Bridging the Digital Divide: A Bilingual Interactive Health Kiosk for Communities Affected by Health Disparities

Abstract

The bilingual interactive health kiosk is a technological intervention to improve access to health education and literacy for underserved communities.  A Community-Based Participatory Research methodology was used to obtain information about the prevalence of use and attitudes toward interactive health kiosks with information on HIV/AIDS, mental health, and substance use.  Interviews and observations of participants revealed the following themes that are important to consider while implementing an interactive health kiosk: 1) market to people with lower health literacy, 2) address community wants and needs, 3) be conscious of computer competency, and 4) be sensitive to participants’ response to technological supports.