Page 32 - ASCO Cultural Competency Toolkit

ADA and Disability Access
Disability Inclusion
Providing culturally responsive care also means considering a person's ability status and access needs before, during, and after an optometric exam.
The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disability (WHO,
2011).
Disability inclusion means understanding the
relationship between the way people function and how they participate in society, and making sure
everybody has the same opportunities to participate in every aspect of life to the best of their abilities
and desires. It ensures people with disabilities can take advantage of health promotion and
prevention benefits at the same level as people who do not have a disability. People with disabilities
may have physical, sensory, and intellectual differences and invisible disabilities such as chronic
health conditions, psychiatric conditions, and others (CDC, 2020).
(Oroko CA, 2016).
To help guarantee that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else, the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was made law in 1990. Modeled after the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
the ADA prohibits discrimination of people with disabilities in publicly operated and federally
supported health care services and in private enterprises that are places of public accommodation.
Places where optometric care is provided are usually covered by the ADA. The ADA requires physical
access to services, so that people who use wheelchairs, walkers, and other mobility aids can enter the
building and navigate inside. This is supported, for example, by ramps, elevators, accessible
bathrooms, and braille signs. The ADA also requires that service animals (an animal trained to perform
a specific task for a person with a disability) be permitted to accompany their handler at all times,
typically with a harness or leash, except in strictly sterile environments. No special license or
certification is required for a service animal. In order to determine what task the service animal
performs, the health care physician may only ask: 1) Is the animal a service animal needed because of a
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Disability affects approximately 61 million, or nearly 1 in 4 (26%) people in the United States