🍂 FALL NEWSLETTER 🍂
- DWDI Team
- Sep 8
- 10 min read
Updated: Sep 24
September 8th 2025
A Note From Our Co-Directors
As the days grow cooler and campuses buzz with the energy of a new academic year, we’re excited to welcome back our learners, leaders, and volunteers. There’s something about crisp mornings, new beginnings, and—yes—pumpkin-spiced everything—that reminds us of fresh starts and the joy of shared purpose.
This season, we are especially thrilled to celebrate the release of the Academic Medicine disability supplement—a milestone made possible through the collective efforts of so many in our community and the generous support of the American Medical Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
Alongside the incredible summer conference season and the many accomplishments we’ve shared, this supplement represents the growing visibility and impact of disability inclusion in health professions education and we hope it provides you with valuable information about how YOU can move the needle towards accessibility in your program.
As we move into fall, we invite you to pause, breathe, and reflect on one accomplishment or connection that made this summer meaningful. Then, join us in looking ahead with the launch of several exciting projects in 2026 (Announcements coming in our November newsletter!).
We are grateful for you, your enthusiasm, and your participation in DWDI. Together, we’re building something extraordinary.
With appreciation,
Lisa and Justin
🎉 Academic Medicine Disability Inclusion Supplement Launches September 24
We are excited to share the October Academic Medicine supplement on Disability Inclusion in Medical Education!
This landmark issue is guest edited by our own Dr. Lisa Meeks, DWDI founder and co-director and a champion for disability inclusion in medical education and is informed by disabled learners, scholars and leaders.
Alt text: Cover of Academic Medicine October 2025 Supplement. The background is bright pink with “Supplement” written vertically along the left edge. At the top, the AAMC logo and tagline appear. The title “ACADEMIC MEDICINE” is printed in large white letters. The supplement theme, “Disability Inclusion in Undergraduate Medical Education,” is highlighted in white text with supporting funders listed below (American Medical Association, the Ford Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). Edited by Lisa M. Meeks, PhD, MA. Near the bottom right is an illustration: a vase with pink flowers sits on a table in the foreground, while in the background, a medical student using crutches walks down a hallway. Website and social media information for Academic Medicine are listed at the bottom.
The supplement will feature:
Original research advancing the evidence.
Theory-driven scholarship exploring the need for systemic change.
Insightful commentaries from leaders in the field.
Real World Case Studies from across the UME-GME continuum.
This issue marks a significant step forward in promoting accessibility, equity, and inclusion in the medical profession. We invite all educators, learners, clinicians, and institutional leaders to engage with this important work.
🔗 Academic Medicine https://bit.ly/AM_DisabilitySupplement
Upcoming Events
September
DREAM Research Rounds: Jack Ruddell Memorial Talk
Each year on National Physician Suicide Awareness Day, we pause to confront one of the most urgent and silenced crises in medicine: the growing toll of suicide among medical students, residents, and physicians.
This year marks the inaugural Jack Ruddell Memorial Talk, honoring the life of Dr. Jack H. Ruddell (1994–2020)—a beloved son, brother, friend, and classmate known for his brilliance, warm presence, and deep empathy.
Our speaker, Justin Bullock, MD, MPH, brings both lived experience and scholarly insight to this critical conversation on mental health in medical education and the urgent need for systemic change.
📅 Thursday, September 18, 2025
🕛 7:00 PM EST
🎙️ Justin Bullock and John and Jennifer Ruddell
🔗 Register here: https://bit.ly/September25_DREAM_Rounds
📣 Sponsored by: University of Illinois College of Medicine, Department of Medical Education
ASL and Captioning Provided
Academic Medicine Supplement on Disability Inclusion LAUNCH!
Help us celebrate the launch of the Academic Medicine Supplement on Disability Inclusion during this AAMC webinar launch. Contributing authors will share highlights from their research, reflect on their experiences, and discuss what this landmark collection means for the future of medical education.
📅 Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025
🕛 Time: 12:00 PM EDT
🎙️ Speakers: Contributing authors from across the supplement
🔗 Register here: https://bit.ly/Supplement_Launch
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear directly from the voices shaping inclusion in medicine. Whether you’re a clinician, educator, researcher, or ally—this conversation is for you.
October
DREAM Research Rounds: Race, Disability, and Medical Student Outcomes
Barriers related to race and disability in medical education are often treated separately. But for students who are both underrepresented in medicine and have a disability, these challenges intersect and compound in ways that profoundly shape their academic journey.
Join us for October’s DREAM Research Rounds, featuring William Eidtson, Ed.D., who will share new multi-institutional research on how intersecting identities influence medical student outcomes, including likelihood of taking a leave of absence or extending time to graduation. Together, we’ll explore strategies institutions can adopt to create more integrated, equity-driven approaches to supporting students.
📅 Thursday, October 16, 2025
🕓 Time: 12-1 pm EST
🗣️ Speaker: William Eidtson, EdD
📣 Sponsored by: University of Illinois College of Medicine, Department of Medical Education
From Diagnosis to Denial: Disability, Race, and
Step 1 Accommodations
Equitable access to high-stakes licensing exams like the USMLE Step 1 is critical to supporting medical students with disabilities and building a representative physician workforce. This session will share findings from a new study using data from nine medical schools across three graduating cohorts, exploring who requests accommodations, who receives them, and how institutional resources shape outcomes.
📅 Tuesday, October 28, 2025
🕓 Time: 12–1 PM ET
🗣️ Speakers: Lisa Meeks, PhD, MA (University of Illinois College of Medicine) and Mytien Nguyen, MS (Yale School of Medicine)
🔗 Register: https://bit.ly/DREAM_Oct28th2025
ASL and Captioning Provided
Advancing Equity Through Standardized Clinical Accommodations: Releasing the New Guide!
Webinar 2 in the “Clinical Accommodations” series spotlights the new Clinical Accommodations Guide—a practical, easy-to-use roadmap for Disability Resource Professionals (DRPs), faculty, program leaders, and students in medical education.
Rooted in real-world practices gathered from nine U.S. medical schools and refined through a Delphi review, the Guide demystifies accommodation requests, clarifies roles, and sparks the constructive dialogue every inclusive clinical environment needs. Our panel brings together voices from all corners: DRPs who shaped the resource and scholars in disability inclusion and medical education policy. Together they will unpack how the Guide can help schools remove barriers for disabled learners.
📅 Date October 20, 2025
🕓 Time: 12-1 pm EST
🎤 Panelists: Dr. Matt Sullivan, Grace Clifford, Zak Khaleel, Sarah Triano
🗣️ Moderator: Lisa Meeks
📍 Register here: https://bit.ly/ClinicalAccommodationsSeries_Part2
📣 Sponsored by: AHEAD in partnership with DWDI, SMADIE, MSDCI, DM3P
ASL and Captioning Provided
In case you missed them:Recordings Now Available!
Advancing Equity Through Standardized Clinical Accommodations: Findings from a National Delphi Study
🎤 Panelists: Drs. Matt Sullivan, Lisa Meeks, Suchi Rastogi
📣 Sponsored by: DWDI, SMADIE, MSDCI, DM3P
📺 Watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/l0gm0YH9h6g?feature=shared
August DREAM Research Rounds
Our August session, Advancing Equity for Disabled Medical Learners: The Critical Role of Disability Resource Professionals. This thoughtful presentation highlighted the unique role of DRPs in fostering equity across medical training and sparked important dialogue among attendees.
🎤 Presenters: Erin Broskowski, MS, LPC, NCC and Sarah Triano, MS, NCC, LPC.
📣 Sponsored by: University of Illinois College of Medicine, Department of Medical Education
📺 Watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/Pabws59WHt8?feature=shared
In the Media
Mytien Nguyen and Lisa Meeks discuss their new JAMA Internal Medicine research article revealing that medical students with disabilities continue to face significant discrimination, often from clinical faculty and residents.
Read the paper here: https://bit.ly/JAMAIM_Discrimination
Publications
We are excited to share a series of important new publications from our team!
A national study titled, Intersectionality of Disability Status, Family Income, Race, and Ethnicity with Taking a Leave of Absence During Medical School, was just published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM). In this study, medical students with disabilities (MSWD) are significantly more likely to take a leave of absence (LOA)—with non-White, low-income MSWD 7x more likely than peers without marginalized identities. Suggesting that while LOAs can provide recovery time, they often reflect systemic barriers, inaccessible systems, and financial hardship.
DWDI’s Access in Nursing team including nurse educators and disability leaders, has published a powerful editorial in AACN’s Journal of Professional Nursing titled, Advancing disability inclusion in nursing education: A call for national data collection and collective leadership. The piece calls for a coordinated effort to confront ableism in nursing education through national data collection, association-led partnerships, and collective leadership informed by lived experience.
Our co-director Dr. Justin Bullock published a new commentary titled, These Ghoulish Hands: Bringing Our Whole Selves to Patient Care in ATS Scholar. This commentary is a powerful reflection on how lived experience—including mental illness—can be an asset in compassionate, patient-centered care. (Trigger warning: suicidality.)
A new JAMA Internal Medicine paper titled, Prevalence and Sources of Disability-Based Discrimination in a National Sample of Graduating Medical Students that includes our co-directors and team members as authors finds that 1 in 8 medical students with disabilities report discrimination, most often from clinical faculty and residents. Disability-based discrimination is not rare—it’s simply underacknowledged. The authors call on institutions to train faculty and residents, support disclosure, and create safe reporting systems.
A new publication in Academic Medicine including several of our team members titled, Perceptions of the learning environment among medical students with disabilities and the impact of program access demonstrates that MSWD perceive the learning environment less favorably than their non-disabled peers.
A new last page article in Academic Medicine including our co-director, titled, Creating Accessible Online Content for Health Professions Education, focuses on Strategies for supporting accessibility align with best practices for audiovisual and instructional design.
DWDI Programs
🌟 Coming in 2026: Access in Medicine (AIM) Summit
DWDI is thrilled to announce the 2026 Access in Medicine Summit, hosted in partnership with the AIM Program and the Disability Resource Professional Academy.
📍 Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, IL
🗓️ April 11–12, 2026
This two-day event gathering will welcome Disability Resource Professionals and Student Affairs leaders from around the country for an advanced training on the latest research findings and how they impact policy and practice in medical education. With an innovative format blending lightning panels, mini-didactics, role-play scenarios, and applied casework, participants will sharpen their skills, explore high-impact themes, and leave with actionable strategies to advance disability inclusion.
Some spots are still open, please email docswithdisabilitiesinitiative@gmail.com if you are interested in attending.
Podcast Updates
🎧 New Podcast Episode: Research & Resource Rounds Ep.19 titled, AMA Organizational Strategic Plan to Advance Health Equity
The episode examines how the AMA's 2024-2025 Organizational Strategic Plan to Advance Health Equity integrates disability consciousness into its vision for healthcare transformation.
🎧 New Podcast Episode: Research & Resource Rounds Ep. 20 titled, Addressing Ableism in Physician Well-Being Planning
In this episode, Dr. Michael Quon offers a powerful critique of the National Academy of Medicine’s workforce well-being plan—highlighting how structural ableism overlooks the needs of disabled physicians. He shares a vision for disability-inclusive physician wellness that centers long-term accommodations, equity, and the unique value of lived experience in patient care.
🎧 New Podcast Episode 108: Live from ICAM Halifax
DWDI is excited to share a new podcast episode recorded live at the AFMC International Congress on Academic Medicine (ICAM) 2025 in Halifax. This panel brings together residents, educators, and advocates—many with lived experience—to unpack ableism in medical education and model solutions.
Topics include diagnostic overshadowing, the hidden curriculum, structural policy change, and collective leadership in accessibility.
🎧 New Podcast Episode 109: Bilingual DRP Podcast
DWDI is proud to release our first bilingual (English–Spanish) podcast episode, featuring Jennifer Troya Biggers, M.Ed., Disability Resource Professional at UC Riverside and member of the Access in Medicine team. Jennifer reflects on her journey as a first-generation Honduran-Ecuadorian American, the importance of culturally responsive support, and breaking stigma around disability in the Latine community.
AHEAD 2025
AHEAD 2025 started with a celebration among many of our volunteers–the people who make up the heart of DWDI. We also had an amazing time serving as an exhibitor at the AHEAD Conference for the first time and enjoyed meeting so many colleagues from across the country who are advancing accessibility in higher education.
Our booth was buzzing with energy, and we were thrilled to share resources, answer questions, and learn from so many engaged attendees.
In addition, several DWDI team members presented sessions, contributing to the rich exchange of ideas and strategies for creating more inclusive learning environments. We left the conference inspired by the collaborations, conversations, and momentum—and grateful to everyone who joined us in moving this work forward.
Sessions presented:
Avoiding the Eject Button: Strategies for Leading in Disability Resources During Challenging Times — Grace Clifford, M.A.Ed.; Spencer Scruggs, M.S.
Determining and Implementing Clinical Accommodations — Matthew Sullivan, Ph.D.; Grace Clifford, M.A.Ed.; Kathleen Mullins, M.S.W.
Eight Years of Insights: Strengthening Peer Mentoring Through Data-Driven Strategies — Jennifer Biggers, M.Ed.
Holistic Approach for Disabled Learners in Health Science: Disability Professional and Learning Specialist Collaboration Poster Session — Ellen Kaplan, M.Ed.; Suzanne Hawks; Jessica Kench, M.S.; Chelsea Ross, M.F.A.
Lab and Practical Exams in Health Science Programs: Identifying Barriers and Determining Accommodations — Kara James, M.S., CRC; Matthew Sullivan, Ph.D.; Aggie McGrane.
Maintaining Student Privacy and Clarifying Need-to-Knows — Grace Clifford, M.A.Ed.; Matthew Sullivan, Ph.D.; Jamie Axelrod, M.S.
OCR Year in Review — Jamie Axelrod, M.S.; Paul Grossman, J.D.
Students at Risk of Self-Harm: Effective Strategies for Disability Professionals — Grace Clifford, M.A.Ed.; Ali Martin Scoufield, MS, MLS.
💬 Continuing the Conversation
The Docs With Disabilities Initiative site has been buzzing, and we’re thrilled to see our community growing! More people are visiting, exploring resources, and sharing them with colleagues—your engagement is what drives this movement forward.
There are many ways to stay connected with DWDI:
Share this newsletter with colleagues and networks to spread the word.
Join upcoming DREAM Research Rounds and webinars to engage in the latest conversations on equity and inclusion.
Follow us on social media to keep up with new resources, research, and opportunities to connect.
Every action helps extend our reach and strengthen the collective impact of this work. Thank you for being part of the community—and for continuing to champion accessibility and inclusion in health professions education.
For any questions reach out to us at docswithdisabilitiesinitiative@gmail.com
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