Over 65 million U.S. adults live with a disability, meaning one in four patients has a disability, whether disclosed or not.

People with disabilities face multiple barriers to preventive care at individual, interpersonal, and systemic levels and are three times more likely to report unmet health care needs. On top of this, many U.S. health care professionals lack adequate training in disability-inclusive care.

Without adequate accommodation, a patient who uses a wheelchair may have no way of accessing a mammography machine; a patient who is deaf may not be able to communicate effectively with their provider about a mental health screening; a patient with an intellectual disability may not be able to complete intake paperwork in a noisy waiting room. These gaps in accessibility can lead to missed screenings, delayed diagnoses, and poorer health outcomes for people with disabilities.

That’s where the Screening for All initiative comes in.

Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD), the Screening for All initiative aims to address barriers people with disabilities face in accessing preventive health screenings. Developed by MCD Global Health, this initiative provides health care professionals with evidence-based tools and resources to make preventive health screenings accessible to all patients.

This work was guided by a technical advisory group composed of people with disabilities, caregivers, and family members. MCD and the group created and shared plain language presentations explaining the procedures for all 29 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) A and B grade screenings and gathered feedback from the group about barriers and recommended key supports for people with disabilities.

“Before I did this project, I would have loved to have the information that I know now,” Latisha Brown, a member of the technical advisory group, said. “These resources make it easier for us to find the screenings that we need and to understand the information that we are given about screenings. I learned the age when I’m supposed to get each screening and what accommodations I can ask for.”

• Health care professionals can find resources that will help them make their clinic inclusive to people with disabilities.
• Patients with disabilities can find resources that will help them successfully receive preventive health screenings.
• In addition, a vast online library filled with free resources is available.

On August 27, 2025, MCD staff, a member from the technical advisory group, and a preventive medicine physician held a free, CME-accredited webinar for health care professionals on how to make preventive health screenings more inclusive and accommodating for people with disabilities.

Watch the recording:

Making preventive screenings accessible for everyone makes health care better for everyone.

This program is supported by the U.S. CDC of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $499,809 with 100% funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.