600 Section - Breaking Down Health Care Barriers: Building an Accessibility Website for health care providers to learn from the lived experience of disability.

Ableism is entrenched in healthcare and can lead to negative health outcomes for individuals living with disabilities. Physicians often report limited preparation for disability-specific care, especially within accessible communication. Disability-competence training improves provider responsiveness.  However, no centralized resource exists to guide accessible practices at or near the point of healthcare delivery. This project addresses this gap by co-developing an Accessibility Website, informed by the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities.  The goal is to create each webpage for a specific disability (eg. Blind, Deaf, Blind-Deaf, Wheelchair user, Aphasia etc) so that healthcare providers can quickly and easily learn and implement accessible practices. The first pilot webpage of the Accessibility Website will focus on Aphasia since lack of communication is one of the major barriers to participating in healthcare decision-making. Aphasia affects over 100,000 Canadians.

Design:

Semi-structured interviews with individuals who have Aphasia, their caregivers, and with Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) specializing in treating individuals with aphasia will be conducted. Questions will explore barriers and facilitators to accessing healthcare for individuals with aphasia, as well as the skills, tools, and qualities that enhance care. Interviews will be conducted virtually or in person with 2-4 interviewees per session. A Thematic analysis will be conducted to generate key recommendations for the Accessibility Website.  

Results:

Results of the Accessibility Website are in progress

Conclusion:

This project addresses a critical knowledge translation gap within Canadian healthcare systems by developing a centralized, patient-informed resource that delivers point-of-care guidance to providers. By beginning with communication accessibility for people with aphasia, the Accessibility Website offers a scalable model to strengthen disability-competence training and give providers practical strategies to improve communication and support patient participation in care, ultimately advancing equity in healthcare delivery.