1 in 4 people in the United States have a disability. For such a sizable portion of the population, accessible healthcare is imperative. In learning more about disability justice and health equity, FISA Foundation has come across numerous resources and tools that aim to increase access to healthcare for people with disabilities through awareness, policies, and practices.
Below is an annotated list of resources that provide more information on how organizations, healthcare providers, and policymakers can increase accessible, quality healthcare for people with disabilities. We encourage folks to use this as a jumping off point to learn more about improving access to healthcare for people with disabilities. Please share these resources with your networks to encourage them to learn more about health equity and disability.
This framework was developed by the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency that advises the President, Congress, and other federal agencies on policies and practices that affect people with disabilities. The NCD Health Equity Framework serves as a comprehensive guide to policymakers, advocates, and healthcare providers on improving health equity for people with disabilities.
The Alliance for Disability in Health Care Education (ADHCE) and The Ohio Disability and Health Program set out to improve the disability training that health care students receive, and the two organizations partnered to produced “The Core Competencies on Disability for Health Care Education”. These 6 core competencies provide broad disability standards for health care education.
The Disability and Philanthropy Forum mobilizes philanthropy to invest in disability inclusion and justice. This resource links to webinars and articles related to health equity and intersectional advocacy. This resource is helpful for those in the philanthropy space to ensure people with disabilities are equitably included in grantmaking practices.
The Disability Equity Collaborative supports organizations and advocates working to address health disparities experienced by patients with disabilities. This page provides a list of resources that support healthcare equity initiatives, including links to training materials for healthcare staff and guides for implementing accessibility initiatives.
This site provides lots of reading materials to learn more about the different issues and policy developments occurring at the intersection of disability and health. The Health Affairs Disability and Health Theme landing page has links to research, commentaries, videos, and podcasts on topics that range from potential solutions to disability inequities in healthcare to ableism in biomedical research.
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund is a national civil rights law and policy center working to advance the rights of people with disabilities. This page provides training materials for health plan insurers, providers, and advocates that promote accessibility and encourage people in these fields to learn more about disability.
This episode of Down to the Struts, hosted by disability justice advocate Qudsiya Naqui, calls attention to physician perceptions of people with disabilities and how a large percentage of physicians believe patients with disabilities have a lower quality of life. This is an excellent episode to get a broad understanding of how biases and stereotypes negatively impact quality of care for people with disabilities. The episode also explores solutions to ensure equitable access to healthcare for people with disabilities.