Here are some of the best questions for a patient survey about accessibility for people with disabilities, including practical tips on how to create them. You can build or generate a tailored survey with Specific in just seconds—it's all about making it easier to get real insights from real people using our AI survey builder.
The best open-ended questions to ask patients about accessibility
Open-ended questions let patients share their personal stories and specific needs, going far beyond a checklist. They’re perfect when you want candid feedback or don’t want to make assumptions. Here are ten tried-and-tested open questions to get you started:
Can you describe any challenges you’ve faced accessing our healthcare facilities due to a disability?
What changes would make your healthcare experience more accessible or comfortable for you?
Tell us about a positive experience you’ve had where we accommodated your accessibility needs.
Are there any types of support or assistance that you wish were available but currently aren’t?
How would you rate the physical accessibility of our building and why?
Have you encountered communication barriers when interacting with our healthcare team? Please describe.
What improvements could be made to our booking and appointment processes for people with disabilities?
In what ways can we better ensure your privacy and dignity during your visits?
Is there anything about our environment (lighting, signage, waiting areas, etc.) that makes access difficult?
How can we better train our staff to support your accessibility needs?
With over 61 million adults in the United States living with a disability, and many reporting difficulties in accessing care, these questions can help uncover real-world challenges that statistics alone don’t reveal. [1]
The best single-select multiple-choice questions for a patient accessibility survey
Multiple-choice (single-select) questions shine when you need to spot trends, quickly compare responses, or kick off deeper conversations with your patients. They’re especially useful if you want to quantify experiences or make it easy for someone to respond without feeling overwhelmed.
Question: How easy is it for you to physically access our healthcare facilities?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
Question: Which area poses the most significant accessibility barrier?
Entrance/parking
Restrooms
Examination rooms
Communication with staff
Other
Question: How satisfied are you with the accommodations provided during your visit?
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
When to follow up with "why?" If a patient selects “Somewhat difficult” in response to a facility access question, always ask “Why?” or “Can you tell us more?” These follow-ups help uncover the specific barrier—whether it’s a lack of ramps, confusing signage, or another issue.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include “Other” when listing possible barriers, as this opens the door to unexpected insights. Follow up with “Please describe” to capture unique challenges that you might not have anticipated. These invitations make patients feel truly heard and can surface issues that no standard list would reveal.
NPS (Net Promoter Score) questions for accessibility insights
The NPS question—“How likely are you to recommend our healthcare services to others with similar accessibility needs?”—is a fantastic way to measure overall satisfaction for patients with disabilities. It gives a standardized, benchmarkable score you can track over time. Even globally, people with disabilities report they are up to four times more likely to be treated poorly by healthcare providers compared to those without disabilities, so monitoring sentiment is vital for driving improvement. [2]
If you want to try an NPS survey for patients about accessibility, Specific can spin one up instantly, complete with follow-up questions tailored to promoters, passives, and detractors.
The power of follow-up questions
Great surveys don’t stop at a single answer. Smart, real-time follow-ups—like those built into Specific, explained in detail in our article on automated follow-up questions—are what transform static forms into genuine conversations and surface deeper insights about accessibility.
Specific’s AI agent asks questions based on the respondent’s previous answer and context. This means if someone reports a barrier (“It’s sometimes hard to get into the building”), the AI can follow up immediately—giving you the complete story, not just a headline. This approach saves teams hours that would be spent following up via email and helps you clarify unclear responses right away. Here’s what a conversation might look like if you don’t use follow-ups:
Patient: “It’s difficult to get around.”
AI follow-up: “Can you tell us which areas are particularly challenging for you, and what would help?”
How many followups to ask? Generally, 2-3 follow-ups is ideal per topic. This depth captures detail without tiring the respondent. With Specific, you can set these preferences so the conversation is as deep (or as brief) as needed—and exit to the next question once you’ve gathered enough information.
This makes it a conversational survey—the flow is dynamic, natural, and helps patients feel heard, not interrogated.
AI-powered survey response analysis is simple, even with all that rich open text. You can analyze accessibility survey responses using AI, so every insight—no matter how nuanced—gets surfaced fast. If you haven’t experienced a survey with automated follow-ups, try generating one for accessibility and see the difference for yourself.
Writing prompts for ChatGPT or GPT survey tools
Good surveys start with good prompts. If you want to brainstorm more patient survey questions about accessibility using AI, here’s where to start:
Begin simply:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for patient survey about accessibility for people with disabilities.
But AI performs even better with context. For example, add your goal or scenario:
We're a medium-sized healthcare clinic aiming to improve physical and digital accessibility for patients with disabilities. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that would help us identify everyday barriers, communication gaps, and training needs for staff.
Once you have an initial set, ask AI to categorize responses:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
This way, you can see what topics come up (e.g., physical access, digital access, communications, staff training). To dig deeper into one area, follow with:
Generate 10 questions for categories Physical Environment, Communication, and Technology Access.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey uses real-time, AI-driven back-and-forth with each respondent, rather than just collecting one-off, static answers. It feels like chatting with a thoughtful staff member—not filling out an old paper form. Compared to building surveys manually, using an AI survey generator is faster, more adaptive, and gets richer data.
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
|---|---|
Rigid, hard to adapt midstream | Conversational, adapts to answers in real time |
Miss follow-up opportunities | Probes for specifics—gets full context |
Long lag in analyzing data | Instant summaries and response analysis |
Manual editing and question tweaks | Edit in plain language via AI survey editor |
Why use AI for patient surveys? The stakes are real: studies show that people with disabilities are more than twice as likely to receive inadequate care, so we can’t rely on flawed or incomplete feedback. [2] An AI survey example gives you both qualitative stories and hard stats—so you see the full picture and can prove impact over time.
If you want hands-on guidance for building a strong patient accessibility survey, check out our article on how to create a patient accessibility survey with AI. With Specific, the respondent experience is smooth, engaging, and proven to give you richer insight—making every patient conversation count.
See this accessibility survey example now
Ask the right questions and unlock deeper insights into accessibility for people with disabilities—try a conversational, AI-powered survey today and discover how easy it is to generate actionable feedback and make meaningful improvements for your patients.