PAA Annual Meeting Presentation

This presentation by Dielle Lundberg occurred on April 18, 2024 at the PAA Annual Meeting in Columbus, Ohio. It was entitled “Structural Ableism and Interpersonal Discrimination as Fundamental Determinants of Physical and Mental Health for Disabled People in the United States: A Working Paper.” Download the full presentation transcript here.

Presentation Abstract:

Decades of health research has attributed health disparities for disabled people to the “disabling conditions and impairments” that disabled people live with. In contrast, disability studies and disability justice scholars and advocates – whose writing has not often been cited by health researchers – have largely considered ableism and structural ableism as the main determinants of health for disabled people. Structural ableism is “a system of historical and contemporary policies, institutions, and societal norms and practices that devalue and disadvantage people who are disabled, neurodivergent, chronically ill, mad, and/or living with mental illness and privilege people who are positioned as able-bodied and able-minded”. In this working paper, we further the conceptual basis for ableism and structural ableism as fundamental determinants of health for disabled people. We use data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey in 2021 to examine experiences of discrimination and inaccessibility in health care settings for disabled adults in the United States and their potential health effects.

PAA Annual Meeting Presentation

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