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

4.4.1 Overview of Mammography Accessibility Considerations

Mammography equipment will likely require redesign to fully accommodate women seated in wheelchairs. Critical considerations in this redesign include the physical constraints needed for operation of the equipment, technical feasibility, patient safety, clinical standards, and the range of body sizes, physical functional abilities, and wheelchair sizes.

Mammography imaging involves complex interactions between moving parts. Ordinarily, the accessibility dimensions are static and are measured from a static element, such as the floor. To get the final dimensions for the equipment standard, the subcommittee needed to consider the elements “dynamically,” especially given how the equipment operates. Recognizing that the movable breast platform is the main action point, recommendations define each component in relationship to the breast platform. The unique aspects of mammography device design and operation require components to work when the breast platform is at breast height. Since breast platform design affects most of the other device components, defining each component in relationship to the breast platform creates proportions that, when incorporated into the design process, assure that women seated in wheelchairs can get effective imaging.

Because of the movable breast platform and C-arm, each recommendation defines the other device components in relation to the breast platform. This gives the opportunity to consider and maximize the dimensions that improve the accessibility during the equipment’s operation. To make final recommendations for mammography accessibility, the Committee balanced the knowledge of disability, a range of physical characteristics and diversity of body types and sizes with each device component. Committee members used the best data available recognizing that the data available did not always match precisely the operations of mammography equipment.