About WowDHEC

“Providers tend to see the condition, not the person –

labeling leads to inappropriate care.”

 

WowDHEC is a coalition of women with disabilities and health care professionals who want to make sure that women with disabilities have equal access to health, and that health promotion programs are meaningful.

 

WowDHEC is focused upon changing the paradigm.  Before-- having a disability meant being “broken” or ill.  We want to change that way of thinking!  We think it’s okay to be disabled. And we think that we can be disabled and be healthy at the same time.  We think that disability pride and culture is important.

 

We think it’s important to look at health from a bigger picture—and not make it only about our disability.  For example, disabled people who don’t have a lot of money (poverty) may not be able to afford the more expensive fruits and vegetables.

 

We have three workgroups to help improve our health:

 

1.  Community Education -We need to believe that we can control our own lives, and that we can make decisions on what’s best for us. 

 

2.  Provider Education -We think that we need to improve the awareness and training of health care providers so that they don’t focus only on our disability, but also make sure we get the same health care that other people get.

 

3.  Policy - We also think that we need to work in the community to help make policy changes.  For example, we know that it’s important to get enough physical exercise.  What stops us from doing that?  For some people it may be not having an accessible gym.  Working together, we can address that problem.