Covid-19: We should not forget people with disabilities

A disabled mother crawls while begging in the streets of Kisii town with her child strapped on her belly and a bottle of sanitiser tied on her headscarf last month. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

As Kenya continues to combat Covid-19, it is clear that little has been done to accord people with disabilities the guidance and support needed to protect them during the ongoing pandemic, even though many of them are part of the high-risk group.

I attended a meeting a week ago with leaders of organisations and groups of people with disability (PWD), organised to review how they were coping. As I listened to them, I realised that our responses to covid have completely left this important constituency of our brethren behind. As I listened, I learnt that people with disabilities are going through challenges that are invisible to our policymakers.

"People with disabilities feel they have been left behind," UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas said. "Containment measures, such as social distancing and self-isolation, may be impossible for those who rely on the support of others to eat, dress and bathe."

"This support is basic for their survival, and States must take additional social protection measures to guarantee the continuity of support in a safe manner throughout the crisis."

PWDs who rely on their personal assistants are struggling with day-to-day tasks without the needed help such as shopping for food and other essentials, doing household chores, running errands, getting daily exercise and accessing public transport.

On a normal day, persons with visual disabilities and wheelchair users rely on a personal aide or the goodwill of touts to board matatus, yet one measure to avoid Covid-19 is to avoid contact, but for wheelchair users to get into a matatu, they require assistance because public transport is not accessible for all. Wheelchair users also run an increased risk of their wheelchairs being contaminated with the virus by somebody who could be assisting them.

Persons with disabilities are a special target for discrimination, not only because of their disabilities, but because of a recent myth that they are more likely to have the virus. There is a case in which people refused to board a matatu because an individual with albinism was in the same vehicle. This was done in the guise of social distancing.

What’s worse is that PWDs have to work harder to get the information that is shared on Covid-19. Take the daily press briefings by Cabinet Secretary for Health, Mutahi Kagwe. When the camera zooms in on the speaker, the sign language interpreter disappears and the deaf are instantly left out. There are many well designed colourful posters and memes that exclude people with visual disabilities - not just the ones that are completely blind, but also those who are affected by such conditions as dyslexia.

Braille readers

The sudden disruption from a normal school routine has affected the progress of children with disabilities, most notably those with developmental disabilities. The government has done a commendable job in creating avenues for learning at home during this time that schools have to be closed.

Children with disabilities are in danger of being left woefully behind as they may not have assistive devices that enable them to read and continue learning. Thousands of children with visual disabilities, for example, now have no access to assistive devices like Braille paper and Braille readers at home.

Deaf children cannot keep up with online classes without their sign language interpreters, as not all teachers know how to sign. Working without the support of their professional special-needs teachers is proving detrimental to children with intellectual or autoimmune disabilities. Parents who are not trained in special-needs care are struggling to keep up with the school syllabuses and at the same time look for money for food and bills, as they are forced to give their children with disabilities round-the-clock care.

The government is yet to roll out mechanisms to get free personal protective equipment to PWDs. People with visual disability need PPE even more. Average Kenyans, for example, require hand sanitisers and latex gloves as they rely heavily on their hands for tactile feedback.

At the same time, unfortunately, using gloves distorts the detail of feeling different surfaces for the blind and visually impaired. The masks being sold and distributed do not take into consideration the deaf community who use lip-reading as a means of communication.

There is widespread concern over personal safety and security for PWDs who live alone for fear of being taken advantage of. There is an increase in reports of domestic physical abuse on women and girls with disabilities. PWDs are worried about how healthcare workers and health facilities will be able to handle them if they contract the virus.

This litany of challenges demands that the government steps up more to reassure persons with disabilities that their survival is a priority to establish clear protocols for public health emergencies to ensure that, even when medical resources are scarce, access to healthcare, including life-saving measures, does not discriminate against people with disabilities.

The National Council for Persons with Disabilities as well as other organisations that champion the rights of PWDs must become a lot more aggressive and visible in their representation of people with disabilities in Kenya. 

Mr Kags is a serial social entrepreneur. [email protected]