Changing How Healthcare Is Taught
ABC3: Action to Build Clinical Confidence and Culture
People with IDD and and healthcare experts working together to enact strategies across the country that better prepare doctors and clinicians to provide care for people with IDD.
Changing How Clinicians are Trained to Treat People with IDD
The goal of the Action to Build Clinical Confidence and Culture (ABC3) Coalition is to change healthcare education, licensing requirements, and accreditation standards for clinicians so that doctors and clinicians are better prepared to serve people with IDD.
The ABC3 coalition includes:
--people with IDD
--care partners and caregivers
--doctors/clinicians
and leaders from:
--Professional medical societies
--Disability organizations
--Healthcare education groups and
--Accrediting bodies for healthcare.
Together, they:
--create campaigns and programs
--develop materials and
--gather resources.
The goal is to significantly change the healthcare culture and improve clinicians' knowledge and skills in caring for people with IDD on a large scale.
- 1 in 20 Americans have IDD
- less than 1 per 100,000: the number of pediatricians currently certified in treating children with IDD and other developmental conditions
- 3x: how much more likely a person with IDD is to be denied healthcare than a person without IDD
- 60%: the percentage of doctors who feel unprepared to provide good care to people with disabilities
Why This Matters
Most people with IDD rely on general healthcare providers, not specialized centers. Many have chronic conditions requiring more frequent care.
However, medical training lacks requirements to teach about IDD, despite 1 in 20 Americans having an intellectual or developmental disability. Healthcare workers across roles and career stages lack proper preparation for caring for patients with IDD.
Since doctors receive very little training on caring for people with disabilities, it's not surprising that nearly 2 out of 3 doctors say they feel unprepared to provide good care to people with disabilities.
Doctors and clinicians are essential for everyone's healthcare. Lack of training and confidence in caring for people with IDD leads to extra barriers, lower-quality care, and less preventative services for this population.
This results in unnecessary health issues and preventable deaths for people with IDD compared to the general population.
ABC3 Highlights
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2021
Established coalition of 18 members, including:
--American Academy of Pediatrics
--Association of American Medical Colleges
--American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry
--and others.
2022-23
Identified what motivates healthcare providers to give equal and fair care.
Showed the journey providers go through from initially having limited understanding of IDD, to becoming ready and prepared to provide quality care for people with IDD.
2022-23
Held focus groups with 87 doctors and other healthcare providers who were either still in training or already practicing.
2024
Launched the National Roadmap for Disability-Inclusive Healthcare. The Roadmap is a plan to help healthcare providers learn how to give the best possible healthcare to people with IDD. It has clear goals and practical actions for five groups that play a major role in how doctors are trained and educated.
2024
Partnered with Ability Central to improve healthcare visits for people with communication challenges.
The National Roadmap for Disability-Inclusive Healthcare
Everyone deserves high-quality healthcare. That’s why we developed the National Roadmap for Disability-Inclusive Healthcare, a plan for clinicians to learn how to provide the best healthcare possible to people with IDD.
Steering Group Members
The ABC3 Steering Group includes people with IDD, their care partners, doctors, and other healthcare leaders. This diverse group works together based on listening to the real-life experiences of people with IDD and healthcare professionals. They use these perspectives to create practical solutions to improve healthcare.
Click on each to expand
Project Lead
- Lauren Erickson, Director of Policy and Programs, IEC
Steering Group Members
- Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
- American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Academy of Physician Associates
- American Association of Colleges of Nursing
- American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
- American College of Physicians
- American Dental Education Association
- Association of American Medical Colleges
- Autistic Doctors International
- BJ Stasio, Self-Advocate
- Developmental Disabilities Nurses Association
- ECHO Autism
- IntellectAbility
- Sherri Eldin, host, creator, & co-producer of the Annals of Family Medicine Podcast and self-advocate
- Tyler Urias, self-advocate
IEC is grateful for the following funders, whose support makes ABC3 possible:



Related Work
TOOL: National Roadmap for Disability-Inclusive Healthcare
The Roadmap is a plan for clinicians to learn how to provide the best healthcare possible to people with IDD.
Video: National Roadmap Explainer
This video provides a brief overview of why a National Roadmap is necessary and previews the clear goals and commonsense actions it sets out to achieve.
Webinar: Using the National Roadmap for Action
IEC hosts a webinar with clinician and self-advocate steering group members on putting the National Roadmap into action.
Making Healthcare Better and Safer for People with IDD
IEC works with people who have personal experience living with IDD and healthcare professionals. Together, they create new programs focused on patients' needs to change how healthcare is taught, provided, and paid for.