Medical providers with disabilities

Although 18.7 percent of the US population and up to 8.9 percent of US residents aged 18 to 24 self-identify as having at least one disability, less than 1 percent of medical students have disabilities known to school administrators.
A study published in 2012 found that since 2001, only 0.56 percent of matriculating and 0.42 percent of graduating medical students have physical or sensory disabilities
These data suggest that persons with physical, cognitive, or sensory disabilities face significant hurdles in entering, continuing, and completing training in health professional fields.
Physicians who develop disabilities after completing their training can have difficulty obtaining accommodations from their employers and consequently leave clinical practice for administrative, teaching, or corporate positions that do not require direct patient care, preventing patients with disabilities from benefiting from the experiences of physicians intimately familiar with the process of adapting their activities of daily living.
From a patient standpoint, increasing the representation of people with disabilities within the medical field has the potential to improve outcomes and clinical experiences.
From the perspective of the medical profession, the obstacles encountered by trainees and physicians with disabilities not only limit diversity within the field but also unjustly limit clinicians with disabilities from practicing patient care.

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