A few weeks ago an advisory panel at the National Institutes of Health refused to designate people with disabilities as a “health disparity population.” In other words, they refused to recognize the myriad ways in which disabled people receive poorer medical services and have worse health outcomes than the majority of Americans. The disability community was outraged by this decision and mobilized to force the agency to recognize the truth.

AND THIS WEEK, the NIH reversed its position! Based on the input it received from disability activists, it now recognizes that people with disabilities “experience significant disparities in their rates of illness, morbidity, mortality and survival, driven by social disadvantage, compared to the health status of the general population.” Designation as a “health disparity population” opens the door for more funding and therefore more research on the problems faced by disabled people, for the recruitment of disabled researchers as well as disabled subjects in research projects, and for increased recognition of the rampant ableism that exists in the American medical system.