Barriers to Healthcare for People with Disabilities

Barriers to Healthcare for People with Disabilities

Review each infographic to learn more about the common barriers people with disabilities face when accessing healthcare..

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Healthcare Access Barriers for People with Disabilities

Barriers to accessing healthcare services can cause people with disabilities to delay or forgo healthcare, leading to poorer health outcomes.

Financial Burden

Unable to See a Doctor Due to Cost in the Past 12 Months:

People living with a disability are less likely to be able to see a doctor and more likely to report medical debt.

22.6%

People with disabilities

People without an identified disability

8.0%

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Negative Attitudes and Discrimination

Structural Ableism:

Denies people with disabilities access to social and health care resources and leads to health inequities

This can include discrimination and implicit and explicit biases toward people with disabilities.

Stereotyping:

Stigma and Discrimination:

Perceiving disability as something that needs to be cured or assuming that behaviors and actions need to conform with social expectations.

Assuming that those with disabilities are unhealthy or that their quality of life is poor or not valued.

Impact on Healthcare

of physicians are very confident about providing the same quality of care for people with disabilities.

41%

of adults with disabilities reported unfair treatment in healthcare settings, compared to 10% of adults without disabilities.

32%

Diagnostic overshadowing, where health conditions and symptoms are misattributed to an underlying disability, can impact the timeliness and quality of care for people with disabilities.

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Transportation and Physical Barriers

Lack of Access to Transportation

Architectural Barriers

Inaccessible Care Delivery

Steps, curbs, and narrow doorways that prevent mobility into and around healthcare facilities.

Medical and diagnostic equipment that is not accessible.

Communication Barriers

Lack of accomodations, such as sign language interpreters and closed captioning for people with hearing disabilities.

No large-print, Braille, or screen-reader-accessible versions of healthcare materials for people with visual disabilities.

The use of technical language, long sentences, and words with many syllables may be significant barriers to understanding for people with cognitive disabilities.

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Policy and Program Barriers

Policy Barriers

Program Barriers

Limit the effective delivery of healthcare programs, such as inconvenient scheduling and insufficient time for medical exams.

Include a lack of enforcement or awareness of existing laws and regulations, such as not complying with ADA.

Workforce Shortages

Longstanding shortages of direct care workers threaten the ability of people with disabilities to remain in their homes and communities.

of community-based providers of intellectual and developmental disability services experienced moderate or severe staffing shortages

95%

Rural counties are more likely to have no aging and disability service organizations.

21.0%

5.8%

Rural Areas Non-Adjacent to Metro Areas

Metro Areas