The Sunday Mail
Disability Issues
Dr Christine Peta
THE International Day of Persons with Disabilities is a United Nations-led day of recognition which takes place every year on December 3.
As we commemorate the day this year under the theme, “Leadership and Participation of Persons with Disabilities towards an Inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable post-Covid-19 World”, we take this opportunity to share the lessons we have learnt with regards to the impact of Covid-19 on persons with disabilities.
Disability in itself does not put someone at higher risk of being infected with Covid-19, but some persons with disabilities may experience difficulties in relation to adhering to the World Health Organisation guidelines that reduce vulnerability to infection.
Hence, a blanket approach of preventing and addressing Covid-19 may result in persons with disabilities being at higher risk of infection.
In this article, I share some of the key challenges that we have identified with regards to the intersection of Covid-19 and disability and offer recommendations for promoting the leadership and participation of persons with disabilities and their families within Covid-19 and post Covid-19 contexts.
Hygiene and personal protective equipment
Non-transparent face masks create barriers to communication particularly for some deaf persons who rely heavily on lip-reading for communication with others.
Some persons with disabilities experience difficulties in undertaking daily living activities, such as eating, bathing, using the toilet, dressing and wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), hence they require close and constant support, thus defeating the practice and purpose of social distancing.
Some types of disabilities cause some persons to chew their face masks or to drool, thus constantly wetting their face masks with saliva.
Seeking balance by touching surfaces when moving around buildings increases exposure to Covid-19 infection of some persons with disabilities including blind persons.
Compared to their non-disabled counterparts, persons with disabilities may need larger quantities of sanitisers as they also have to sanitise their assistive devices.
Not all types of sanitisers are appropriate for all people, some sanitisers may cause serious skin problems for persons with albinism.
Access to information
and support
Covid-19 information is generally provided on most media platforms, but in formats that are inaccessible to persons with disabilities, thus compromising their adherence to safety protocols.
Lack of sign language or sub-titles for example on television renders the information inaccessible to deaf persons.
In most cases, Covid-19 information reaches persons with disabilities much later on, after it has reached everyone else, due to barriers that exist in communication modes.
Some officials who enforce Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in some countries lack knowledge of disability issues, hence they may either ignore, beat or chase away persons with mental disabilities when they find them loitering during curfew hours.
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH)
Covid-19 lockdown restrictions increase the vulnerability of women and girls with disabilities to SGBV due to prolonged stay with family and community members and caregivers who in themselves may turn out to be perpetrators.
Lockdown restrictions make it difficult for persons with disabilities to report SGBV — police in many countries may take longer to respond and delays in court hearings may be experienced due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions — persons with intellectual disabilities may then find it difficult to remember and recount what happened.
Covid-19 lockdown restrictions bring about limited access to SRH services by persons with disabilities, including access to sanitary ware, contraceptives, and SRH information in appropriate formats that include Braille for blind persons and Sign Language for deaf persons.
Access to humanitarian assistance
Some persons with physical or multiple disabilities, experience challenges in standing for long periods of time to access donations of vital food items.
Exposure of persons with albinism to direct sunlight while they queue for long periods of time for food aid or other donations increases their vulnerability to skin cancer and eye-sight problems.
Access to education
The temporary closure of schools due to Covid-19 has resulted in authorities offering radio lessons, but some learners may find it difficult to access such lessons, for example, deaf learners or some learners with mental disabilities.
Radio frequency coverage does not cover all four corners of the country and some families cannot afford online learning due to the prohibitive cost of the internet and the required equipment.
Isolation from school and lack of interaction with peers may cause mental stress and additional mental health problems for children with mental disabilities.
Access to healthcare
Amid Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, some persons with disabilities, for example, persons with mental disabilities and their family members, may struggle to reach health care centres to access their medical drugs — they may therefore experience higher levels of mental relapses, which may cause additional problems such as violence within families.
So what do we do?
If we facilitate and hear the voice of persons with disabilities, who are masters of their own experiences, we will be able to evaluate our current structures to determine the extent to which they are able to perform in the complex environment that has been created by the Covid-19 pandemic and take the necessary action.
We need to realise that disability inclusion is a necessary part of international development, hence we all need to support its growth.
The reality is that the restrictions that have been necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, have in many ways closed the windows of disability inclusion.
The risk is that we may forget to open the windows after the pandemic is gone.
Thus in line with the 2021 theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, there is a need for all of us to promote the leadership and participation of persons with disabilities in research, policy and programming if we are to achieve an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-Covid-19 world.
Dr Christine Peta is a disability, policy, international development and research expert who is the national director of disability affairs in Zimbabwe. She can be contacted on: [email protected]
