After all, accessibility should not end once you have made it past the front door. The project titled "Persons with disabilities in Viennese health care facilities" has been around since 2001. Now the BIZEPS team has decided to put medical group practices under a (accessibility) microscope.
"To analyze the as-is state, we conducted extensive research in 2001. We soon came to realize that Vienna has very few accessible medical practices. Within the scope of the project, we established a task force that met on a regular basis and included people with different types of disabilities. The task force also included non-disabled representatives from a variety of organizations. We shared our experiences, defined requests, and expectations and developed a list of demands. However, the most important experience for all of us was learning from and with each other," BIZEPS project manager Annemarie Srb-Rössler sums up the mission.
"The task force decided to survey the medical practices, so people with disabilities are able to glean information at home prior to their office visits." Over the past few years, the www.praxisplan.at web page was created in close collaboration with the Vienna Medical Association. It lets patients locate physicians, who fit their specific needs. Currently, information about nearly 800 medical practices from all over Vienna can be accessed online, in parts including the complete dimensions of doors, bathrooms or exam tables. This list is continuously updated and scheduled to also include information about medical group practices in the near future.
"At the moment, Vienna has 101 medical group practices; 67 of them are accessible with no steps or via a ramp, though the ramps don’t always comply with the ÖNORM standard (editor’s note: this Austrian norm is comparable to German DIN standards). We are currently in the process of researching how many of these medical practices also include bathrooms with disability access in accordance with the respective standards or feature additional important accommodations," the project manager adds.