Equitable inclusion of people with disabilities in clinical trials: a scoping review
Disability-inclusive clinical trials are essential to ensure the validity of clinical trial results, uphold ethical responsibilities and advance health equity. While emerging frameworks offer direction on how to include people with disabilities in trials, current implementation remains inconsistent and largely voluntary. Clear, enforceable standards are needed to support governments, ethics boards, institutions and funders in making clinical trials more disability-inclusive.
Authors
- Darryl Barrett
- Varshini Varadaraj (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2060-1316)
- Lori Rosman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6935-1672)
- Caroline Cerilli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0892-2515)
- Bonnielin K. Swenor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6044-0951)
- Kaloyan Kamenov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4355-6186)
- Grace Jo
- Franz Castro
Institutions
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- World Health Organization (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- BMJ Open
- Published
- 2026-02-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2025-108550
- Primary Topic
- Down syndrome and intellectual disability research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00