The "stakeholders" made themselves heard for years. They told the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board ("Access Board") what they thought about technical standards for Medical Diagnostic Equipment before the Access Board published Standards for that Equipment. The last time Standards were published was 7 years ago, in January 2017.
Since then we have examining tables that are too high for disabled people to climb up on in order to get a medical examination by their doctors.
We have examining chairs that some ophthalmologists use in examining diseases of the eye – except that they cannot examine the eyes of disabled people who cannot get in ordinary exam chairs without reasonable modifications.
And we have so many other features of Medical Diagnostic Equipment that were not made for Disabled People. But they were supposed to be, if Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act has any meaning.
The new rules proposed by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice do NOT require your doctor to purchase all brand-new equipment to accommodate the Disabled.
Like the rules previously proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services for all health care providers that take Federal money, only "reasonable modifications" are involved here. Reasonable modifications – that's what Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act requires. And that's all that the rules proposed by the Department of Justice for State and local governments and by HHS for takers of Federal funds would require too: Reasonable modifications.
This time, don't leave it up to the commercial "stakeholders" to Comment on Medical Diagnostic Equipment. Share your own Comments with the Civil Rights Division and the Department of Justice – they're waiting for your Comments!
You can submit Comments at all hours of the day and night at the Federal eRulemaking website: https://www.regulations.gov, putting "RIN 1190-AA78" on your Comments so that they can be identified with the proposed rules you want to Comment on. And here is a link to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking by the Department of Justice: https://www.ada.gov. You can also find the proposed rules by internet searching "Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability: Accessibility of Medical Diagnostic Equipment of State and Local Government Entities," or if you prefer to enter citations in your browser's search bar, you can find the proposed rules at 89 F.R. 2183-2195.
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