ADA National Network Learning Session: Health Equity and Disability: Impacts of Unconscious Bias and Diagnostic Overshadowing

27th April, 2023

While everyone has unconscious biases as a result of our own experiences and histories, biases towards individuals with disabilities can result in inequitable healthcare and poorer health outcomes for these patients. Diagnostic overshadowing is rooted in unconscious bias and occurs when new symptoms are attributed to pre-existing conditions. This can cause misdiagnosis, delayed or unnecessary treatments, and/or poor health outcomes. This presentation will review a variety of case study examples of the impact of biases and diagnostic overshadowing on patients with disabilities, how patient biases may impact healthcare outcomes, and strategies to address and overcome biases in healthcare.

Learning objectives:

• Describe the impacts of biases and diagnostic overshadowing on healthcare outcomes for patients with disabilities.
• Understand the impacts of potential patient biases on the healthcare experience.
• Describe strategies and steps to mitigate biases and diagnostic overshadowing in healthcare.

Presenter:

Holly Darnell, MS OTR/L, ADAC, is an ADA Coordinator with UCHealth in Colorado. Her role is focused on accessibility, healthcare access and equity for patients and visitors with disabilities at outpatient medical clinics.

Session Handouts

• Health Equity and Disability (pptx)
• Health Equity and Disability(rtf)
• Health Equity and Disability(pdf)
• Health Equity and Disability 2 slides per page(pdf)


• Transcript 04-27-23(pdf)
• Transcript 04-27-23(rtf)
• Archived Session Recordings