"I'd rather be in pain than be patronized." A qualitative study of health care experiences of persons with disabilities.
Jessica A Prokup, Elise M Pearson, Alan Cuevas Villagomez and 3 others
PMID 40481761WHAT IT FOUND
People with disabilities described care that ignored accommodations, dismissed their knowledge, or assumed incompetence.
They wanted physicians to prepare, collaborate, and treat them as people first.
Key findings
01Participants reported that inaccessible spaces and communication systems without reliable sign-language interpreters created barriers to care.
02Participants said providers often lacked disability knowledge, made inaccurate assumptions, and dismissed patients’ own expertise about symptoms and bodies.
03Participants wanted care as a partnership, with physicians learning from patients, providing accommodations, and assuming competence rather than judging ability from speech or assistive technology.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study interviewed 15 people selected for a broad range of experiences, so it cannot show how common these experiences are. Interviewers were physicians, which may have limited disclosure or made participants less likely to label experiences as discrimination. The team was not adequately prepared to accommodate communication differences during early interviews, and scheduling sign-language interpretation was difficult. The study reports experiences and themes, not tested interventions or clinical outcomes. The research team chose not to seek participant input on coding, so participant validation of the themes was not done.
Declared interests
Funded by a grant from the FISA Foundation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The authors report no competing interests to declare.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that disability training or partnership behaviours improve care; this study reports what participants wanted and experienced, not the effect of any intervention.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →