Addressing ableism in healthcare: integrating critical disability theory into health services research

There are limited frameworks for health services researchers to draw on that engage with critical disability theory while considering health services needs of disabled people, despite the quantity of research about disabled people. Research about people with disabilities without inclusion of their perspectives is directly in conflict with the disability rights movement and perpetuates inequity. One mean to include disabled perspectives in research is through disability theory engagement. Through this non-systematic critical review of existing literature, we position critical disability theory in the context of health services research and exemplify why this is a vital consideration when research investigates people with disabilities. We present four tenets of the theory: lived/living experience, intersectionality, structural violence, and ableism, and explore how these can contextualise disabled experiences of healthcare access. We demonstrate how to apply critical disability theory to the Levesque Framework, a commonly used health services access framework. By bridging the gap of critical disability theory inclusion in health services research, we help shift the needle towards improved disability engagement in research and healthcare access equity for people with disabilities.