Advancing Health Equity for People with Disabilities: A Mixed-Methods Study on Healthcare Accessibility for Service Dog Handlers. - People with disabilities who rely on service dogs face significant challenges in healthcare settings, where many providers lack the training or knowledge to accommodate these essential partners. This often results in barriers to care and a disregard for patients' needs. This goal of this project is to address these health equity challenges by examining the healthcare disparities faced by service dog handlers. It will be the first to examine how healthcare accessibility impacts the healthcare utilization of service dog handlers and identify strategies to improve healthcare access. Using a mixed-methods, community-engaged research approach over 3years, this project will collect insights from both healthcare providers and service dog handlers towards the following objectives: 1) assess the current state of healthcare accessibility, 2) examine the relationship between accessibility and healthcare utilization and 3) determine the necessary steps to improve healthcare accessibility. This is a disability-led and community engaged research project with an emphasis on amplifying the lived experiences and voices of people with disabilities. Anticipated outcomes include: 1) engaging and empowering individuals with disabilities at every stage of the research, 2) generating new knowledge aimed at improving the health and function of people with disabilities, 3) addressing a critical gap in research on healthcare accessibility for service dog handlers, and 4) creating and disseminating evidence-based resources to guide researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in enhancing healthcare access for service dog handlers. These efforts aim to contribute to the larger goal of minimizing health inequities for people with disabilities. The products of this project include at least 3 evidence-based resources, 4 national conference presentations, and 2 peer-reviewed manuscripts.
