Inclusive Digital Health Strategies for Persons With Disabilities: A Scoping Review.

Abstract

Digital health technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), have transformed health care delivery and access to health care worldwide. However, persons with disabilities, including those with injuries and traumas, remain disproportionately excluded from these innovations. To synthesize worldwide evidence on disability inclusion and health equity in digital health technologies. This scoping review was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews and synthesized literature published between 2019 and 2025. Searches were conducted in MEDLINE and Web of Science, supplemented by gray literature searches. Only English-language sources that focused on digital health, pertained to persons with disabilities, and addressed health equity were included. Searches were last conducted in December 2024. Of 925 records identified, 836 were screened, 137 underwent full-text review, and 40 peer-reviewed articles were included, supplemented by 40 gray literature sources for a total of 80 included documents. Findings were structured around 5 themes: (1) factors enabling equitable access to digital health, such as accessibility by design, participatory codesign, and representative datasets; (2) key stakeholders, including persons with disabilities, caregivers, technology developers, researchers, and policymakers; (3) government-led initiatives across World Health Organization regions; (4) contextual factors, including cultural, social, and economic influences; and (5) emerging innovations, such as AI-powered assistive technologies and inclusive digital platforms. Participatory codesign and accessible design principles were consistently identified as enablers of equitable digital health. The findings of this scoping review suggest that achieving health equity requires researchers to prioritize disability-specific metrics, conduct rigorous evaluations, and engage in participatory research with persons with disabilities. Governments should adopt international accessibility standards, developers should engage end users as codesigners, health systems should train clinicians in inclusive digital health, and civil society should advocate for inclusion and monitor compliance.