There are numerous health inequities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). They experience lower rates of preventive screening; higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease; lower life expectancy; and higher rates of pregnancy complications. If that’s not enough, they have been at nearly six times greater risk of dying from COVID-19.
What is driving these disparities? There are a number of contributing factors, including unconscious bias against people with disabilities, physical access barriers, and inequities due to unmet social determinants of health, to name a few. But there is one area where health care policy makers and leaders can have an immediate impact for the 10 to 16 million people with IDD in the US. That is: by educating the health care workforce to meet the needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Many physicians report being ill-equipped to treat people with physical and cognitive disabilities, and some say they try to avoid doing so, a new study has found.
Disney is giving kids with special needs a taste of their magic and "happy ever after" as they create new adaptive costumes, including hospital outfits for these little ones.
A Wisconsin federal court on Wednesday blocked a state elections rule that would have forced voters with disabilities to cast their own ballots. U.S. District Judge James Peterson with the Western District of Wisconsin ruled that state officials violated the Voting Rights Act (VRA) because a 2021 ruling effectively prevented Wisconsinites with physical disabilities from…