SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL FOR GAO-26-107120: Health Care Accessibility: Further Efforts Needed to Address Barriers for People with Disabilities
Fast Facts
1 in 4 U.S. adults reports having a disability. We reported that the Department of Health and Human Services could do more to ensure health care is accessible to people with disabilities.
This is an "Easy Read" version of our report. Easy Read is a way some groups make their written information easier to understand. For example, Easy Read documents use short sentences and plain language. They also put difficult words in bold and define them in the next sentence.
We published this version to make our report more accessible to certain people with disabilities.
A woman in a wheelchair uses a wheelchair-accessible scale. Her service dog sits next to her.
Highlights
This supplement is a companion to GAO's report entitled, HEALTH CARE ACCESSIBILITY: Further Efforts Needed to Address Barriers for People with Disabilities, GAO-26-107120. The purpose of this supplement is to provide an "Easy Read" version of the report. Easy Read is a way some groups make their written information easier to understand. For example, Easy Read documents use short sentences and plain language.
In this report, GAO found that people with disabilities face barriers related to accessibility in health care. Potential barriers include the design of medical settings and equipment, technology, communication with providers, and lack of training. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) does not collect national-level data from people with disabilities about health care barriers related to disability and , which it could use to help improve accessibility. HHS inspects some aspects of accessibility and performs different kinds of reviews to make sure health care organizations are following disability laws. In 2024, HHS updated accessibility requirements. However, the agency has not taken certain steps to ensure that health care organizations follow the new requirements and improve accessibility.
GAO made five recommendations in this report to address HHS's data collection and oversight of accessibility for people with disabilities.