Doctors urge revision of ‘Outdated, Ableist’ terms for disabled in physiotherapy curriculum

Claiming that the new curriculum handbook for physiotherapy uses “outdated” and “derogatory” terms for the disabled, doctors have urged the Chairperson of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) to align the curriculum with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2026 and the Human Rights Standards before its rollout in 2026.

The Doctors with Disabilities, a network of health professionals with disabilities, has alleged that despite the RPDA 2016 mandates and the WHO’s call for rights-based disability competencies in the 2022 Global Report, the Bachelors in Physiotherapy (BPT) Curriculum failed to incorporate disability as a human rights issue and it relied solely on the medical model, reducing disability to management and treatment, and omitted the core principles such as ableism, dignity, universal design, and reasonable accommodation.