Medical Equipment & Accessibility Survey *Help give YOUR INPUT to improve medical access!

[chick]

They need your input. This is an area where access needs improvement.

-----Original Message-----
From: Howard, Darlene (HHS/OS) [mailtoarlene.Howard@hhs.gov]
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 4:20 PM

Dear Colleagues,

Our friend, June Kailes, is working with rehab engineers on a major project on increasing accessibility of medical equipment.

June is asking for consumers with all kinds of disabilities to complete a survey on barriers they encounter in the medical arena.

It would be great if you could let consumers know about this survey--maybe putting this announcement on real or virtual bulletin boards, running in your newsletter, posting on your Web site, etc.

Let's give these rehab engineering guys all they need to know about barriers to acceptable health care that are created by inaccessible equipment. Wouldn't it be great to get some of our problems fixed? Wouldn't it be great to get some of these problems out in the open?

By the way, the official name of the project, is the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Medical Instrumentation at Marquette University in Milwaukee, funded by NIDRR.

We'll ask June to share findings from these surveys with us so we can distribute them to you.

Thanks for considering our request, and best regards from all of us at ILRU.

Laurel
_________________________
Laurel Richards
Director of Training
ILRU -- Independent Living Research Utilization Program 2323 S. Shepherd, Suite 1000
Houston, TX 77019
713.520.0232 (v)
713.520.5136 (TTY)
713.520.5785 (fax)
Worldwide Web Site: http://www.ilru.org

ilru--celebrating 25 years of creating a world of independence!
_______________________________________________
FROM: June Kailes
SUBJECT: Invitation to People with Disabilities to Participate in a
Survey on Use of Medical Equipment

The reason we are asking people to fill out this survey is to learn more about what types of medical equipment people with disabilities have found hard to use. Later, we will make changes to some types of medical equipment, making them easier for people to use.

We are looking specifically at four categories of medical equipment:

Diagnostic Equipment:Monitoring--such as thermometer, blood pressure cuff, cardiac stress test Imaging-such as x-ray, MRI, mammogram, ultrasound equipment

Procedural Equipment:Furniture/Fixtures-such as tables, chairs
Manual Tools-such as defibrillator, dental drill

Therapeutic Equipment:Drug Therapy-such as syringes, infusion pumps, ventilators Physical Therapy-such as rehabilitation or exercise equipment

Assistive Technologies (used either as or with medical equipment):
Mobility/Posture/Manipulation-such as wheelchair, brace, reacher Sensory/ Communication/Cognition-such as hearing aid, speech aid, personal digital assistant (PDA)

If you have a disability and have experience trying to use any of these types of medical equipment, we invite you to volunteer to fill out our survey. You have a choice of four ways to take part:

1. Online on the Internet-go to:
http://www.rerc-ami.org/personal/starter.htm

2. On a computer-download from:
http://www.rerc-ami.org/personal/starter.htm

3. On paper-download from: http://www.rerc-ami.org/personal/starter.htm

4. Or, contact staff by email at info@rerc-ami.org, by telephone/TTY at
(800) 832-0524 or by mail at RERC-AMI, c/o CDIHP Western University of
Health Sciences, 309 E. 2nd Street, Pomona, CA 91766-1854.

If taking part in the survey by telephone, please contact staff at info@rerc-ami.org or call (800) 832-0524 to set up a time.

Thank you for your interest in this important project!

RERC on Accessible Medical Instrumentation: http://www.rerc-ami.org
Jack Winters, Director: jack.winters@marquette.edu
Molly Story, Co-Director: molly@humanspectrumdesign.com