Over the past three decades, health equity has become a guiding framework for documenting, explaining, and informing the promotion of population health. With these developments, scholars have widened public health’s aperture, bringing systems of oppression sharply into focus. Additionally, some researchers in disability and health have advocated for utilizing socially grounded frameworks to investigate the health of disabled people. Yet, naming ableism, much less operationalizing it for the empirical study of health, remains scant. This paper critically reviews the study of ableism as a social determinant of disabled people’s health within population health research. First, we provide an orientation to the present state of this literature by looking to the past. We briefly trace a history of traditional approaches to studying disability and health and alternatives that have emerged from critiques of the individualized lens that has dominated this work. Next, we delineate the operation of ableism across social levels. We characterize how ableism has been studied in population health in terms of levels of analysis (intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural) and measures of interest. To conclude, we discuss hinderances to and promising avenues toward population health research that advances health equity for disabled people.

Mannor, K. M., & Needham, B. L. (2024). The study of ableism in population health: a critical review. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1383150.

In January of this year, the University awarded recent alum Salma Hamamy the MLK Spirit Award in recognition of her steadfast activism promoting Indigenous sovereignty and Palestinian liberation — activism that included calling for the University to divest from weapons manufacturers. The University also awarded the MLK Spirit Award to the student group Hamamy led as president, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality. Five months later, in May, Provost Laurie McCauley sent a letter to Hamamy’s personal home stating, “With the full support of the Board of Regents and President Ono, I am writing to notify you that your award has been revoked effective immediately,” based on an Instagram story post from her personal social media account. In the letter, Provost McCauley characterized Hamamy’s post as “inconsistent with the University’s values.” This letter was dated May 21, 2024 — the same day that campus police violently removed the University’s Gaza solidarity encampment from the Diag. Whether intentional or not, it planted the decision firmly within the context of a broader attempt to suppress the burgeoning anti-war student movement.