

Custom controls had no ARIA roles, so screen readers could not announce what they were or what state they were in.

WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value

Failure: No keyboard access

Small

Medium

Large

Click only — Tab key does nothing

Core interactions required a mouse. Keyboard-only users could not navigate menus, complete checkout, or operate widgets.

WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard

Sources & documentation

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