Mid-physical, Jessica Lovejoy’s doctor stared at her for about twenty seconds. Confused by the silence, Lovejoy repeated herself. “I said I have spina bifida.” The silence continued. “It’s a spinal condition.”
“Ohhh,” the doctor said. “Spina… like spine…that makes sense.”
“Have you treated people with spina bifida before?” Lovejoy asked.
“Yes,” the doctor said, leading to another awkward stall. “Ok, I’ll be honest. No, no, I haven’t. Tell me about it.”
Lovejoy then explained to her doctor that spina bifida is a type of neural tube defect. This occurs during early pregnancy when the neural tube, which forms the spine and the spinal cord, fails to close completely. This condition can lead to physical and neurological complications, depending on the severity and location of the defect.
“Fascinating,” said the doctor. The doctor then explained that “you people,” presumably people with disabilities, did not get a lot of attention when he went to med school. Back then, he said, “they didn’t have all these modern advancements that would lead one to know what spina bifida is. Lucky for you, I think it’s a lot better now,” he concluded, before finishing the physical.
According to Squeaky Wheel research and reader testimony, medical school is actually not much better now. A 2025 study from Northwestern University on disability in medical education identified major shortfalls, including: omission from standard curriculum, framing disability as a problem within individuals and widespread discrimination against people with disabilities in medicine. Additionally, Squeaky-led surveys indicate that doctors don’t acknowledge a patient’s disability unless they came to their appointment with a T-shirt indicating the name of their disability, or were accompanied by a caretaker who could repeat everything they said verbatim so the doctor would pay attention.
Pro-disability students and teachers have pushed medical schools to address these shortfalls. However, school administrators have said, “there currently isn’t a broad enough supply of Adderall and cocaine amongst the student body to counteract out the effects of adding more material to the curriculum.”