Bridging the Digital Divide: Building Health Self-Efficacy through Communication-Accessible Online Environments

Why develop a software pack?

The internet is used to access health care, support, and information.

Using the Internet requires language — reading, writing, and understanding. This can be difficult for people with aphasia.

The research team aim to improve access to websites for people with aphasia. From L-R: Ryan Deslandes, Phill Jamieson (person with aphasia), Jenny Lee, Sarah Wallace and Kim Barron (person with aphasia).

Our progress

We will work in partnership with people with lived experience of aphasia to design the software pack.

We are looking for people with aphasia, family members, and health professionals to join our focus groups.

Are you interested? Contact digitaldivide@uq.edu.au.

Expected outcomes

We will co-design a software pack:

A Communication Accessibility Browser Extension that will make websites aphasia-friendly.
Training materials to support people with aphasia and health professionals to use the software.
Guidelines for designing communication accessible websites.

The software pack will also help family members and carers and health professionals working with people with aphasia to provide support for using the internet.

How to be involved

The browser extension has been developed.

We are inviting people with aphasia, family members, significant others, and health professionals to:

Test the browser extension.
Attend an interview or focus group to share experiences with using the browser extension.

You can choose to participate in-person at The University of Queensland Herston campus or online using Zoom.

If you would like to participate in this research project, please fill out our form.

Complete form

Contact

For more information on this research project contact Dr Sarah Wallace:

Email s.wallace3@uq.edu.au Call (07) 3346 7453

For more information on participating in this project contact Dr Jennifer Lee:

Email: digitaldivide@uq.edu.au

Media and awards

Award: Dr Sarah Wallace is awarded a grant to fund the Bridging the Digital Divide project.

Video: Dr Sarah Wallace talks about working in partnership with people with aphasia in the Bridging the Digital Divide project

Partner organisations

We are grateful for the support of our partner organisations, Centre for Accessibility Australia, National Disability Insurance Agency, Services Australia, Australian Disability Network, Stroke Foundation, and the Australian Aphasia Association.

Stroke Foundation logo

Research publications

Lee, J., Worthy, P., Deslandes, R., Burton, B., Copland, D.A., Jamieson, P., Barron, K., Togher, L., Shrubsole, K., Shiggins, C., Campbell, J.H., Hill, A.J., Wiles, J., Haslam, A. & Wallace, S.J. (Accepted). Bridging the digital divide for people with aphasia: A study protocol for co-designing web accessibility tools and guidelines. BMJ Open, 15: e099273. https://doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2025-099273

Funding and acknowledgements

This project is funded by :

2021 Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Consumer-Led Research Opportunity (Grant Number MRF2019367)
2022 UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award

Kirstine Shrubsole and Sarah J. Wallace are supported by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leadership Investigator Grants [2026816 and 2032983].