Comment from Harding, J Howard

Before any accessibility regulations are finalized, please require extensive testing of equipment built to meet the new design standards by mobility-impaired people in actual medical facilities. It is our 40+ years experience from extensive travel throughout all 50 U.S. states, half of Canada and nine western Europe nations that accessibility designs, no matter how carefully thought out, too often fail real world tests. We have encountered hundreds if not thousands of obviously well-intended attempts to provide accessibility that failed because the designs had obviously not been tested by intended users. Please consult with members of the targeted population via actual use of proposed designs in addition to written comments.