By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Disabled people have worse health outcomes than nondisabled people. A large part of this is because they receive lower quality healthcare. In fact, ableism and other forms of discrimination are very common within healthcare and produce health inequities for disabled people. For these reasons, in the study described... Read more »

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Structural ableism is when systems, like laws, policies, and social norms, are set up in ways that harm and/or exclude disabled people. These systems did not just appear recently but instead have developed over time and become “normal” because they are so ingrained, resulting in inequities for disabled... Read more »

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Experiencing discrimination from service providers negatively impacts disabled people’s outcomes. That’s one key reason why it’s important to know more abou...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) face many barriers when it comes to transportation. Unmet transportation needs can hinder comm...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) play a critically important role in promoting the community integration and quality of life of people with disabil...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Person-centered planning is a way to rethink how services and supports are delivered to ensure they focus on the wants and needs of the person with intellec...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Direct support professionals (DSPs) play a vital role in helping promote the health, safety, community integration, and quality of life of people with intel...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Disabled people visit the emergency department more often than nondisabled people. Visiting the emergency department more frequently can be a sign of unmet ...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research When we think about groups of people, we often think about the most ‘typical’ member of that group, called a prototype. For example, when asked to think abo...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research, & Laura VanPuymbrouck, Rush University Associate Professor Discrimination is a social determinant of health – a condition in the environments we live, work...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Health care professionals’ knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes contribute to the ways they provide services and supports to people with intellectual and devel...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) is a critical funding mechanism that helps people with disabilities receive the services and supports the...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research A lot of attention is paid to the fact that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are more likely to be fat[1] than people without disabilities and trying to reduce their weight. Professionals almost exclusively recommend changing diet and increasing exercise as the only intervention (Cobbaert &... Read more »

YouTube video by TheCQL

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Health care professionals can directly and indirectly impact the outcomes of disabled people. In fact, their biases can result in them providing lower quali...

Learn about the intersectionality of ableism and racism, including how attitudes affect disabled people in everyday life.

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Occupational therapy can play an important role in helping promote the independence and integration of people with disabilities, older adults, and others. U...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research Disabled people of color do not necessarily experience ableism the same way as white disabled people. Just like disabled people of color do not necessarily ...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research The concept intersectionality is a way to help us understand how different forms of oppression intersect and interact, impacting people with multiple margin...

In 2020, CQL created the Disability Research Mentorship Program for Black Graduate Students in recognition that academic/research job candidates are judged on their history of publications and present...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research A lot more research about autistic people has focused on diagnosis and biology than autistic people’s quality of life. In addition, a lot of research about ...

Self-direction is a service delivery method that allows people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to control the services they receive, often including where money is spent and to ...

By Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research It often feels like you can’t go anywhere without hearing about artificial intelligence (AI), including large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, these day...