Disabled People’s Experiences with Discrimination in Healthcare: Book Chapter

Posted on April 9, 2026

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research

Disabled people have worse health outcomes than nondisabled people. A large part of this is because they receive lower quality healthcare. In fact, ableism and other forms of discrimination are very common within healthcare and produce health inequities for disabled people. For these reasons, in the study described in this book chapter, I collaborated with Dr. Laura VanPuymbrouck (Rush University), to learn more about disabled people’s experiences with discrimination in healthcare. To do so, we surveyed 2,042 disabled people from across the United States and asked them about healthcare.

We found the majority of disabled people (81%) were treated poorly or discriminated against by doctors and health care workers. In fact, 76% reported that the care they receive is different than it would be if they were nondisabled. In terms of what types of experiences disabled people had, they most often described not always being listened to by providers (87%), experiencing diagnostic overshadowing where providers focus on their disability instead of their health issues (86%), and being made to feel like a burden by providers (80%; see figure below).

Disabled People’s Experiences in Healthcare

While most disabled people reported experiencing discrimination in healthcare, there were also differences in what disabled people experienced based on their other identities and sociodemographics. For example, disabled people with anxiety, chronic pain, chronic illness, and autism were more likely to report discrimination (in general) than people with other disabilities. In addition, agender disabled people, cisgender disabled people, and disabled people who said their gender identity was ‘other’ were more likely to report discrimination than cisgender men. Gay or lesbian disabled people were more likely to report discrimination than straight disabled people. See the chapter for more differences based on sociodemographics.

“Ableism is extremely pervasive. The study findings reinforce and clarify findings from past research that the overwhelming majority of disabled people perceive their healthcare experiences as discriminatory, face inequity in quality of care, and frequently experience barriers to accessing the care they need. Structural and attitudinal barriers to health promotion and preventative care contribute to inequitable encounters and disparate care for disabled people… For far too long the healthcare system has overly focused on impairment as the cause of disparate health of disabled people… discrimination is a real threat to achieving health equity for disabled people” (Friedman & VanPuymbrouck, 2026, pp. 28-32).

This article is a summary of the following book chapter: Friedman, C., & VanPuymbrouck, L. (2026). Experiences of discrimination in healthcare: A survey of disabled people’s perspectives. In C. Lepkowsky (Ed.), Systemic ableism: Critical perspectives on disability, equity, and access (pp. 15-36). Nova Publishers. https://doi.org/10.52305/QTWP6822