5 “G’s” Getting Access to Health Care for People with Physical Disabilities

3.1 Getting Weighed

Accessible scales are important to quality health care for people with disabilities. An accessible scale allows a wheelchair user to roll onto the platform of the scale.  Someone who has poor balance, or who cannot step up, can walk on or sit on a chair on the scale platform.

Wheelchair user being weighed on accessible scale

The scale should have sturdy handrails, a high weight capacity (500+ lbs), and a slip-resistant platform. For more information on accessible scales and a list of manufacturers, look on the Internet at http://www.cdihp.org/briefs/brief2-weight-scales.html. You can use this document as a source of information for your health care provider.

Here are some reasons you can use to help your health care provider understand why having an accessible scale is important.

• If your health care providers do not know your current and accurate weight, they may prescribe the wrong amount of medication for you.

• Changes in weight can be important signs of health conditions.

  • Weight gain can be a sign of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, reproductive problems and many other conditions.

  • Weight loss can be a sign of cancer, heart or digestive conditions, depression, and many other conditions.

• If a health care office does not have an accessible scale, they must help people onto the scale, but this is not always possible for individuals with poor balance or who cannot stand.

• When accessible scales are not available, patients may be unsafely assisted or lifted onto a standard scale. This type of assistance can also cause back or other musculoskeletal injuries to the medical facility staff.

• An accessible scale benefits more than just patients who use wheelchairs. It can be used by anyone who has difficulty stepping up, balancing, standing on the small area of a standard scale or who may be too heavy to use a standard scale.

• Accessible scales allow health care facilities to accurately obtain the weight of all patients and, therefore, comply with the ADA.

The national study of people with disabilities or activity limitations already mentioned found that 54% of 222 people with experience using weight scales had moderate or greater difficulty. Their issues included:

• Standing scales may be unstable.

• Scales have nothing to hold on to.

• Scale displays are not usable by people with low or no vision.

Some survey respondents said they did not know their weight and had not been weighed in many years. Some reported that their health care providers often asked them to “guess” their weight, which was impossible.³