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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Medical students with disabilities constitute 7.6% of allopathic (MD) and 4.3% of osteopathic (DO) programs, and they are entitled to reasonable accommodation, per the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, research has demonstrated that disabled medical students often encounter barriers when accessing accommodations. In response to these barriers, Medical Students with Chronic Illness and Disability (MSDCI) National created the MSDCI Guide to Accessing Disability Accommodations During Undergraduate Medical Education (the Guide). We conducted a program evaluation to evaluate the efficacy of the Guide as a resource to the members of MSDCI, a program evaluation was conducted. A Qualtrics survey was distributed though the MSDCI listserv, and 29 complete responses were received. Responses were analyzed with descriptive statistics. All respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I would recommend this guide to other medical students with disability and/or chronic illness.” The sections rated “most useful” were “Accessing USMLE Accommodations” and “Understanding Materials for Accommodation.” The section rated “least useful” was “Accessing CASPer Accommodations.” Freeform comments highlighted a need for greater inclusion of DO-specific topics, and a more detailed explanation of the rights of disabled medical students. This feedback demonstrates that the Guide is a good resource for the disabled and chronically ill medical students in the MSDCI community. Future editions of the Guide will include more DO-related topics and exclude pre-medical topics.

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