Disability as Diversity
Framing disability as a dimension of diversity is a relatively new strategy adopted by advocates to promote disability inclusion in medicine. Over the last several decades medical schools came under increasing pressure to improve the diversity of their student bodies. Primarily this elevated attention to racial diversity: in 2009 the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) which accredits undergraduate four-year medical schools added two “standards” designed to increase diversity, and more recently the AAMC issued several reports focusing on racial diversity in medicine (AAMC, n.d.).
Thus, diversity became a new measure of medical institutions’ quality alongside test scores, match results, funding, and more. Diversity is now a benchmark to be measured—and thus a source of anxiety and motivation-to-action for schools. Advocates for disability inclusion in medicine capitalized on the growing attention to diversity issues making disability as diversity a cornerstone of their argument. Starting around 2018—the same year that the AAMC officially classified disability as an aspect of diversity—a majority of articles, books, and guides promoting disability inclusion in medicine introduced the importance of disability inclusivity by invoking medicine’s larger mandate to increase the diversity of students and practitioners (L. Meeks & Jain, 2018; L. M. Meeks et al., 2019, 2019; L. M. Meeks, Jain, et al., 2020; L. M. Meeks, Taylor, et al., 2020). Two years later in 2020, Lisa Meeks and Leslie Neal-Boylan’s book Disability as Diversity was published (L. Meeks & Neal-Boylan, 2020).
Still, in 2022, the LCME does not include disability in definitions of diversity. The continuing aspiration for diversity—across myriad dimensions of identity and experience—demonstrates both the importance of the metric and the need to further push the envelope of “diversity” and inclusivity.
Sources:
AAMC. (n.d.). Fostering Diversity and Inclusion. AAMC. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/workforce/interactive-data/fostering-diversity-and-inclusion
Meeks, L., & Jain, N. (2018). Accessibility, Inclusion, and Action in Medical Education: Lived Experiences of Learners and Physicians With Disabilities,. AAMC.
Meeks, L. M., Jain, N. R., & Laird, E. P. (2020). Equal Access for Students with Disabilities: The Guide for Health Science and Professional Education (2nd edition). Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
Meeks, L. M., Jain, N. R., Moreland, C., Taylor, N., Brookman, J. C., & Fitzsimons, M. (2019). Realizing a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce: Equal Access for Residents With Disabilities. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 11(5), 498–503. https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-19-00286.1
Meeks, L. M., Taylor, N., Case, B., Stergiopoulos, E., Zazove, P., Graves, L., McKee, M., Swenor, B. K., Salgat, A., Cerilli, C., Joshi, H., & Moreland, C. J. (2020). The Unexamined Diversity: Disability Policies and Practices in US Graduate Medical Education Programs. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 12(5), 615–619. https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-19-00940.1
Meeks, L., & Neal-Boylan, L. (2020). Disability as Diversity: A Guidebook for Inclusion in Medicine, Nursing, and the Health Professions.