Adaptive Equipment for Drugstores

Adaptive equipment helps people with disabilities function as independently as possible. Drugstores that offer a variety of adaptive equipment to customers make their store and their products and services more accessible to a variety of customers. Not all drugstores offer all available types of adaptive equipment, though. You can encourage drugstores that you frequent to increase the options they offer to customers with special needs.

Easy Open Caps for Medication Bottles

• Easy-open caps for medication bottles, as opposed to childproof caps that many find difficult to open, allow people with poor fine motor skills or difficulty using their hands to open their medication bottles easily and independently. Most drugstores offer easy-open caps for medication bottles but customers need to request them when ordering a prescription.

Large Print Medication Information Sheets

• Many drugstores give customers information sheets with their prescriptions that explain how to take the medication and describe common side effects. Visually impaired customers may have difficulty reading the small print on the standard medication information sheets. Drugstores can provide large print information sheets for customers that need them.

Medication Organizers

• Medication organizers, boxes that have small bins for each day or the week or even small bins for several doses of pills each day, help people organize their pills and help ensure they don't miss doses or get mixed up and take a double dose. Some medication organizers even have alarms to remind people when to take their pills. Medication organizers can be useful for many people but might especially help those with memory problems, dementia, forgetfulness or confusion.

Talking Medical Equipment

• Many drugstores sell medical equipment like blood pressure monitors and glucose meters (devices that measure blood sugar). These devices typical display digital readouts with the results. People with visual impairments may find these displays difficult or impossible to read. There are devices available that talk, speaking the results aloud instead of or in addition to displaying a digital readout.

TTYs

• Hearing impaired people often use TTYs to communicate by phone. These devices allow them to type what they want to say instead of speaking, and another TTY user can type back so they can read the response. Drugstores that have TTYs allow hearing impaired customers to phone in requests for medication refills and to call pharmacists with questions about medications or other issues.