President & Dean Alicia Ouellette's co-authored paper, "U.S. Medical Schools' Compliance With the Americans With Disabilities Act: Findings From a National Study," recently received the 2018 Best Research Paper Award at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine's (STFM) Annual Spring Conference.

The award recognized the best research paper—based on the quality of research and its impact—published by an STFM member in a peer-reviewed journal between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017. Lead author Philip Zazove, M.D., chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, accepted the award May 7 in Washington, D.C.

The paper, published by Academic Medicine in 2016, found that many medical schools across the country failed to provide reasonable accommodations for students and prospective students with disabilities. In the paper, the authors said their findings "illustrate a concerning state of affairs as we celebrate the ADA's 25^th anniversary." 

Their analysis of 173 medical schools, from 2012 to 2014, showed that:

• Technical standards policies required under the ADA were difficult (42 percent) or impossible (16 percent) to find on the majority of medical school websites. Twelve schools failed to respond to a request for technical standards.
• Of the medical schools with technical standards available, only 33 percent supported accommodating disabilities. Forty-nine percent had unclear policies, 4 percent were unsupportive, and 14 percent provided no information.
• Most schools—61 percent—did not say who was responsible for providing accommodations. Nine schools, about 6 percent, said it was a joint responsibility, and one school said it was the student's burden.
• Auxiliary aids—motorized scooters, for example—were explicitly permitted by about 40 percent of schools. Less than 10 percent allowed intermediaries like sign language interpreters.

Dean Ouellette's research focuses on health law, disability rights, family law, children's rights, and human reproduction. She has authored numerous articles in academic journals such as the American Journal of Law and Medicine, Hastings Center Report, American Journal of Bioethics, Hastings Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, and Oregon Law Review.

In 2017, Dean Ouellette published "Barriers to Physician Aid in Dying for People with Disabilities" in the international journal Laws. The prior year, she co-authored the aforementioned award-winning study on ADA compliance at medical schools in Academic Medicine as well as "Medical Schools' Willingness to Accommodate Medical Students with Sensory and Physical Disabilities: Ethical Foundations of a Functional Challenge to 'Organic' Technical Standards" in AMA Journal of Ethics. She is the author of the book Bioethics and Disability: Toward a Disability-Conscious Bioethics (Cambridge University Press 2011).

Dean Ouellette earned an A.B. at Hamilton College and a J.D. from Albany Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Albany Law Review.