Disabled occupational therapists – asset, liability … or ‘watering down’ the profession?

Abstract

Activists and academics advocate the involvement of disabled people in the education and training of health professionals and it has also been argued that the professions would benefit from including disabled healthcare professionals within their ranks. With increased numbers of disabled people entering all areas of higher education, it is likely that the numbers of disabled healthcare professionals will grow. This paper describes a small-scale study of the experiences of disabled occupational therapists who were asked to recount their journeys and to provide first-hand accounts of the reality of being a disabled health professional. The findings suggest that there is further work to be done before the profession benefits fully from the inclusion of disabled therapists, and the paper concludes by giving possible explanations and making recommendations to help facilitate this inclusion.

Keywords:

• disability
• occupational therapy
• experiences
• barriers

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Kathy Boxall and the anonymous reviewers for their feedback on this paper.

Notes

1. See www.invo.org.uk.

2. See www.gov.uk/access-to-work/overview.