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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Charles Drum, JD, PhD, Marilyn Berardinelli, BS, and Charles Davis, MSW. Center on Community Accessibility, Oregon Health & Science University, PO Box 574, Portland, OR 97207, 504-494-8047, drumc@ohsu.edu

Access to health care is a significant contributor to health at the population level. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that health care facilities are accessible to people with disabilities. Assessing all of the technical requirements of the ADA requires hundreds of items.

In this study, the validity of a usability profile of outpatient health care clinics was established through the use of Content Validity Ratios (CVR) and pilot testing. CVR is a process that uses a panel of subject-matter experts (SMEs) to determine whether or not a measurement item in a set of other measurement items is “essential” to the operationalization of a theoretical construct (here, the usability of health care clinics for people with disabilities). An online survey of people with disabilities (n=961) was used to prioritize access domains (e.g., parking areas, exam rooms, medical equipment, etc) and collect contextual information on the importance of the domains. A panel of subject matter experts (SME) with disabilities (n = 11) prioritized domains for specific user groups (e.g., people with sensory, cognitive, and mobility disabilities) and ranked items within those prioritized domains. Another SME of ADA experts (n=20) reviewed each item, and items receiving a CVR of .80 or above were included in the Outpatient Health Clinic Access Profile (OHCAP). The final instrument, interrater reliability, and overall pilot data results from five clinics will be presented.

Learning Objectives: At session’s end, participants will be able to

• Recognize the impact of barriers to health care on health outcomes for people with disabilities.
• Describe the methodology for development of a valid, reliable accessibility inventory incorporating cross-disability perspective.
• Discuss initial findings.

Keywords: Disability, Health Care Access

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered