RADx® Tech Accessible At-Home COVID-19 Tests

As part of the RADx Tech effort to develop COVID-19 tests that are more accessible, information that was gathered from end-users, developers, and experts was used to draft a best practice recommendations document to help improve device design.

The Best Practices for the Design of Accessible COVID-19 Home Tests document provides recommendations on the design of diagnostic test kits that will allow a broader spectrum of users to use the tests independently. While the document is specific to COVID-19 tests, the recommendations are readily transferrable to home devices for other diseases and conditions. 

A complete version of the document is now available on the U.S. Access Board website. We encourage you to use and share this document with others in the diagnostic development community.

RADx Tech solicitation to develop COVID-19 tests with higher performance and tests that are accessible to people with disabilities. The solicitation period is now closed. 

• Solicitation to develop tests that are accessible to people with disabilities
• Solicitation to develop tests with improved performance

Still open: Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Addressing Accessibility Inequities with COVID Home-Based Testing for Individuals with Visual Impairment

• NOT-EY-22-010

On March 24, 2022, the Consortia for Improving Medicine with Innovation and Technology (CIMIT), on behalf of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx®) Tech program, hosted a listening session to solicit input on the accessibility challenges of current at-home COVID-19 tests and potential improvements for these products. The session brought together leaders from organizations who represent communities in need of accessible tests along with experts from government agencies. The listening session was held virtually and used ASL interpreters and live transcribers to accommodate all attendees. The goals of the listening session were to: 1) understand challenges to the accessibility of at-home tests, 2) discuss potential improvements, including their potential timescale, and 3) open lines of communication for ongoing discussion. Read the full executive summary of the listening session here. 

Opening Session Slides

Link to PDF

Breakout Session Topics and Discussion Questions

Understanding Barriers 

• Which at-home COVID-19 tests have you used, if any?
• Are there others you haven’t used, but are familiar with?
• What are the biggest challenges individuals with disabilities face in using at-home COVID-19 tests?
• We will talk generally about using a COVID-19 at-home test and the steps involved. For each step, please provide input on: 
• How easy or hard is it for someone with a disability to complete the step?
• What common barriers may occur? 
• Among the different at-home COVID-19 tests with which you are familiar with (or those we discussed) does accessibility vary across tests for this step? How so?
• Are there are other challenges we didn’t touch on that you want to highlight?

Identifying Good Models

• Name an at-home medical product that is intuitive, easy, and accessible for those with disabilities
• What makes it so user-friendly?
• Can prompt with choices (Is it preferable that something be accessible without use of a connected-device or to use a connected-device [e.g., smartphone app])

Soliciting Recommended Collaborators 

• Which companies, researchers, designers, organizations, etc. may be helpful collaborators in our efforts to design accessible test technologies? Is there anyone who comes to mind with relevant expertise?

Preliminary Assessment of in vitro Diagnostic Device Accessibility 

Links to Additional Reading Materials

Speaker and Facilitator Biographies