Accessing healthcare as a disabled person is often complicated. This section provides practical guidance on finding accessible healthcare, navigating insurance, managing medications, and advocating for yourself in medical settings.
Disabled people face significant barriers in healthcare: ableist assumptions, discrimination, inaccessible buildings and equipment, providers who blame all symptoms on disability or ignore disability entirely, lack of communication access, and medical trauma.
This section is written from a disability justice perspective that centers:
Finding and accessing healthcare. Covers finding disability-aware providers, telehealth, low-sensory medical environments, accessible physical exams, communication access (interpreters, AAC-compatible, plain language), and navigating medical buildings and equipment.
Your rights in healthcare settings: informed consent, autonomy, refusal of treatment, confidentiality, accessibility accommodations, and filing complaints about discrimination or inaccessibility.
Practical guidance on Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, veterans health, and international systems (Canada, UK, etc.). Covers coverage, appeals, out-of-pocket costs, and finding affordable care.
Durable medical equipment, assistive technology, repairs, funding sources, equipment loan closets, and how to get equipment you need through insurance or alternative funding.
Accessible mental health support for disabled people. Covers therapy types, psychiatric medication, peer support, crisis vs. non-crisis, trauma-informed care, and addressing disability bias in mental healthcare.
Managing chronic pain and fatigue. Covers pain management options (medical and non-medical), ME/CFS and post-exertional malaise, migraines, fibromyalgia, pacing strategies, and advocating for pain to be taken seriously.
Personal care attendants (PCAs), home health nurses, HCBS (Home and Community-Based Services) Waivers, self-directed care, and alternatives to institutionalization.
Accessible Healthcare → includes tips on finding providers, questions to ask, and red flags.
Insurance Navigation → and Benefits →
Common barriers disabled people face in healthcare:
Ableist assumptions: Providers assuming disability means tragedy, that you should be grateful for any treatment, that disability makes life not worth living.
Medical gaslighting: Symptoms blamed on anxiety or disability rather than investigated.
Medication and disability bias: Providers refusing pain medication or psychiatric medication because of disability stereotypes.
Communication barriers: No interpreters for Deaf patients, no AAC-compatible communication systems, fast speech, medical jargon.
Physical accessibility: Inaccessible buildings, exam tables that don't lower, no accessible bathrooms, nowhere to sit while waiting.
Reproductive bias: Assumptions that disabled people shouldn't have children or shouldn't reproduce.
Surveillance and control: Healthcare providers treating disability services as surveillance/gatekeeping rather than support.
Understanding these barriers helps you advocate for yourself and recognize when something is your disability issue vs. a healthcare access issue.
Planning for a medical appointment when disabled:
Chronic pain and fatigue are disabilities in themselves. They're not all-in-your-head and they're not laziness. If you have these:
Learn more about pain and fatigue →
Hospitals: Are admission areas accessible? Can you navigate to departments? Are bathroom accessible? Can you access food if you're unable to leave your bed?
Clinics: Is parking accessible? Is the building entrance accessible? Are exam rooms on one floor? Can you be examined in a wheelchair?
Telehealth: Is the platform accessible? Do they provide interpretation? Can they communicate with AAC?
Mental health: Do therapists understand disability? Are offices physically accessible? Do they offer flexibility for flare days?
Dentistry: Special challenges for many disabled people. Can you recline in the chair? Do they understand communication disabilities?
Many disabled people take psychiatric medications, pain medications, or other medications. Important principles:
Reproductive justice is a disability justice issue. This means:
Disabled people have faced eugenics, forced sterilization, and coercive reproductive control. This is historical and ongoing.
Mental health disability is part of disability justice. This includes:
Mental health services should:
Have you found a disability-aware provider? Know about a healthcare barrier that should be addressed? Have lived experience navigating healthcare as a disabled person?
We welcome contributions, especially from disabled people with different disabilities and from communities experiencing healthcare disparities.
Last updated: [Date]
Maintained by: DisabilityWiki Healthcare & Medical Team
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