Episode 105: Repairing the System: How Do We Create Safe Environments?

Part 3: Creating the Conditions for Disclosure What makes disability disclosure feel safe, supported, and meaningful in healthcare? In the final episode of the Disclosureseries, we move beyond the barriers to examine the conditions that allow disclosure to lead to access, trust, and belonging. Through the perspectives of medical students, physician assistant students, fellows, physicians, and educators, this episode explores how institutional systems, responsive accommodations, inclusive leadership, and everyday acts of advocacy shape disclosure experiences across medical training and practice. Contributors reflect on the importance of flexible accommodation processes, proactive communication, faculty and peer support, and the role of community in fostering psychological safety. Together, these stories demonstrate that while policies create opportunities for access, people create the conditions for trust—and that building environments where disabled learners and clinicians can thrive ultimately strengthens healthcare for everyone. Featured Contributors Anonymous Physician Assistant Student Khaja Siddiqui Anonymous Medical Student Anonymous Fellow Dr. Andrea Lendaris Dr. Karla Castro-Frenzel Transcript https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vgn-NGI52buG-xXUxIOCBMhd3oM6Jyz-9W0KDP-KwG0/edit?usp=sharing Keywords Disability disclosure Disability accommodations Medical education Clinical accommodations Medical students with disabilities Residents with disabilities Healthcare workplace culture Psychological safety Faculty advocacy Inclusive leadership Accessibility in medicine Physicians with disabilities Health professions education Disability inclusion Healthcare culture Community and belonging Identity safety Production Team Developer, Writer, Executive Producer: Sofia Schlozman Co-Producers: Rylee Betchkal and Lisa Meeks Co-Producer, Sound Selection and Editing: Gabe Abrams Sound Production: Next Day Podcast Digital Media: Katie Sullivan

Series Description Disclosure is a three-part podcast series from the Docs with Disabilities Podcast that examines one of the most personal and consequential decisions disabled healthcare providers make: whether, when, and how to disclose a disability. Through the voices of medical students, residents, practicing physicians, psychologists, nurses, researchers, legal scholars, and disability advocates, the series explores disclosure as an ongoing process shaped by identity, institutional culture, ableism, and power. Blending lived experience with research and policy, the series challenges assumptions about disability in healthcare while illuminating pathways toward more inclusive learning, training, and practice environments. Part 2: Medical Culture, Stigma, and What Prevents Disclosure Why does disability disclosure feel so difficult—and for many, unsafe—in healthcare? In the second episode of the Disclosure series, we move beyond individual disclosure decisions to examine the culture of medicine itself. Through the perspectives of physicians, researchers, allied health professionals, disability scholars, and trainees, this episode explores how the hidden curriculum, stigma, institutional practices, and everyday interactions shape whether disabled healthcare professionals feel they belong. Contributors reflect on the burdens of seeking accommodations, the impact of ableist assumptions, the complexities of partial disclosure, and the ways colleagues, mentors, and institutional norms influence identity safety. Together, these stories reveal that disclosure is never simply an individual choice—it is a reflection of the culture in which it occurs and a catalyst for reimagining a more inclusive future for healthcare. Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/103BYwMaTCBRYJB7IZU3UHfp6zMPIvBVF/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=104315301750264632478&rtpof=true&sd=true

Series Description Disclosure is a three-part podcast series from the Docs with Disabilities Podcast that examines one of the most personal and consequential decisions disabled healthcare providers make: whether, when, and how to disclose a disability. Through the voices of medical students, residents, practicing physicians, psychologists, nurses, researchers, legal scholars, and disability advocates, the series explores disclosure as an ongoing process shaped by identity, institutional culture, ableism, and power. Blending lived experience with research and policy, the series challenges assumptions about disability in healthcare while illuminating pathways toward more inclusive learning, training, and practice environments. Part 1: The Decision to Disclose What does it really mean to disclose a disability in healthcare? In the first episode of the Disclosure series, healthcare providers across the continuum—from students and trainees to practicing clinicians—share the personal, professional, and institutional factors that shape disclosure decisions. Drawing on stories from medical students, residents, physicians, researchers, disability scholars, and legal experts, the episode explores disclosure as more than a pathway to accommodations—it can be an act of identity, advocacy, community-building, and resistance. At the same time, contributors examine the risks of stigma, discrimination, and institutional betrayal that continue to make disclosure a deeply complex and often uncertain decision. Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IWxZcow_B9hSIGpvozadJ5pov4-Qmq97/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=104315301750264632478&rtpof=true&sd=true Keywords: Disability disclosure Medical education Physicians with disabilities Medical students with disabilities Disability accommodations Ableism Disability inclusion Healthcare trainees Stigma Health professions education Production Team: Developer, Writer, Executive Producer: Sofia Schozman Co Producers: Rylee Betchkal and Lisa Meeks Co-Producer, Sound Selection and Editing: Gabe Abrams Sound Production: Next Day Podcast Digital Media: Katie Sullivan

From Evidence to Action: Incorporating Disability Inclusion in Medical Training and Practice (ICAM 2026) Session Description The ICAM Series | Recorded Live at the International Congress on Academic Medicine (ICAM) What does it take to move disability inclusion from research and policy into everyday medical training and practice? Recorded live at the International Congress on Academic Medicine (ICAM) in Ottawa, Canada, this special episode of the Docs With Disabilities Podcast brings together an extraordinary panel of physician leaders, educators, and advocates working to transform disability inclusion across undergraduate medical education, residency training, and clinical practice. Together, the panel explores how institutions can move beyond awareness and compliance toward meaningful, sustainable change. Drawing from scholarship, systems leadership, and lived experience, they discuss the realities of accommodation implementation, the importance of centralized and trusted systems, faculty training, universal design, and the role of culture in shaping whether disability inclusion succeeds or stalls. This conversation asks difficult—but necessary—questions: How do we create systems that are consistent and humane? How do we support learners and physicians across transitions and career stages? And how do we build medical environments where disability is expected, planned for, and valued? Rich with practical insight and grounded in real-world experience, this live ICAM session highlights a field at an important turning point—one where we increasingly have the evidence, the tools, and the responsibility to act. Whether you are a learner, educator, physician, administrator, or institutional leader, this episode offers concrete ideas and inspiration for advancing disability inclusion within your own environment. Keywords: UGME, PGME, Disability, Learner, Trainee, Medical Education, Policies, Processes, Ableism, Culture, ICAM, AFMC, Docs With Disabilities. Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18hNrBcylnDfSuT6hJB-RwFMpIBVzEPY21Qf4y0mU0WY/edit?usp=sharing Co-Moderators Lisa Meeks, PhD, MA Dr. Meeks is a Professor of Medical Education at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago, IL and holds an appt as an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan School of Medicine in Ann Arbor, MI. She is the founder of the Docs with Disabilities Initiative and host of the DWDI Podcast. Lynn Ashdown, MD, MMEd Lynn Ashdown is a patient experience expert who advocates for patients to be included as stakeholders in all levels of healthcare. She has a medical degree, and was close to finishing her residency in family medicine when she began, and continues to navigate, a complex journey as a full-time patient. She has a masters degree in medical education, and presents, participates in research, and is a senior patient partner consulting with various organizations like the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. She's involved in curriculum reform focusing on patient partnerships and is a disability educator within medicine. Lynn is a disability advocate, drawing from her experiences as a patient and person living with multiple disabilities. She's a board member of the Canadian Association of Physicians with Disabilities and is involved with policy and legislative changes to combat ableism and inequities for people living with disabilities. She co-authored Canada's first position statement on the importance of disability inclusion in medical education, and received the 2024 CMA Dr. Ashok Muzumdar Memorial Award for Physicians with Disabilities. Pam Liao, MD, MEd, FRCPC Dr. Liao is the Inaugural Interim Associate Dean Accessibility and Disability Health at the Toronto Metropolitan University School of Medicine. Here, she previously served as the Disability Health Lead and Special Advisor to the Dean at the Toronto Metropolitan University School of Medicine. In her work, she l

Interviewees: Neera Jain, PhD — Senior Lecturer, Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education, Waipapa Taumata Rau, The University of Auckland Hannah Kakara Anderson, PhD, MBA — Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania Abigail (Abby) Konoposky, PhD— Director of Medical Education Research, Department of Psychiatry, Northwell Interviewer: Lisa Meeks, PhD, MA — Professor of Medical Education, The University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago; Host, the Docs With Disabilities Podcast Description: In this episode of Stories Behind the Science, we sit down with Drs. Hannah Kakar Anderson, Abby Konoposky, and Neera Jain to discuss a paper that confronts some of the most painful and persistent realities in medical education: The Call Is Coming from Inside the House. Together, they explore how racism and ableism intersect in the experiences of racially minoritized medical learners with disabilities—and why traditional conversations about diversity and inclusion often fail to capture these realities. Using disability critical race theory (DisCrit), narrative inquiry, and counter-storytelling, the authors illuminate what participants described as a haunted "house of medicine"—a space marked by exclusion, surveillance, distorted reflections of self, and support systems that too often become sources of harm rather than protection. Through powerful metaphors drawn from horror—No Trespassing, Hall of Mirrors, and The Call Coming from Inside the House—the conversation examines how institutional structures and well-intentioned actors alike can perpetuate systems that marginalize learners. But this episode is not simply about oppression. It is equally a conversation about resistance, agency, and survival. Grounded in Caitlin Seida's poem Hope Is Not a Bird, Emily, It's a Sewer Rat, the authors reflect on the fierce and complicated hope carried by learners who persist despite environments that were never designed with them in mind. Their stories are not one-dimensional accounts of struggle—they are acts of testimony, community building, and imagination for a different future. The discussion reviews: How racism and ableism operate as intertwined forces within medical education. Why horror became a powerful analytic metaphor for understanding participants' experiences. What it means to be simultaneously hyper-visible and invisible in training environments. How institutional actors may unintentionally reproduce harmful systems—and what it means to recognize "the call" within ourselves. Why the authors resisted easy solutions and instead invite educators to sit with discomfort before rushing to reform. How participants' stories function as "apocalyptic logs" and acts of "leaving evidence" for future learners and institutions. Dr. Anderson brings a clinician-educator's perspective and deep commitment to educational equity, reflecting on disability as both a personal and professional identity. Abby Konoposky offers a linguist's and educational psychologist's lens, unpacking agency, metaphor, and the power of story to challenge dominant narratives. Dr. Jain contributes expertise in ableism, disability studies, and anti-ableist practice, connecting participants' experiences to broader histories of disability rights and racial justice. Together, they invite listeners not only to understand these stories—but to reckon with what they reveal about medicine itself. This episode asks us to imagine what medicine might become if we listened more closely to the people who have long been navigating its haunted spaces—and if we allowed their stories to reshape the house itself. Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dWbGNYB_pzptoEUDSKiS7bOr3DHEOGwqundz90i4fVk/edit?usp=sharing Bios: Hannah Kakara Anderson, PhD, MBA, is an Instructor of Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. Her work focuses on educational equi