Recommendations on Standards for the Design of Medical Diagnostic Equipment for Adults with Disabilities, Advisory Committee Final Report

4.3.4 Industry Considerations in Designing Accessible Imaging Equipment

When considering applying accessibility standards to diagnostic imaging equipment, the MDE Advisory Committee recognized that certain constraints and performance requirements demand consideration, as follows:

• Diagnostic accuracy must be equivalent across all patients;

• Patients’ diagnostic needs and thus the clinical applications of the equipment vary widely;

• Today’s technology has certain technical and diagnostic constraints, some of which relate to basic physics or physical properties of equipment elements (e.g., magnets, Section 7.2);

• Equipment design must maintain accessibility for all patients and patient conditions.

• Accessibility standards (e.g., support equipment) must preserve the physical access of technologists to the patient;

• Equipment design must maintain infection control constraints;

• Designs must adhere to FDA and international technical standards; and

• A one-size-fits-all solution across equipment types is unlikely.

Today, it does not appear that any diagnostic imaging systems meet a minimum transfer height of 17” (see Sections 5 and 7). However, some current equipment with bore tables does lower to 18-19”. Redesign might allow some equipment (e.g., CT) to achieve a 17-19” minimum height standard. According to Committee members representing diagnostic imaging equipment manufacturers, certain aspects of redesign may take up to five years to engineer because of the technological complexities of particular diagnostic imaging systems. As described further in Section 7, most current diagnostic imaging technologies will encounter significant technical or diagnostic barriers to altering the actual transfer surface (table). Creative and alternative solutions are needed to facilitate independent transfers of individuals with disabilities.

As described in Section 7, one potential solution to improve accessibility of current imaging equipment designs are “system accessibility configurations” (referred to as “accessibility packages” during Advisory Committee discussions). However, some Committee members worried about aspects of suggested accessibility configurations, including potential safety hazards. Section 7 discusses these issues in further detail.