Mobility Impairment and Pharmacy Accessibility

Abstract

Architectural and environmental barriers have gained increasing attention in recent years as part of efforts to improve the accessibility of the environment for mobility-impaired people of all ages. The issue of equity is of significant concern in many of these situations because a choice must be made about the cost that people, businesses, and governments must bear to eliminate barriers and improve access. Equitable solutions can be achieved in some situations, but in others difficult long-term conflicts can arise naturally when intrinsically incompatible demands are placed on a single environment by two or more groups. This is shown to be true of the commercial pharmacy environment of Austin, Texas, where effective marketing techniques sometimes create barriers that limit access. This conflict cannot be readily resolved because although these commercial barriers can be eliminated, their removal could affect the long-term profitability of the pharmacies. In these situations, it may be important to accept the irresolvable nature of the conflicts and attempt, instead, to alleviate the isolation faced by mobility-impaired populations if they withdraw from commercial built environments due to barriers.