Browse Exhibits (7 total)
1. Representations of Disabled Doctors
Televison and literature are two main avenues which inform and are informed by the public imagination regarding a theory, theme, concept or identity. Unless and until there is no positive, affirming and multi dimensional representation regarding an issue, it hardly ever crosses the mind of a layman of its possibility. The same goes for doctors with disabilities. Despite being present, since they are under or misrepresented in media, there are alot of stereotypes and stigma still attached to them. This exhibit aims to explore what has changed and what is still the same regarding representations of disabled doctors.
2. Assistive Technology and Medical Practice in the News
This exhibit explores how news reports of medical providers who use assistive technology reveal arbitrary and stigmatizing classifications and reinforce cultural narratives that ultimately perpetuate exclusion of disabled individuals in medicine and beyond. The objective of this exhibit is not to showcase the many and varied technological devices that are gradually increasing access and opportunity in medical professions. Neither does this exhibit seek to blame specific reporters, news outlets, or disabled subjects for their role in maintaining prevalent cultural narratives. Rather, this exhibit frames examples of news reports from the 21st century in the context of historical perspectives of disability to invite critical examination and highlight emerging opportunities to counter oppressive attitudes and assumptions.
3. Workplace Culture and Medicine
Doctors have always been imagined as superheroes or miracleworkers who cure others but cannot be sick or have any disability themselves. It is this imagination and workplace culture which leads to several attitudinal barriers, surveillance tactics and impossible standards that make it very hard for disabled medical students and doctors to be successful in their work.
4. Advocacy Efforts for Inclusivity in Medicine
A number of books have been published by various organizations and publishing houses alike since the early 2000s which are practical guides aimed at stakeholders housed at medical science institutions on how to effectively engage with and accommodate disabled students. Similarly, several podcasts and informative videos have also been resealed to help pave the way to inclusion. When we speak of organizations, a number of them have been created to advocate for doctors with disabilities and equal access to medical studies instruction and clinical practice. But it seems that in the case of books, there is a dearth of material addressed to the students themselves, giving them the tools for advocacy and the empowerment of asking for accommodations. As we will see, there is just one such book which was published in 2018. For organizations, while some of these organizations are made by and for disabled doctors and function on the principle of rights based advocacy and holistic change, there are others which are still operating on providing services on an as needed basis which comes to show that there is still a long way to go in making sure that doctors with disabilities are given equal opportunities and access at all times.Hence, even though a lot is being done to advocate for doctors with disabilities, these contradictions beg us to question the pace at which inclusion is being carried out and how effective it is holistically.
5. Visiblizing Disability in Medicine: Social and Digital Media
Doctors and other healthcare professionals with disabilities use social and digital media to form community, educate colleagues, and advocate for improved disability inclusivity in medicine. From hashtag campaigns to an ever-growing array of podcasts, disabled medical trainees and doctors are sharing their experiences and mentoring each other. Together these small digital artifacts--tweets, podcast episodes, blogs--are building to raise the profile of disabled healthcare professionals. Not only can this representation encourage aspiring disabled physicians, the many stories--of struggles and of success--educate non-disabled doctors and may be important in combating ableism in medicine.
This section of the exhibit explores key moments in the recent history of disability-in-medicine representation on social and digital media.
6. Policies and Culture of Medical Education:
The bureaucratic cogs of medicine are turning, slowly, moving to include disability:
- in medical curricula
- a consideration in the formulation of technical standards
- as axis of diversity
Movement towards improved disability accessibility and inclusivity in medical education has been slow but in the last five years (starting around 2018) the pace of policy changes, research, and publications focused on disability visibility in medical education increased markedly.
7. Filling the Gap: Universal Design, the Built Environment, and Disabled Doctors
This digital exhibit tends to the intersection between Universal Design and disabled doctors in relation to the built environment of the hospital as well as other medical environments. A paucity of scholarship and research exists around the topic – most discourses around this subject area address Universal Design in regard to patient and patient care. This exhibition endeavors to set the background and laying out the groundwork to point that discussions can and should include, and not ignore or discount, the perspectives of disabled doctors in regard to the architectural structures and access needs of medical spaces.