Dr Amy Kavanagh, a visually impaired writer and activist has raised concerns that a society without disabled people risks being the new normal in her Huffington Post article Lockdown Might Be Easing But Not For Disabled People Like Me.
Amy explains that she is visually impaired and uses “a long white cane to navigate the world, and I can’t see two metres in front of me.”
As lockdown eases and society comes to terms with societal norms that Coronavirus has initiated in shops, on public transport and shared public spaces, questions about the barriers disabled people face are being raised, but rarely answered. As a result, Amy says “it will be a long time until I’ll be truly independent again.”
Disabled people have faced many problems during lockdown, an issue highlighted by a recent report from the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers which found that disabled people have been disproportionately struggling with lockdown.
However, as lockdown eases and disabled people attempt to return to work, travel in public and spend time outside, the barriers they face may feel insurmountable.
For example, visually impaired people may struggle to see floor markers now common in shops, or be able to properly gauge the required two meter distance between themselves and other members of the public.
Wheelchair users who require assistance when getting on or off public transport may worry about how close the people assisting them are required to be. These are just a couple of the potential barriers to disabled people properly being able to live independently as lockdown eases.
Addressing concerns such as these Amy writes “there seems to be an assumption that disabled people just stay at home anyway, that we don’t have lives, children, jobs, friends, a favourite pub or a community that we want to be part of. Reframing disabled people as “vulnerable” feels like we’re being sent back to the last century, as a childlike group in need of protection and dependent on others rather than being autonomous adults.”
The article ends with Amy asking that “you challenge these barriers when you encounter them, invite disabled people into the conversation in your workplace or community and find a solution together. Otherwise, the new normal risks being a society without disabled people.”
Dr Amy Kavanagh is currently the Landlady of The Staying Inn, an online pub for isolated disabled & non disabled people to connect during COVID-19.
