Disability rights organization claims that two AHIC decisions discriminate against persons with disa

The American Association for People with Disabilities (AAPD) sent a letter dated April 25th to HHS Secretary Leavitt opposing recent actions taken by the American Health Information Community (AHIC) (Source, "HHS Federal Advisory Group Eliminates Disability Accessibility in Health IT Recommendations," JFA Activist Blog, April 28, 2008). In the letter, AAPD, the largest cross-disability national membership organization, criticizes AHIC for eliminating two recommendations from its consumer empowerment workgroup regarding accessibility for persons with disabilities to using personal health records.  The two recommendations eliminated were:

--"coordinate to ensure that Personal Health Records (PHRs) sponsored by the federal government are consistent with accessibility standards found in the Rehabilitation Act;" and

--"HHS should develop and accommodate to technological applications that can be used by persons with disabilities...."

AAPD states in its letter that "Without these recommendations, there may be distrust by persons with disabilities, and their families and representatives, of health information technology initiatives, and likely excessive costs to retrofit in the future to ensure persons with disabilities have accessibility to and usability of electronic health records."