Disability rights advocate and wheelchair user Ryan Honick relies on public transit or rideshare options to get to appointments and go grocery shopping in Washington, D.C. Since he started social distancing, he can no longer use those options so Honick turned to the delivery service Instacart to obtain supplies.
"It's usually a couple hours from when you place your order," Honick said of his previous Instacart deliveries. But the service wasn't nearly as quick when he placed an order on March 12. "The wait time was a week," he said.
For most people, this extended wait time would be merely an inconvenience, but for those with disabilities — especially those whose support systems have been decimated by the coronavirus — it can mean the difference between sustenance and starving.
As COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide at an alarming rate, politicians are scrambling to put together contingency plans. One noticeable absence is any sort of acknowledgment of the disabled community.
Around
1 in 4 Americans have a disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are a diverse group of people with diverse needs. Not all are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, but specific conditions may leave many of them more vulnerable. In addition, among those who have a greater need for assistance in their everyday lives, social distancing and self-isolation is even harder, maybe impossible.
There has been a lack of information about what people with disabilities and those who care for them should be doing, compounded by a failure to communicate important public health messages in an accessible way.
