Springfield Clinic

The same Springfield Clinic case, viewed from the operator's side.

From the clinic's perspective, this DOJ enforcement action required deep, expensive engineering work — fixing the patient portal (FollowMyHealth), the records system (CIOX), all mobile apps, and the public website to meet WCAG 2.1 AA. The $5,000 paid to the patient was the smallest line item.

For any healthcare operator, this case shows the real cost of an accessibility failure isn't the dollar settlement — it's the months of remediation work, the documentation requirements, the recurring monitoring, and the slow drag on every product launch going forward.

Court

U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of Illinois (administrative settlement, no PACER docket)

Case

United States v. Springfield Clinic (DJ 202-24-114)

DJ 202-24-114

Outcome

settled

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: Site-wide WCAG failures

Multiple WCAG 2.1 AA violations across the site

Multiple violations across the full WCAG 2.1 Level AA spec — the site failed to meet the federal de-facto standard for accessibility.

WCAG WCAG 2.1 AA

Sources & documentation

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