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CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid Corp. has begun making talking prescription devices available to help its pharmacy customers with visual impairments.
The drug chain said earlier this month that the devices, available at all of its approximately 4,600 stores, will be offered free upon request to customers who are blind or visually impaired.
“It’s important that all of our customers, including those who are blind or visually impaired, are able to access and understand information on their prescriptions,” Jocelyn Konrad, Rite Aid’s executive vice president of pharmacy, said in a statement. “By offering these devices, we’re helping customers who have difficulty or who are unable to read a standard prescription label understand and safely take their medications as prescribed by their physician.”
Rite Aid added that it can also provide large-print prescription information sheets to visually impaired customers.
The move was applauded by advocacy groups that work on behalf of blind and visually impaired Americans.
“The American Council of the Blind and the California Council of the Blind congratulate Rite Aid on taking this step to better serve the needs of its blind and visually impaired customers,” said Kim Charlson, president of the American Council of the Blind. “This action clearly illustrates their motto, ‘With Us, It’s Personal,’ and we are proud to have collaborated with Rite Aid to bring this valuable resource to their customers.”
The National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency that advises the president, Congress and other federal agencies on disability policy, also voiced its approval of Rite Aid’s move. “Persons with visual impairments who cannot read print prescription drug container labels all too often report inadvertently taking the wrong medication, the wrong amount, at the wrong time, with the wrong instructions, endangering the health and safety of themselves or family members,” said NCD chair Clyde Terry.
