Infectious Disease Response Manuals for People with Disabilities and Impact on Their Lives
JANG Ikseon [Director of Gwangju Muscular Dystrophy Association]
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing great confusion and impact on the daily lives of people around the world across all aspects of lives including the economy, politics, society, welfare, and education. Discrimination against particular social groups has been further exacerbated in this pandemic-induced crisis. Human rights of people with disabilities have been put on the back burner under the name of safety and protection. This is certainly not the first infectious disease outbreak for South Korea. We had MERS and SARS outbreaks in the past. The problem is whenever the country faces a disaster, people with disabilities bear the brunt as response measures generally do not take into consideration their impact on disabled people. The government often comes up with a response manual for disabled people belatedly only after a call from the community of disabled people.
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Through this article, I would like to share my own personal experience as a person with severe disabilities and point out limitations and deficiencies in each area of medical care including emergency rooms, hospitals, general care, mobility, and information access and make suggestions for improvements. People with disabilities are more vulnerable to COVID-19 due to many reasons such as underlying health problems, limited access to medical services and information. In fact, the fatality rate of disabled people infected with COVID-19 is six times higher than that of non-disabled people. Despite high vulnerability people with disabilities were excluded from priority groups for early vaccination. (Further details are omitted here.)
Infectious Disease Response Manuals for People with Disabilities and Impact on Their Lives
JANG Ikseon [Director of Gwangju Muscular Dystrophy Association]
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing great confusion and impact on the daily lives of people around the world across all aspects of lives including the economy, politics, society, welfare, and education. Discrimination against particular social groups has been further exacerbated in this pandemic-induced crisis. Human rights of people with disabilities have been put on the back burner under the name of safety and protection. This is certainly not the first infectious disease outbreak for South Korea. We had MERS and SARS outbreaks in the past. The problem is whenever the country faces a disaster, people with disabilities bear the brunt as response measures generally do not take into consideration their impact on disabled people. The government often comes up with a response manual for disabled people belatedly only after a call from the community of disabled people.
ㆍ
ㆍ
ㆍ
Through this article, I would like to share my own personal experience as a person with severe disabilities and point out limitations and deficiencies in each area of medical care including emergency rooms, hospitals, general care, mobility, and information access and make suggestions for improvements. People with disabilities are more vulnerable to COVID-19 due to many reasons such as underlying health problems, limited access to medical services and information. In fact, the fatality rate of disabled people infected with COVID-19 is six times higher than that of non-disabled people. Despite high vulnerability people with disabilities were excluded from priority groups for early vaccination. (Further details are omitted here.)