Disability, Chronic Illness, and Belonging in Medical Training: A Scoping Review of Perceptions, Lived Experiences,...

Disability and chronic illness are increasingly recognized as dimensions of diversity and inclusion in medical education, yet little is known about how they are perceived, experienced, and positioned within medical training. This scoping review mapped literature on disability and chronic illness in medical training, including direct evidence of medical students' perceptions and indirect evidence from disabled and chronically ill students' lived experiences.

A scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, and Education Source were searched in December 2025. Eligible articles were English-language studies focused on medical students, or broader medical education samples including medical students, and conducted in the United States or Canada.

Eight articles met inclusion criteria. Only one study directly measured medical students' perceptions of physicians with disabilities, and none directly examined general medical students' perceptions of disabled or chronically ill classmates. Most evidence was indirect and came from disabled or chronically ill students' lived experiences of disclosure, accommodations, discrimination, institutional culture, interactions, and the hidden curriculum. Five themes were identified: tensions with ideals of the "good" trainee or physician; disclosure and accommodations as sites of stigma, risk, and labor; hidden curriculum messages shaping belonging and legitimacy; discrimination across training levels; and lived experience as expertise, empathy, and advocacy.

Direct evidence on medical students' perceptions of disability and chronic illness within medicine remains limited. Existing literature suggests that disability inclusion is closely tied to trainee wellbeing, belonging, and institutional culture. Future research should directly examine peer perceptions and evaluate strategies that support disability-conscious, inclusive learning environments.