Neera R. Jain, MS, CRC

Dr. Neera Jain, PhD, MS, CRC is a disability studies in education researcher, a rehabilitation counselor, and a passionate advocate for disability inclusion in health science education based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Weaving together perspectives of students with disabilities and school officials, her recent dissertation, Negotiating the capability imperative: Enacting disability inclusion in medical education, explores the limits of an accommodation-focused approach to disability inclusion and imagines a transformational alternative that is inclusive by design.

Neera co-authored and co-edited Equal access for students with disabilities: The guide for health science and professional education, 2nd edition (Springer Publishing, 2020), and co-authored the AAMC special report, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Action in Medical Education: Lived Experiences of Learners and Physicians with Disabilities (2018). She is a board member for the Coalition for Disability Access in Health Science Education. Formerly, she led disability services for health science students at Columbia University and the University of California, San Francisco. In Aotearoa, Neera managed a free legal service run by and for disabled people: Auckland Disability Law. Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Critical Studies in Education, University of Auckland Faculty of Education and Social Work.