Making emergency medicine accessible for all: The what, why, and how of providing accommodations for learners and physicians with disabilities

Abstract

Individuals with disabilities comprise a substantial portion of the U.S. population but make up only a small subset of medical students and health care providers. Both the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education have called for increased diversity in the physician workforce, to more closely represent the U.S. patient population and provide culturally effective care. Yet the barriers to disclosure and inclusion for individuals with disabilities in health care are significant, including attitudinal barriers such as stigma and bias, organizational barriers in policies and procedures, and environmental barriers such as resources and physical space. Lack of experience providing accommodations and a lack of knowledge of both what is legally required and what is possible also prevent programs from creating access. Realizing inclusion for individuals with disabilities in a diverse workforce requires emergency medicine programs to be proactive and deliberate in their approach to recruiting, accommodating, and retaining students, residents, and faculty with disabilities. Such efforts are likely to provide benefits that extend beyond those who receive the accommodations.

Adapting Assessment for Diverse ELT Learners

“…Forthly, accommodating learners with disabilities is a crucial aspect of creating an inclusive educational environment. It requires proactive efforts from educational programs to recruit, accommodate, and retain students, residents, and faculty with disabilities (Poffenberger et al, 2022). However, there is a lack of data on the prevalence of disability among psychologists and graduate students in psychology, highlighting the need for more research in this area.…”

From inequity to access: Evidence‐based institutional practices to enhance care for individuals with disabilities

“…While institutions and providers may acknowledge this legal definition and traditionally define disability using a medical model (which focuses on a person's impairments or differences and trying to “fix” them), the World Health Organization uses an international classification of function to define disability more accurately as a complex interaction between physical, intellectual, sensory, or emotional impairments within a person's surroundings. This definition opposes the more traditional medical model of disability and reflects the social model of disability, which emphasizes the removal of barriers (through accommodations) that restrict independence and freedom 6–8 …”

“…This definition opposes the more traditional medical model of disability and reflects the social model of disability, which emphasizes the removal of barriers (through accommodations) that restrict independence and freedom. [6][7][8] Ableism is the belief that people with disabilities "need to be fixed or cannot function as full members of society" and that having a disability is a "defect" rather than a dimension of difference. 6,9 Ableism often results in objectification, invalidation, infantilization, or dehumanization of those with disabilities.…”