Accessible Healthcare Rhode Island
Documenting Physical Access to Healthcare for All
Logo for Accessibility and Inclusion Consulting Firm
Why Accessible Healthcare RI Is Needed?

Can you imagine making an appointment with a new medical provider and, once arriving at the office, finding you cannot get in the door? Or not being able to get on the exam table? What about not being weighed through an entire pregnancy? Or being misdiagnosed because of incorrect positioning due to not being able to get on the table?
These situations are happening every single day. Healthcare providers think in terms of being helpful, but often don't think in terms of physical access. Persons with disabilities need to know where they can go to access those medical services that they need.


What Is Accessible Healthcare RI?

Accessible Healthcare RI is a project developed by a private group of individuals that is designed to create an online searchable database of what healthcare services in RI are accessible. Surveys will be conducted in medical facilities and private medical offices to determine which services are accessible. ONLY positive elements will be recorded. When the database is completed, persons with disabilities will be able to ask questions like: "Where can I find a primary care doctor in Pawtucket that has an accessible exam table?" That person should get back a list of practices that meet that description. While conducting surveys, we will distribute information on the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and on the available tax credits for creating access.


Our Goals:

Our primary goal is to provide persons with disabilities with an online searchable database of where they can find the accessible healthcare they need.

We will accomplish this through surveying all healthcare services in RI for accessibility. Students from local colleges and universities will be visiting your office to do this survey over the next few months.

Our secondary goal is to give healthcare providers information: Why they should become accessible; where they can get the standards for accessibility; tax credits to help them pay for barrier removal.

Our third goal is to assess what still needs to be done and what approaches, such as resource sharing, would help with that effort.

This project was made possible through a grant from the Rhode Island Department of Health, Disability & Health Program