Spinal Injury Group Advocates Accessible Womens Health Exam Equipment
Jackson Heights, NY–The New York City-based United Spinal Association today announced a campaign to encourage physicians, dentists, and other health care professionals to acquire or modify their examination tables/chairs so that they are more accessible to women with spinal cord injuries or disorders.
Once a rarity, equipment such as height-adjustable examination tables and dental chairs is readily available from medical products companies today.
Assistive technology like power or manually-operated lifting devices with optional digital scales has also become commonplace, and such items are catalogued at United Spinal Association’s www.usatechguide.org.
Under the correct circumstances, health professionals may also be able to use an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) tax credit for either structural or equipment changes to their practice, and a tax deduction for removing physical barriers. For further information on these tax incentives, please go to http://www.ada.gov/taxpack.pdf.
This campaign grew out of a recent womens resource questionnaire completed by 490 United Spinal Association women members and women with other disabilities who use a wheelchair. Some 42% of United Spinal women members reported physical barriers to accessing an examination table/chair for a Pap smear and pelvic exam, while 45% of other wheelchair-using women surveyed experienced barriers to the same critical examination equipment. In addition, some 39% of respondents did not have a mammogram in the year prior to the survey, and one-half of the respondents have never received an osteoporosis examination.
To learn more about these issues, download free of charge United Spinal’s “Womens Health” flyer, containing health tips and a health care checklist, at http://www.unitedspinal.org/pdf/womens_health.pdf.