Enabling our instruments: Accommodation, universal design, and access to participation in research

The objective of this article is to discuss problems related to full partic ipation of people with disabilities in health services and health outcomes research. To show the problems and to suggest solutions, we offer examples from personal research experiences (ours and colleagues'), as well as from published literature, requirements of research agencies, web and news sourc es, and research participants' feedback. A combination of formal and inform al processes can be used to enable future instruments and methods. There ar e ethical, legal, and methodologic imperatives for research participation e nablement.