A2024-03: Regarding Nonvisual Access to Prescription Drug Container Labels

Adopted In : 2024

Topics : Medical

WHEREAS, as part of our daily lives, blind persons have the responsibility for managing not only our own health, but sometimes the health of others; and

WHEREAS, this care often requires access to important information printed on prescription drug container labels; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Access Board has published pharmacy best practices, which it adopted in 2013, for making medication labels accessible; and

WHEREAS, these best practices call for providing timely access to all information on a prescription label, including warnings in audio, Braille, or large print media at no extra charge to the blind individual; and

WHEREAS, in 2024, the Minnesota Legislature enacted provisions requiring that prescription labels be made available in braille for those who request it and to begin the process of implementing the new requirements; and

WHEREAS, this new statute serves as an excellent first step but needs further expansion to align with federal recommendations for meeting the needs of patients who require audio and other formats: now therefore

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota in convention assembled this 3rd day of November in the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, that this organization call upon the Minnesota legislature to expand statutory requirements to include audio and large print formats for access to prescription drug container labels.

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