Anti-ableist oncology care: ensuring equity for people with physical disabilities

The lack of clarity regarding the management of patients with physical disabilities is a complicated issue that spans the continuum of cancer care, including prevention, screening, treatment decision making, and survivorship. This issue entrenches ableism and puts this population at risk for care rationing and non-standard treatment. Ableism, broadly defined, is discrimination towards people with disabilities, including use of language that excludes the unique needs and skills of people with disabilities, normalises people with typical abilities, and suggests that those with disabilities require so-called fixing.1