Pocket worthyStories to fuel your mind

‘We Cannot Afford to Ignore Disabled Voices:’ Changing the Way We Talk About Covid

Disability rights activist and author Emily Ladau argues that ableist language holds us back from not only having more productive conversations about Covid, but developing more effective policies to confront the pandemic.

Emily Ladau

Read when you’ve got time to spare.

Two years into the coronavirus pandemic, many people living with disabilities continue to feel that their heightened risk from the virus is often overlooked and discounted, amid raging debates about the desire to “get back to normal.” When glimmers of hope do arise, from vaccination accessibility to increased testing supply, continuing inequities leave many in the disability community unable to take advantage. (Increased at-home covid testing? The top tests in the market aren’t helpful for the visually impaired.)

For Emily Ladau, author of Demystifying Disability, an NPR and Booklist editors’ pick for 2021, silence around these challenges speaks volumes. “Disabled people have been sounding the alarm since the earliest days of the pandemic about the immense risks and about our fears of being left behind,” Ladau says. “Listening to and amplifying perspectives from the disability community has never been more urgent. We cannot afford to ignore disabled voices any longer. Far too many lives have been lost; far too many are at stake.”

Read on for her curated list of some of the most crucial journalism on how tangibly these oversights affect people whose lives have already been disproportionately upended by Covid, as well as tips for improving your understanding of ableism and the huge and diverse disability community.

Image by Malte Mueller/Getty Images

As a Disabled Person, I’m Afraid I May Not Be Deemed Worth Saving From the Coronavirus

Emily Ladau: “It feels like I wrote this either a million years ago or yesterday. Unfortunately, all of it still rings true. Going into year three of this pandemic, disabled people are still in a position where we need to convince the world that our lives are worth living.”

I’m Disabled and Need a Ventilator to Live. Am I Expendable During This Pandemic?

EL: “This article is an absolute mic drop, filled with painful truths about the ways our society has historically devalued disabled people.”

One Man’s COVID-19 Death Raises the Worst Fears of Many People With Disabilities

EL: “Assumptions about how disabilities impact a person’s quality of life can become a slippery slope when it comes to healthcare decisions.”

Voices From the Spectrum: Autistic People Deal With the Coronavirus

EL: “There are over one billion disabled people around the globe, and while we share in many of the same basic fights for access and equity, our experiences are not all the same. This article offers a specific look at some of the ways the pandemic is affecting autistic people.”

The COVID-19 Pandemic Makes it Clear: It’s Time to Permanently Close Institutions

EL: “The pandemic has laid bare the urgency of hastening the shift away from institutionalization and focusing on funding and expanding home and community based services. Disabled people have a right to live safely, freely, and fully in their communities.”

As Hospitals Fear Being Overwhelmed By COVID-19, Do The Disabled Get The Same Access?

EL: “To bluntly answer the question this headline poses: No, we so often don’t. The pandemic continues to have lasting repercussions for disabled people seeking access to care, both for COVID-19 and other conditions.”

Disabled Community ‘Left Behind’ in Vaccine Rollout One Year Later

EL: “Vaccination inequities hit the disability community—especially multi-marginalized disabled people—particularly hard.”

People With Long Covid Are Risking Their Health Going Back to the Office

EL: “Disabled and chronically ill people have been constantly sharing an important reminder: We need to recognize that long COVID is real, and that it’s vastly expanding the global population of people with disabilities.”

At-Home Coronavirus Tests Are Inaccessible to Blind People

EL: “At-home testing has the potential to be a great resource for everyone…but only if everyone can actually use it.”

More Kids in the Hospital With COVID Renew Fears for Medically Fragile Children

EL: “Won’t somebody please think of the children?! I’m not kidding. COVID-19 can be a big threat for little ones, especially those who are immunocompromised. Just like adults, kids can be high-risk, but they’re too often left out of the ‘It’s not dangerous for children!’ narrative.”

Omicron Isn’t A “Mild” Threat For Everyone

EL: “Immunocompromised people are very, very tired of having COVID-related fears dismissed because the current wave is supposedly ‘mild.’”

Disabled Americans Feel Abandoned by CDC. Now, CDC Is Desperate to Make Amends

EL: “We’ve reached the point where leaders who are meant to protect us are openly saying the quiet part out loud: Chronically ill and disabled people who die because of COVID-19 are, to many, nothing more than collateral damage.”

Disability Rights Advocates Meet With CDC Director Walensky

EL: “Ableism is a public health crisis. It’s long past time for our systems to change.”

Maybe We Shouldn’t Go Back to Normal

EL: “‘Normal’ rolled out the red carpet for COVID when it arrived. ’Normal’ places value judgments on people and roots out those most marginalized. ‘Normal’ doesn’t mean anything is fixed; it means we’re in our usual broken systems. Let’s tear ‘normal’ down.”

Emily Ladau

Emily Ladau is a passionate disability rights activist, writer, storyteller, and digital communications consultant whose career began at the age of 10, when she appeared on several episodes of Sesame Street to educate children about her life with a physical disability. Her writing has been published in outlets including The New York Times, SELF, Salon, Vice, and HuffPost and her first book, Demystifying Disability, was published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in September 2021. Emily has spoken before numerous audiences, from the U.S. Department of Education to the United Nations. Central to all of her work is a focus on and harnessing the power of storytelling as a tool for people to become engaged in disability and social justice issues.