Increased Isolation for People with Disabilities
Among our respondents, we have found that people with disabilities have experienced isolation to a greater extent during COVID-19. Many are disappointed because they are losing the independence they have been working hard to regain.
Bonnie is in her sixties and is currently fighting cancer for the second time. She has asthma and has been on disability for almost 10 years due to issues with her legs.
“It’s hard to go out and get stuff now, things have changed now in the city… not for the better for the worse…. For me it’s changed because I don’t get out the way I used to get out. My walk, I used to get my walk on every day without a mask. I don’t do that hardly no more. I used to go out every morning and stay out for an hour or two.”
“I go out sometimes. I don’t like going outside because the mask, when I got it on, I can’t hardly breath… and that aggravates me, but you gotta wear it.”
“I like to get out. I like to go out. It be miserable sitting in this house especially when the Corona was first out there you’d have to stay in the house and you could hardly go nowhere. I didn’t even want to go to the store, but you got stuff you need and you gotta go out, put the mask on go out, and get it you gotta get it yourself. Especially when there ain’t nobody coming to go get it for you. I’m used to doing my own stuff, my own self. I just hope things get better than what it is now, but it don’t seem like it because cases are still out there.”
Lailah is a single mother with a 12-year-old daughter. Her daughter has autism which makes it difficult for her to start relationships and maintain eye contact with her friends and teachers. Lailah’s daughter is very afraid of COVID, she insists on wearing two masks when she leaves the house and does not ever want to return to school in person. Lailah is concerned that online learning will make it harder for her daughter to practice her social skills with others and stay in her comfort zone.
Millie has chronic pain with mobility issues that put her high risk of falling. She describes her time during the crisis as,
“Being back at my house, being isolated, back where I started. Back in it again, but for different reasons.”
Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.