WID addresses health care disparities for people with disabilities by working to improve access to quality care. In addition to addressing physical accessibility issues, WID trains doctors and medical staff in culturally competent health care and in how to make services and equipment accessible.

Access to Medical Care: Adults with Physical Disabilities is a 20-minute video and training curriculum for physicians, dentists, nurses, and other medical staff about key issues that influence the quality of care in outpatient clinical settings. The video uses interviews with medical providers and a diverse group of people with disabilities to address cultural competence; access and communication issues in the clinic; common myths and stereotypes about disability that interfere with accurate assessment of patients; and barriers to health care delivery. The training curriculum offers case-based learning exercises and extensive in-depth reference materials about appropriate provision of care, specific skills to increase good communication and rapport, and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The curriculum emphasizes access and communication as the fundamental components in addressing health care disparities for people with disabilities.

WID also seeks to improve the quality and availability of long-term services for people with disabilities, such as Personal Assistance Services (often referred to as home health care) that help people with activities of daily living, such as dressing, bathing and eating. Such assistance can make the critical difference between independent living in the community or institutionalization.

Unfortunately, instances of physical or emotional abuse in such settings are alarmingly high. In response, WID is creating the Curriculum on Abuse Prevention and Empowerment (CAPE), a comprehensive training curriculum to educate service providers, people with disabilities and family members about abuse awareness and prevention strategies. Funded by the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation and Research, CAPE explores fundamental issues of abuse, best practices training approaches, and personal narratives of successful interventions. CAPE will be distributed nationally via CD Rom, in print or the web, in both English and Spanish.

For more information, contact Marsha Saxton, Senior Researcher, at marsax@wid.org.