Legal, Practical, and Ethical Considerations for Making Online Patient Portals Accessible for All.

The article discusses the U.S. Health Information Technology for Economic & Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) in relation to the legal, ethical, and practical aspects of the process of making online electronic health record-based patient portal Web sites accessible for everyone. Services for patients with disabilities and limited health literacy are examined, along with efforts to prevent health care disparities, America's Rehabilitation Act, and Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964.