Perception of disability as a barrier for Canadian medical students

Thank you for covering different angles on this important DIME issue. I have learned that there is nothing like a lived experience of disability, whether temporary or lifelong, to teach one about the realities of many peoples lives’ and how much society could do so much better in understanding and supporting and learning from people that live different lives than our own.That said, there are other ways to learn... including medical school admission criteria, curricula, structural and policy changes.

At the CFPC convocation last November of new family medicine graduates, I was really quite moved to see the much the diversity of family doctors has improved: at least by skin colour and presumed family origins through naming. However, I do not recall anybody with a visible disability cross that stage. And I wonder how much of a queer presence, rural/urban mix, Indigenous representation or socioceconomic diversity was reflected on that stage?

Those of us that advocate for DIME – diversity in medical education – must continue to do so and to work in solidarity, and as allies to one another at every level.