Facilitating access and opportunity for people with disabilities in health science education

COALITION MISSION

Develop, advance and disseminate leading practices to facilitate access and opportunity for people with disabilities in health science education.  

OUR VISION

Be the preeminent resource regarding  access for people with disabilities in health science education by:

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• Providing leadership for innovative practices, scholarship, and education

• Being a change agent for equity, justice, and inclusion

• Facilitating a collaborative and diverse learning community of health science faculty, staff, and administrators

The Coalition History

The Coalition for Disability Access in Health Science Education (Coalition) was co-founded by Dr. Lisa Meeks, Dr. Gregory Moorehead, and Tim Montgomery.

The Coalition is a collaboration among peer institutions that aims to improve the student experience with disability accommodations in health science and medical education programs. 

The impetus for the coalition sprang from conversations with colleagues, which revealed divergent student experiences from one university to the next. In the professional health sciences, students often transition to different institutions as they progress through study, training, and residency. The experience is taxing for all medical students and especially for those who also are navigating accessibility options and processes. A desire both to alleviate this burden and to facilitate greater numbers of students with disabilities in medical school drove the development of this coalition as a vehicle to establish best practices.

A group that had already been sharing ideas with colleagues from across the country organically took shape. They formed the Coalition for Disability Access in Health Science Education.