Welcome to Healthcare Stories


Healthcare Stories is a video advocacy tool in DREDF’s ongoing campaign for healthcare justice for people with disabilities. We are deeply grateful to The Special Hope Foundation and The Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation for their visionary support of the project, which began collecting stories in 2011.


Elizabeth Grigsby

Elizabeth Grigsby

Luise Custer

Luise Custer

Charlie Tygiel

Charlie Tygiel

Denise Sherer Jacobson

Denise Sherer Jacobson


Our stories, dispatches from the front lines of health care, add an essential human dimension to a large body of research showing that people with disabilities experience both health and healthcare disparities and face specific, persistent barriers to care. We know firsthand that poor health care inevitably affects the quality and length of our lives as well as our productivity, autonomy and independence. Because we experience unequal healthcare every day, out of necessity we have become experts in what must be done to remove barriers and increase access to the care we need. We invite you to watch the videos, meet the people behind the stories, and learn what you can do to spark change.

Fred Nisen

Fred Nisen

Dr. Clarissa Kripke, Gordon Reetz, Susan Lee, and Aaron Reetz

Dr. Clarissa Kripke, Gordon Reetz, Susan Lee, and Aaron Reetz


Thank you to those of you who answered the call to share your stories.We hope your forthrightness will spark a long-overdue discussion about persistent barriers to care and how they can be eliminated.

The videos are downloadable. We invite disability and health advocates and others to use them to launch discussion and action on important solutions that will improve healthcare for people with disabilities.


The 2011 Interviews

Carol Gill

Carol Gill

Larry Voss

Larry Voss

Frances Deloatch

Frances Deloatch

Nick Ziemer

Nick Ziemer

Jennifer Thomas

Jennifer Thomas

Michael Ogg

Michael Ogg

Jim Lebrecht

Jim Lebrecht

Mary Delgado

Mary Delgado

Ruth Kahn

Ruth Kahn

Dianne Collins

Dianne Collins

Mary Smith

Mary Smith

Karen Schneiderman

Karen Schneiderman

Michael Grice

Michael Grice

Alice Wong

Alice Wong

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