Disability Justice and Anti-ableism for the Pediatric Clinician

Abstract

The impact of ableism on health care, and specifically the health of people with disabilities, is not only underrecognized, but misunderstood at a foundational level due to socially acceptable denial of anti-disability bias. For the pediatrician that seeks to learn about the value of anti-ableist approaches to health care and how it can promote child health, this article reviews the relationship between medical jargon and anti-disability bias, and provides a primer on disability justice, the medical versus social models of disability, and other scholarly concepts related to anti-ableism. The authors provide narrative examples of disability bias in clinical scenarios, and the article concludes with actionable recommendations on anti-ableist language etiquette and clinical best practices. Although ableism is a societal issue, pediatricians have a responsibility to recognize and address ableism as a threat to child health.