September Solutions

School has begun throughout the state of Maryland, and we at the Bridges Technical Assistance Center and Helpdesk explore solutions to help prepare for two environments we cannot control: Medical care and Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 11.

September 3: Accessibility for Medical Check-in and Information
September 10: Advocating for Medical Accessibility
September 17: Comparing and Contrasting Windows 10 and Windows 11 (Celebrating National IT Professionals Day with our special guest contributor, accessible technology expert Curtis Chong)
September 24: Tips For Using Windows 11 with JAWS (from our special guest contributor, accessible technology expert Curtis Chong)

This week, we focus on using accessibility tools to check into medical appointments.

The Paper Problem

When a business (like a doctor’s office or hospital CHOOSES to use inaccessible forms (paper, inaccessible kiosks, etc.), they have the legal duty to provide an accessible alternative – a duty under both federal and Maryland law. Of course, many do not know about or follow the law, and that’s when we have to advocate for ourselves. Check out this Reasonable Accommodation Rights in Healthcare Settings Bridges Resource Library entry for more information.

Despite the federal regulations that went into effect this year, it’s still common for office staff to slide papers across the desk for us to fill out when we go to the doctor’s office. If the papers are in print and there is no accessible electronic equivalent, this can cause a problem because we’re in a busy doctor’s office, possibly with a line behind us. This situation can make us feel like we don’t have time to use some of the solutions we might have used at home. What to do?

In one sense, it depends on what each of us is comfortable with. As noted above, all healthcare settings must, under federal law, provide accessible alternatives. The lack of accessible tools is a violation of law, and we should never feel guilty for asking for the accessible materials that should have been in place before we even entered the building. Sometimes, if we’re comfortable giving our information aloud to doctor’s office staff, that is a viable option. However, there are plenty of situations in which the healthcare information being requested is confidential, and it is perfectly reasonable to be uncomfortable with giving that information aloud.

So, a few options are available:

Ask if the form(s) can be sent electronically and filled out using a smartphone app and/or refreshable Braille display.
Ask the doctor’s office to supply a staff person to assist and a private area to provide the information.
If you are comfortable sharing the information in the online environment, use an OCR app, such as Seeing AI or the Be My AI feature of the Be My Eyes app, to fill out a scanned copy of the form. Check out the Top 5 OCR Options Bridges Resource Library entry for more on this subject.
Bring a trusted sighted person who can serve as your “reader” during the appointment. This could be a friend, family member, or someone you hire for the specific purpose of providing information to you that is not accessible in any other format. For more on what a human reader does and the relationship between a blind/low-vision person and a human reader, we recommend Of Readers, Drivers and Responsibility, originally published in Future Reflections. Though this article was originally written in 1994, before much of the technology we use today to make documents accessible was available to us, the information provided in it about human readers is still relevant.

Again, the healthcare office/clinic/hospital/etc. has the duty to provide accessible materials, websites, kiosks, etc. OR a free, quick, and effective alternative (like a staff member and a private room to complete the information). You have NO DUTY to share your information aloud or online in an AI app. You have NO DUTY to bring someone with you to make the healthcare setting and information accessible. You have NO DUTY o call ahead to make certain the healthcare provider has acceptable accommodations in place before your visit. Nevertheless, you may engage in these alternatives if YOU choose to do so.

The Patient Portal: Help or Hindrance?

Online patient portals are becoming increasingly popular in the healthcare field. While they are great tools for patients to check into and schedule their appointments, access their records, and communicate with their healthcare providers, they can sometimes create accessibility barriers that can be quite frustrating. For example, one of Chris’s doctors uses a portal that allows him to reply to her messages using his screen reader. However, composing a new message is inaccessible. If your doctor uses a portal, we recommend trying it. If it is accessible, it’s a great tool for accessing medical information, including check-in before the appointment. We can tell you that Penn State Health OnDemand FollowMyHealth app works quite well on iOS, while HealtheLife’s messaging feature is inaccessible, as is the appointment scheduling tool, but medical records can be accessed and downloaded.

Online patient portals such as the Penn State Health OnDemand and HealtheLife are becoming increasingly popular in the healthcare field. While they are great tools for patients to check into and schedule their appointments, access their records, and communicate with their healthcare providers, they can sometimes create accessibility barriers that can be quite frustrating. For example, one of Chris’s doctors uses a portal that allows him to reply to her messages using his screen reader. However, composing a new message is inaccessible.

If your doctor uses a portal, we recommend trying it. If it is accessible, it’s a great tool for accessing medical information, including check-in before the appointment. We can tell you that Penn State Health OnDemand works quite well on iOS, while HealtheLife’s messaging feature is inaccessible, as is the appointment scheduling tool, but medical records can be accessed and downloaded.

Again, all healthcare providers in the United States are legally obligated to provide non-visually accessible materials, kiosks, websites, portals, apps, etc. If your healthcare provider sends you something in the portal that you can’t access, it’s absolutely reasonable to ask for it in a more accessible format—more on that in our next article.

Signing on the Screen

Now we come to what may be the most frustrating part of medical check-in today: electronic signatures. Recently, Chris checked in for lab work through a link texted to him the night before. Everything was perfectly accessible until it asked him to sign his name electronically by drawing his name on the screen. Well, so much for fully accessible check-in! Unfortunately, this is becoming a common feature of many environments where one’s name needs to be signed.

In this particular situation, Chris was able to pass his phone to a sighted person nearby, who drew the signature. In another situation, he might have emailed the link to himself, opened it on his computer, and made a call to Aira. If neither is available, he would have had to check in at the lab the next morning, asking staff or a reader to point his finger to the place where his name is to be signed.

Conclusion

As you can surely tell, medical check-in is filled with its share of challenges and places where workarounds need to be found. We hope that this article provides some of the most useful ones. Next week, we’ll focus on how to advocate for making our medical information accessible to us.

Reach Out to Us at the Free Bridges Helpdesk anytime!

Please check out the Bridges Technical Assistance Center Resource Library today!

Contact us

Follow the Bridges Helpdesk Facebook page for more transition tips, and please contact the Bridges Technical Assistance Center’s Free Helpdesk for Maryland Blind/Low Vision Transition Students, Families, and Educators anytime using:

Our Accessible web form
Email: Helpdesk@IMAGEmd.org
Text or Leave a Voice mail message: (410) 357-1546
Bridges Helpdesk Facebook page or Facebook Messenger

This unique project is being coordinated through The IMAGE Center of Maryland, a center for independent living in Towson, and it is funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Education Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services.