Visionaries: Episode 19, What are we fighting for? by Susan Gray
Many advocacy efforts require legislation, both on the state and federal level. For the past several years, efforts toward accessible prescription label legislation have been made on behalf of peers with vision loss or print disabilities. None of those efforts were passed into law in New York.
Getting a legislative bill to pass is a heavy lift, and requires many voices of support in order to make it happen. NY Senate bill S1740 was drafted and introduced by Senator Monica Martinez earlier this year, calling for pharmacies to provide audible prescription label readers and or labels for any of their patients that were unable to read their prescription instructions.
This accommodation would allow thousands of New Yorkers to have access to independently read and understand their medications. This means more safety for peers that cannot distinguish one prescription from another, or remember dosage instructions. The potential for misuse due to confusion is mitigated, thus reducing emergency room visits due to overdoses.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires reasonable accommodations for peers with disabilities. A reasonable accommodation is an action or modification that provides the same or similar access as experienced by a non-disabled person.
In the case of prescription labels, pharmacies can offer peers with vision loss a device that reads aloud everything listed on the label through a digital label placed on the bottom of the pill bottle or container. The label is scanned by the device, and reads the information to the peer. “Script talk”, designed by En-Vision America, is one of these devices already available for pharmacies to distribute to peers in need of this accommodation.
The cost of these devices is negligible, and in most cases won’t cost the pharmacy more than forty dollars to provide. The pharmacies are able to have the device returned to them as each prescription is finished, so that the device can be reusable. The device is capable of reading several different prescription labels, so if a peer has more than one, he can use the device for all of his prescriptions.
Several states have passed bills for accessible prescription labels, and peers are hopeful that every state in the nation will follow suit.
The point of advocacy is inclusion, but in this case it is also safety. Providing a peer with a safe way to take his medications should be an accommodation everyone can agree to. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes legislation for accommodations like this one to be provided to our peers. A great deal of gratitude goes to all the advocates that are working on passing this legislation. Without each voice, the chances of the bill’s passage diminishes. Thank you to all the legislators, agencies, organizations and individuals that are taking the time to support this bill’s passage.
You can see the bill at : https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/s1740
You can contact your local legislator to ask for their support in passing this bill into law.