Providing Equitable Care for Patients with Disabilities: Current State, System Gaps, and Improvement Priorities

More than one-quarter of U.S. adults live with a disability, yet people with disabilities continue to experience pervasive disparities in healthcare access, quality, safety, and outcomes. Despite civil rights protections and decades of policy attention, disability-related inequities remain embedded within healthcare systems through inaccessible environments, communication barriers, fragmented care coordination, inadequate accommodation processes, systemic bias, and limited disability competence among healthcare professionals. Recent designation of people with disabilities as a health disparity population by the National Institutes of Health further underscores the importance of disability-inclusive healthcare as a quality, safety, and equity priority. Many disability-related healthcare disparities result from modifiable healthcare system factors rather than disability itself. Healthcare organizations can improve quality, safety, equity, and patient experience through leadership-supported systematic redesign that incorporates communication, physical accessibility, workforce competency, diagnostic accuracy, care coordination & care transitions, data & measurement, scheduling, and patient & family engagement. Disability-inclusive care should be recognized as a core component of healthcare excellence.