ADA Public Policy-Access, Service & Assistance

Policy Established: April 2021

The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) is a civil rights law that applies to MedWise facilities and services. It guarantees equal opportunity and access for individuals with disabilities to MedWise facilities. The ADA requires MedWise facilities to be accessible to individuals with disabilities. It also requires MedWise to provide patients with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from our goods and services.

It is MedWise’s policy to make all changes necessary to ensure that MedWise Clinics are accessible to and usable by patients with disabilities. It is MedWise’s policy to provide its patients with disabilities with the same services and assistance that it provides to all patients. MedWise will also modify its policies and procedures to provide additional assistance on request to patients with disabilities who may need that assistance to access our goods, services, and facilities. Common types of assistance that MedWise provides to patients with disabilities include the following: opening doors; reading materials; helping patients with vision disabilities find their way around our facilities, and providing assistance in operating and credit/debit card payment mechanisms.

Further information about the ADA can be obtained by calling the Department of Justice’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 1-800-514-0301 (voice), 1-800-514-0383(TTY).

MedWise Clinics and any other MedWise facilities open to the public do not discriminate against any individual on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of our facilities, services, and products.

MedWise ADA Policies – Contact Us

Any inquiries about this policy, or complaints about the implementation of the policy at an individual clinic should be referred to the ADA Comment Line 1-800-441-0253 or to MedWise’s ADA Coordinator at 918-615-7889 or ajeffers@quiktrip.com.

ADA Service Animals

Policy Established: April 2021

MedWise is committed to making reasonable modifications in policies, practices, and procedures to permit the use of service animals by persons with disabilities. Service animals play an important role in ensuring the independence of people with disabilities, and it is therefore our policy to welcome into our urgent cares any animal that is individually trained to assist a person with a disability.

What is a Service Animal?

Service animals are individually trained to work or perform tasks for individuals with disabilities. Service animals are not always dogs; other animals may assist people with disabilities. Service animals come in all breeds and sizes, may be trained either by an organization or by an individual with a disability, and need not be certified or licensed. Service animals do not always have a harness, a sign, or a symbol indicating that they are service animals. A service animal is not a pet. Service animals assist people with disabilities in many different ways, such as:

• Guiding people who are blind or have low vision and retrieving dropped objects for them.
• Alerting people who are deaf or hard of hearing to sounds and the presence of others.
• Carrying and picking up items, opening doors, or flipping switches for people with disabilities who have limited use of hands or arms, limited use of their legs, or limited ability to bend or stoop.
• Pulling wheelchairs.
• Alerting people with disabilities to the onset of medical conditions such as seizures, protecting them and cushioning them if they fall, reviving them, and performing other tasks that reduce the risk of disability-related injury.
• Doing work or performing tasks for persons with traumatic brain injury, intellectual disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities, such as reminding a person with depression to take medication or waking him up, alerting a person with anxiety to the onset of panic attacks, orienting people with schizophrenia to reality, and helping people with intellectual or cognitive disabilities to locate misplaced items, find places, or follow daily routines.
• Providing physical support and assisting people with physical disabilities with stability and balance.

Requirements with regard to Service Animals

Most of the time, people with disabilities who use service animals may be easily identified without any need for questioning. If we can tell by looking, it is our policy not to make an individual feel unwelcome by asking questions. If we are unsure whether an animal meets the definition of a service animal, it is our policy to ask the individual only two questions at the point when the individual first seeks entry to the MedWise facility:

• Is your animal a service animal required because of a disability?
• What work or tasks has your service animal been trained to perform?

If the individual responds that the animal is required because of a disability and has been trained to perform some work or task, we will welcome the person and service animal into the urgent care. Once an individual with a service animal has answered this question, we will not ask any further questions about his or her service animal. We will not ask an individual questions about his or her disability. We will not ask an individual to show a license, certification, or special ID card as proof of their animal’s training. We must permit service animals to accompany individuals with disabilities to all areas of our urgent cares normally used by patients or other members of the public. We treat individuals with service animals with the same courtesy and respect that MedWise affords to all of our patients and to other members of the public who visit our urgent cares. Service animals are not pets. Employees must not interfere with the important work performed by a service animal by talking to, petting, or otherwise initiating contact with a service animal.

Responsibilities

In the event that a particular service animal’s vicious behavior poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others, MedWise has the right to exclude the animal from our urgent care at that time. Barking or growling alone is not a direct threat. In addition, a direct threat does not exist if the service animal’s owner takes prompt, effective action to control the animal. Moreover, we will not exclude a particular service animal based on past experience with other animals or based on fear that is not related to an individual service animal’s actual behavior. Each situation will be considered individually. In the event MedWise excludes a service animal because of a direct threat, we will not refuse service to the individual with a disability when he or she is not accompanied by that particular service animal. Only the Clinical Manager or APP on staff can make the decision to exclude a service animal because it poses a direct threat.

ADA Accessibility – Digital Communications

Policy established: April 2021

MedWise will ensure that persons with disabilities have an equal opportunity to benefit from the goods, services, privileges, advantages, and accommodations offered through the use of its public-facing digital communications. MedWise is committed to ensuring effective communication with the public, including persons with disabilities.

MedWise provides online content in the following manner to ensure it is accessible to people with disabilities on the MedWiseUC.com domain, mobile applications, and any other websites under its control and to which it posts content for the public:

1. All content will substantially conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 Level A and AA standards.
2. For every image posted, including photographs, charts, color-coded information, or other graphics, MedWise will have available an ADA Online Accessibility tool to aid screen readers. The ADA Online Accessibility tool will allow persons with disabilities, such as individuals who are blind, have low vision, or have a disability that affects their ability to read a computer display, and that use screen readers to understand the basic content of the image or graphical element.
3. Where appropriate, the ADA Online Accessibility tool will also include these additional considerations in developing webpages and mobile applications:
   • Enable keyboard navigation
   • Enables smart navigation
   • Blinks Blocking
   • OCR Image description
   • Fonts – Ability to increase and decrease the site font, adjust, align, etc.
   • Voice command the browser using your voice
   • Change color contract based on dark and light backgrounds
   • Change the Sites colors
   • Matching & monochrome option for color blind people
   • Change the font for readability
   • Increase the cursor and change its color to black or white
   • Increase the display to 200%
   • Highlight links on the site
   • Highlighting headers on the site
   • Display an alternative description of the images
   • Increase the content chosen by the cursor, showed in a tooltip
   • Describe words by mouse selection
   • Display the site’s contents in a new window clearly and readable
   • Enable users to type contents using the mouse

Website Accessibility Assessment and Action Plan

MedWise analyzes its website content annually to ensure its accessibility. In addition, MedWise analyzes its website and content according to existing guidelines for accessible website design. Accessibility training is provided to in-house staff and contractors responsible for webpage and public-facing digital content.

Exceptions

Occasionally, due to circumstances, MedWise may need to deploy public-facing content that has not been audited for accessibility or that does not conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level A and AA standards. Such deployments will require the approval of the Executive Director. Furthermore, MedWise will make every effort to update the content into compliance at the earliest reasonable opportunity.