ACE.D Additional Resources

Many individuals have a disability present from birth and others have a disability that is acquired during childhood or adulthood. Many of these individuals have a normal life span and live into older adulthood. One consequence of having a disability is a smaller margin of health or safety when it comes to health issues. As a result, it is important to anticipate the effect of aging on a person’s disability and the effect, in turn, of a person’s disability on the aging process.

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This resource addresses a key and pervasive barrier to quality health care encountered by many people with a disability: negative attitudes toward people with disabilities by health care professionals. Such negative attitudes are consequential in the health of people with disabilities and their satisfaction with the health care they receive as well as the quality of that care.

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Failure of health care providers to communicate effectively and appropriately with people with disabilities is a major barrier to delivery of quality health care for people with disabilities. The information in this document identifies general issues for communication with all people with disabilities followed by issues that may be specific to individuals with a variety of disabilities. If you are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with communication strategies, learn more about specific types of disability to increase your comfort level and communication skills.

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People with disability (PWD) can assume roles as standardized patients (SPs) following training and practice. The cases available on the NLN ACE.D website describe certain disabilities (e.g., a woman following a stroke and a man with a history of an amputation), however, these cases and related physical disabilities could be modified easily if someone with a similar disability is available and willing to serve as a standardized patient.

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This 3-part document focuses on and presents guidelines for addressing disability in nursing education.

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This Overview and Introduction to Disability is intended to provide nursing students and their nursing faculty with important information needed to use other materials and resources included in ACE.D site.

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Social determinants of health (SDOH), intersectionality, and models of disability are key issues that can have a profound effect on the health, well-being, and health care of people with disabilities. This resource addresses these issues as they relate to disability and to the ability of people with disabilities to receive health care that is at least comparable to the care provided to people without a disability.

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Effective communication and interpersonal skills are essential in conducting any patient assessment; this includes making eye contact with the interviewee and being at the patient’s eye level. This requires sitting down to ensure that you are at the patient’s eye level and do not require the patient to look up to communicate with you if he or she in in a wheelchair or sitting in a chair or on a motorized scooter.

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Disability is not a new concept and not something that has emerged as a result of increasing numbers of people affected. Rather, disability is an ancient concept that has existed for as long as people have existed. Although disability has not changed, our views of the meaning of disability have changed over time - for the better.

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Identifying individuals with an IDD and other disabilities as standardized patients or expert patients conveys an important message to students in health care professions, as individuals with a disability are the experts on how they live on a daily basis with their disability. Simulations conducted with standardized patients promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts; inclusion of individuals with IDD and other disabilities also promotes accessibility.

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This series of modules on intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) was developed as part of a project funded by the Administration for Community Living (ACL): Partnering to Transform Health Outcomes with Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (PATH-PWIDD). These brief modules are designed to provide health care professionals, students in health care professions educational programs and their faculty members, clinicians, and others, with basic but important information about IDD.

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Although most women with disabilities are able to become pregnant, to have normal labor and delivery experiences, and to care for their children without problems, some women with disabilities have experiences that require some thought and advanced planning on the part of the women, their families, and their health care providers.

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The slide presentation is intended to introduce nursing faculty and nursing students to the topic of disability and provide the rationale for introducing disability content and concepts in undergraduate and graduate nursing education programs. Put another way, this set of slides is intended to answer the question: Why disability matters.