The current pandemic has put a focus on previously established and recognized inequalities in society. However, while COVID-19 is extremely complex and affects almost everyone in the country, it is simultaneously is having a greater impact, and in more specific ways, for those individuals with disabilities.
According to an article published by Forbes, those who are disabled and chronically ill, “…are generally at higher risk from COVID-19, both medically and from an array of practical barriers and institutionalization. [Many] disabled people live in nursing homes, group homes, and other centralized “facilities” where isolation is nearly impossible. Not only are they forced to live with not just one or two, but five, ten, a dozen, or hundreds of other people, with few ways to maintain the required physical distance. On top of that, they are cared for not by just one, two, or three aides, but by a rotating group of dozens or scores of staff, all exposed to dozens of other patients, with the attendant potential for exponential spread of any infection.”