Region 10: Health Care Access and the ADA

In the last grant funding cycle, the NWADA used a community-building model called the Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) to examine and address barriers to ADA implementation in rural health care settings. The CEI projects provided a starting point for expanding the knowledge base on access to health care for people with disabilities. To further understand and address health care access issues, the NWADA Center’s research project is focused on health care access and the ADA and targets adults with all types of disabilities within the four state northwest region (AK, ID, OR, WA). The project involves three phases: 1) scoping review that serves to characterize existing evidence on health care and the ADA, and inform subsequent survey design 2) survey to explore ADA-related barriers experienced by individuals with disabilities in accessing health care, and 3) Delphi study to identify effective approaches to improving ADA-related health care access for people with disabilities. The research questions include the following:

1. What are the facilitators and barriers to accessing health care for people with disabilities?
   1. What patterns emerge in existing literature on factors to health care access for people with disabilities?
   2. What factors are most important in determining health care access for people with disabilities in the four states in the Northwest Region?
   3. How do factors differ by subgroup (disability type, rural vs. urban, socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, etc.)?
2. What are the best practices and policies that result in reducing barriers to health care access for individuals with disabilities in the Northwest Region?