ICYMI – STAT News: Medical devices with screens aren’t accessible to the blind. Congress has chance to change that
WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Mike Braun (R-IN) introduced a bipartisan bill to improve access to home medical devices for blind and visually impaired users. The bill would require the Food and Drug Administration to develop rules requiring that new medical devices with digital displays, such as glucose monitors or insulin pumps, include accessible features for visually impaired users, unless it would change the fundamental nature of the device.
Read more from STAT News or below:
Katie Keim was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1967 when she was eight, well before the era of insulin pumps or even reliable home testing. The condition started eating away at her vision 20 years later. By the time she was 36, her sight was completely gone.
Keim had lived an independent life as a child despite her illness. Her summers were spent exploring oceans with her family, not at diabetic summer camps. Blindness, though, changed every aspect of her life — including her ability to manage her diabetes. Her first insulin pump had tactile buttons, but all the pumps that came to replace it had digital screens.
“Blind people cannot independently and safely manage our lives through the technology that’s available in home medical devices,” Keim said.
Digital home devices are in a regulatory gray area when it comes to accessibility standards. No agency requires manufacturers to incorporate features for blind folks. Keim and other advocates from the National Federation of the Blind have lobbied lawmakers for years to fix this. Now, federal lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require the Food and Drug Administration to develop rules mandating device makers build accessible products.
Insulin pumps and glucose monitors are a critical focus, as diabetes is one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States. But the bill would also direct the FDA to cover devices like CPAP machines or heart monitors.
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Still, the measure has more promise than most by being bipartisan, introduced by Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) on the Senate’s health committee. The bill was introduced in 2023 by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) in the House.
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Hassan called the bill “common sense” and said she was in the process of educating fellow lawmakers on the issue.
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