Coronavirus pandemic presents risks for persons with disabilities around the world, Human Rights Watch said today. Governments should make extra efforts to protect the rights of persons with disabilities in responding to the pandemic.
“People with disabilities are among the world’s most marginalized and stigmatized even under normal circumstances,” said Jane Buchanan, deputy disability rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Without swift action by governments to include people with disabilities in their response to COVID-19, they will remain at serious risk of infection and death as the pandemic spreads.”
For others, having a disability does not by itself put them in at higher risk of infection, but they are in danger due to discrimination and barriers to information, social services, health care, social inclusion, and education.
In a rapidly evolving pandemic, information is essential for people to make decisions about how to protect themselves and how to access necessities and services during quarantine and self-isolation. Governments at all levels should be providing accurate, accessible, and timely information about the disease, prevention methods, and services.
Karen McCall, who is legally blind and is self-quarantining at her home in Ontario, Canada, said she faced obstacles in accessing information from Ontario’s Ministry of Health.
To ensure that people with disabilities are not deprived of lifesaving information, communication strategies should include qualified sign language interpretation for televised announcements, websites that are accessible to people with different disabilities, and telephone-based services that have text capabilities for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Communications should use plain language to maximize understanding.
Governments should take urgent steps to move people with disabilities (who can be moved safely) out of closed institutions and similar settings and stop new admissions. Children with disabilities in residential institutions should be reunited with families wherever possible.
Governments should provide adults with disabilities with social support and services to live in the community. Inside institutions, authorities should follow strict hygiene and physical distancing and should develop visitor policies that balance the protection of residents and staff with needs for family and connection.
