Comment from Stamps, Monique

My name is Monique Stamps and I am a woman with a physical disability. I have lived with a c6 spinal cord injury and use a motorized wheelchair for mobility for 16 years. I have had two children post injury and the experience of getting ob/gyn care has been humiliating and discriminatory because the medical equipment (exam tables) were not height adjustable for wheelchair users or women who are short in stature or have balance issues. Women with disabilities are more likely to go untreated or succumb to cervical, ovarian and breast cancer because we can’t just hop up on the table or stand to meet the mammography machine. It is wrong to get turned away for healthcare screenings because the table is too tall or because you can’t stand to meet the medical equipment. It is humiliating to have to bring an entourage with you to lift you onto an exam table or have to be held up and twisted and turned in the nude in front of friends or family assisting you. I am mobilizing women in Charlotte NC and eventually statewide to bring attention to this issue and advocate to our local healthcare providers to purchase universal design equipment I pray that this proposed regulation becomes a requirement under the ADA. Equal access to healthcare is long overdue in this country and worldwide! I’m willing to speak at a congressional hearing when it comes to that point to tell my story. I urge the Access Board to please do all you can to make this a ADA requirement.