Individuals with disabilities constitute a marginalized group in health services research, and their experiences within the health-care system are not well understood. This article examines the access barriers to primary, specialist, and rehabilitative care, and their consequences for individuals' health, functioning, well-being, and health services utilization. The findings are based on an in-depth analysis of 30 qualitative interviews. Access problems are grouped into environmental, structural, and process barriers. The findings highlight the complex nature of access barriers for people with disabilities and underscore the importance of disability literacy in the health service delivery process.

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The social science literature on physical disabilities suffers a curious omission in the relative lack of attention paid to a cross‐cultural or historical perspective. We argue that disability is a human constant—that is, all human societies have and have always had disabled members. While the presence of such individuals is a constant, culturally shared responses to them vary greatly across time and social context.

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People with mobility impairments arising from spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, or rheumatoid arthritis currently have little information and little bona fide choice of health plans and physicians. This group of people seeks specific information within the areas of benefit coverage, benefits interpretation and administration, provider panels, accessibility to clinics and equipment, and how to navigate the health plan's grievance and appeals process.