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Barriers in medicine
The U.S. healthcare system frequently overlooks the needs of Americans with disabilities. Medical offices are often inaccessible to people in wheelchairs, for example, mammography machines often aren’t equipped with simple modifications that could enable a woman who needs accessibility, to get screened. There are so many small adjustments the healthcare system could have made, but hasn’t, such as adding Velcro straps to mammography equipment to stabilize women who are unsteady.
Have you ever been asked before a visit if you have any accessibility concerns? What inaccessibility in healthcare have you encountered? Have you received less preventive care than before your MD? Have any chronic conditions been looked over? Have you ever had to skip or reschedule an exam due to inaccessibility?
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2 Replies
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I have to admit this is one of my pet peeves, and not just necessarily in the healthcare arena. I have offered companies and organizations and stadium organizers to let me walk around a venue with them so I can point out simple things they can do to make things so much easier. In fact, during spring training baseball in Arizona, I was able to talk to the person in charge about a very simple spacing change but I could tell he wasn’t listening and just preparing his response about all the great things they are doing. In healthcare especially, hospitals and clinics and other organizations need to allow people with disabilities to be asked to give suggestions, and then they need to follow up on these ideas.
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100 percent agree with you, Ralph! I wonder if it would require going to a law maker? Like US Senator Tammy Duckworth, who fights for people with disabilities or the health department?
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That’s a good thought. Maybe even legal recourses around ADA. It’s hard to make business do the best thing. We need keep battling this. Thanks, Dani!
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