Healthcare Access

The ability of disabled people to obtain timely, appropriate, and respectful healthcare services. Healthcare access barriers include physical inaccessibility of medical facilities, communication barriers with providers, diagnostic overshadowing (where symptoms are attributed to existing disability rather than investigated), provider bias and discrimination, inaccessible medical equipment, and the requirement to disclose stigmatized identities to receive appropriate care. For multiply marginalized disabled people, healthcare access is further complicated by discrimination based on race, gender identity, sexuality, socioeconomic status, or occupation.