Learners With Disabilities: An Important Component of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Medical Education

Abstract

The population of people with physical or sensory disabilities is growing, yet they are underrepresented in the medical and other health professions. At the same time, there is a clear need to enhance didactic curricular content and clinical training experiences that explicitly address the full scope of medical needs that individuals with disabilities have. These gaps represent missed opportunities to advance the health of an important, underserved, and growing population. Based on the authors’ experience, the inclusion of people with physical or sensory disabilities in medical education greatly enhances the education of all learners and the professional development of faculty and staff, providing invaluable perspectives on the significant abilities of individuals with diverse physical or sensory disabilities. There are additional efforts and costs associated with the education of a medical student who is blind, is deaf, uses a wheelchair, or has another disability. But based on the authors’ experience, it is clear that the societal return on investment is enormous, and the costs associated with a failure to embrace full inclusivity are much greater. Medical education institutions should recognize the population of people with disabilities as a vital component of their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and strive to provide inclusive education for learners with disabilities.

Reframing Physician Assistant Student Mistreatment Through the Lens of Intersectionality

“…According to ClinicalTrials.gov, only 5 out of over 10,000 registered trials in January 2013 focused on cancer in AAPIs. 2 If research on the diseases that disproportionately affect AAPI individuals, such as liver and stomach cancers, remain underfunded, the research gap will only widen health disparities between AAPIs and the general U.S. population.…”

Reconciling LCME Diversity With Federal Law Mandates for Affirmative Action on the Basis of Disability, Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Veteran Status

“…Meeks and colleagues criticize the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) for defining diversity “with specific references to many marginalized groups” (e.g., racial, ethnic, socioeconomic), “but not to individuals with disabilities.” 1 Golden and Petty similarly call for the “integration of disability into diversity and inclusion initiatives” 2 and for inclusion of disability into diversity data collection, because measurement is necessary for improvement. The authors would be pleased to learn that academic medical centers (AMCs), as federal contractors, are required “to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities” 3 and to collect disability diversity data under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.…”

Negotiating legitimacy and belonging: Disabled students' and practitioners' experience

“…People with disabilities are underrepresented in health education [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] and practice. [8][9][10][11] Health education, which has a distinct combination of academic and fieldwork learning, requires meaningful change from positioning disability as a problematic, risk-based burden on the health system to an asset-based opportunity for innovation. [11][12][13][14][15][16] In health practice, positive attitudes towards, and better acceptance of, disabled health professionals are related to past experiences with disability in the workplace and perceived feasibility of accommodations.…”

“…[8][9][10][11] Health education, which has a distinct combination of academic and fieldwork learning, requires meaningful change from positioning disability as a problematic, risk-based burden on the health system to an asset-based opportunity for innovation. [11][12][13][14][15][16] In health practice, positive attitudes towards, and better acceptance of, disabled health professionals are related to past experiences with disability in the workplace and perceived feasibility of accommodations. The experiences of disabled practitioners suggest that the main barriers to inclusion are negative attitudes/social barriers [17][18][19] that lead to fear of disclosure, [19][20][21] restricted career choices and progress 20,22,23 and added burden in educating others in the workplace about disability.…”

“…23 Barriers identified in both health professional education and practice include stigma, disabling discourses, discriminatory programme design and oppressive interactions that are associated with systemic ableism. 6,11,12,14,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] However, current understandings of this topic remain descriptive, fragmented, often include only one health profession, exclude particular types of disability and focus on only one aspect of the career journey. Subsequently, study designs and analyses are rarely considered from a complex systems perspective with lessons learned applied across health professions, legislative, educational and practice systems.…”