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The isolation of people with disabilities in the context of legal, economic, social, and technological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the functioning of many social groups in Poland. Scientific publications addressing this issue in the field of social sciences focused primarily on the situation of organisations in the context of remote work and technological transformations associated with new challenges arising from isolation. The literature review conducted identified a knowledge gap, characterised by a limited number of publications addressing the effects of isolation on people with disabilities, particularly the shift in power dynamics in the broader environment that affects the lives of this social group. The research problem was formulated in the form of a question: What are the consequences of isolation for people with disabilities from the legal, economic, social, and technological dimensions of the pandemic? The study results revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic posed a challenge to the healthcare system regarding people with disabilities. The research methods included literature review, an opinion survey, tools, PEST analysis, and statistical analysis.
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According to the 2011 "World Disability Report" prepared by the World Health Organization and the According to the 2011 "World Disability Report" prepared by the World Health Organization and the World Bank, persons with disabilities represent 15% of the global population. These persons are at risk of social, World Bank, persons with disabilities represent 15% of the global population. These persons are at risk of social, economic and health marginalisation, which was particularly worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article economic and health marginalisation, which was particularly worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article presents the results of the research carried out by the State Fund for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons in Poland on presents the results of the research carried out by the State Fund for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons in Poland on activities related to the protection of employees and the maintenance of jobs for persons with disabilities during the activities related to the protection of employees and the maintenance of jobs for persons with disabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Covid-19 pandemic. Streszczenie: Zgodnie ze "Światowym Raportem o Niepełnosprawności" z 2011 r., przygotowanym przez Świato-Zgodnie ze "Światowym Raportem o Niepełnosprawności" z 2011 r., przygotowanym przez Świato-wą Organizację Zdrowia oraz Bank Światowy, osoby niepełnosprawne stanowią 15% globalnej populacji. Osoby te wą Organizację Zdrowia oraz Bank Światowy, osoby niepełnosprawne stanowią 15% globalnej populacji. Osoby te narażone są na marginalizację społeczną, ekonomiczną i zdrowotną, która w okresie pandemii COVID-19 szczególnie narażone są na marginalizację społeczną, ekonomiczną i zdrowotną, która w okresie pandemii COVID-19 szczególnie się nasiliła. W artykule zaprezentowano wyniki badań Państwowego Funduszu Rehabilitacji Osób Niepełnospraw-się nasiliła. W artykule zaprezentowano wyniki badań Państwowego Funduszu Rehabilitacji Osób Niepełnospraw-nych dotyczących działań związanych z ochroną pracowników i utrzymaniem miejsc pracy osób niepełnosprawnych nych dotyczących działań związanych z ochroną pracowników i utrzymaniem miejsc pracy osób niepełnosprawnych w czasie pandemii. w czasie pandemii. Słowa kluczowe: osoby niepełnosprawne, pandemia, COVID-19, zagrożenia, miejsca pracy osoby niepełnosprawne, pandemia, COVID-19, zagrożenia, miejsca pracy * ul. Szamocka 3, 5; 01-748 Warszawa, tel. +48 22 667 15 04. Wprowadzenie Zgodnie z defi nicją przedstawioną przez Światową Organizację Zdrowia (World Health Organization, WHO) pandemia to "rozprze-strzenianie się nowej choroby na całym świe-cie". WHO wskazuje, że cechy choroby sprzy-jające rozwojowi pandemii to: wysoka za-raźliwość, wysoka śmiertelność zakażonych osób, długi okres zaraźliwości, w tym zaraźli-wość w okresie bezobjawowego przebiegu choroby, oraz brak naturalnej odporności po-pulacji. Pandemia COVID-19 drastycznie zmieniła priorytety całego świata i zmusiła wszystkie kraje do stworzenia i przyjęcia środków izola-cyjnych i zapobiegawczych w celu ogranicze-nia infekcji koronawirusa. Skutki pandemii mają różnorodny charak-ter, m.in. medyczny, ekonomiczny, społeczny i psychologiczny. W warunkach pandemii gru-pą szczególnie wysokiego ryzyka są osoby chore i niepełnosprawne. Pandemia koronawirusa a zdrowie osób niepełnosprawnych Światowa Organizacja Zdrowia szacuje, że na świecie żyje obecnie miliard osób niepeł-nosprawnych. Wobec zróżnicowania defi nicji "niepełnosprawności" oraz braku odpowied-nich danych dotyczących osób niepełnospraw-Krzysztof Czechowski Skutki pandemii COVID-19 dla funkcjonowania społecznego osób z niepełnosprawnością
Background
Disruptions to healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic are well-recognised problems. However, a dearth of research exists on disabled people’s experiences with accessing these services. A scoping review was undertaken to identify and explore research on the experience of disabled people in accessing healthcare services between 2020 and 6 February 2023.
Methods
PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, and OVID were employed to search for research that included the voice of disabled people, or their parents or caregivers. Over two distinct phases, a total of 2,201 articles were reviewed according to article titles, keywords, and abstracts. Eighty-one studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria; these were reviewed in full.
Results
Eighteen studies specifically described the experiences of accessing healthcare or disability services, and sixty-three raised healthcare challenges as a secondary consideration. Many disabled people struggled to access healthcare services and felt they were invisible; as a result, individuals’ mental health was negatively affected. Disabled people with compounding vulnerabilities were at the most risk of experiencing a lack of healthcare access.
Conclusions
There is an urgent need for research and policy that is responsive to disabled people’s access to healthcare during the pandemic; currently many health policies are ‘disability-blind’ and exclude these members of the global community. Furthermore, to assist in creating disability-responsive research, funding needs to prioritise researchers within the disabled community.
Purpose:
People with physical disabilities often require lifetime support and experience challenges to maintain or (re)define their level of independence. Assistive living technologies (ALT) are promising to increase independent living and execution of activities of daily living (ADL). This paper provides a systematic literature review that aims to analyse the present state of the literature about the impact of ALT on perceived independence of people with a physical disability receiving long-term care.
Materials and methods:
Databases Embase, Medline, and Web of Science were searched for eligible studies from 2010 or later.
Results:
Nine studies were included, of which seven qualitative, one quantitative, and one mixed methods. Quality was generally high. ALT enabled participants to execute ADL. We found six themes for the impact of ALT on perceived independence: feeling enabled, choice and control, feeling secure, time alone, feeling less needy, and participation.
Conclusions:
ALT appears to impact perceived independence in many ways, exceeding merely the executional aspect of independence. Existing research is limited and quite one-sided. More large-scale studies are needed in order to inform care organisations how to implement ALT, especially considering societal developments and challenges impacting long-term care.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONPeople with a physical disability receiving long-term care experience that assistive living technology impacted their independence.Their independence is increased by making them feel enabled, secure, and less needy and increasing their choice and control, time alone, and participation.Most studies focused on the use of environmental control systems by people with spinal cord injury.More research is needed to evaluate long-term effects of diverse assistive living technologies used by people with a physical disability receiving long-term care.
Digital media have enabled people with disabilities (PWDs) to connect with each other, but online relations and gaming have been found escapist. We propose the analytical lens of social access to examine how the role of digital media in PWDs’ social relations is shaped by (1) affordances of digital media, (2) mixedness of relations and (3) interaction of online and offline worlds. This article presents an ethnographic study in a school for young PWDs and highlights two observations. First, visual profiles on social media platforms could aggravate the social exclusion of young PWDs online and offline, marked by intra-disability and intersectional differences. Second, the co-presence afforded by digital media enabled young PWDs to resort to digital interactions in unwelcoming offline environments without changing the latter. Social access underlines the importance of studying how digital media interweave with offline social relations and inequalities, rarely altering but sometimes augmenting and ameliorating them.
People often seek out information as a means of coping with challenging situations. Attuning to negative information can be adaptive because it alerts people to the risks in their environment, thereby preparing them for similar threats in the future. But is this behaviour adaptive during a pandemic when bad news is ubiquitous? We examine the emotional consequences of exposure to brief snippets of COVID-related news via a Twitter feed (Study 1), or a YouTube reaction video (Study 2). Compared to a no-information exposure group, consumption of just 2–4 minutes of COVID-related news led to immediate and significant reductions in positive affect (Studies 1 and 2) and optimism (Study 2). Exposure to COVID-related kind acts did not have the same negative consequences, suggesting that not all social media exposure is detrimental for well-being. We discuss strategies to counteract the negative emotional consequences of exposure to negative news on social media.
Workplace inflexibility contributes to the higher rates of job loss and unemployment experienced by disabled people. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries already had significant disability employment gaps. Based on evidence from previous recessions, the global recession resulting from the pandemic is likely to have a severer and longer-lasting impact on the employment of disabled workers compared with non-disabled workers. In the UK, there is already evidence that the disability employment gap has widened since the pandemic. On the other hand, the pandemic initiated increased access to home-working, a change in working arrangements that may prove beneficial to disabled workers employed in desk-based roles. Home-working can increase the accessibility of employment and support work retention for disabled workers, yet pre-pandemic many employers had withheld it. Studies of employees’ and employers’ experiences of home-working during the pandemic have indicated a desire to retain access to home-working in the future. A permanent cultural shift to increased access to home-working would help address the disability employment gap for desk-based workers. However, disabled workers are over-represented in jobs not conducive to home-working, and in sectors that have been hardest hit by business closures during the pandemic, so the position of many disabled workers is likely to remain precarious.
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has engendered changes in previously unimaginable timeframes, leading to new ways of working, which can quickly become the “ordinary” way of working. Many traditional workplace and educational practices and environments, however, are disadvantageous to people with disability and consequently are under-represented in the workforce and higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
Contributing factors include exclusionary societal and employer attitudes and inaccessible built environments including lack of attention to paths of travel, amenities, acoustics, lighting and temperature. Social exclusion resulting from lack of access to meaningful work is also problematic. COVID-19 has accelerated the incidence of working and studying from home, but the home environment of many people with disability may not be suitable in terms of space, privacy, technology access and connection to the wider community.
Findings
However, remote and flexible working arrangements may hold opportunities for enhancing work participation of people with disabilities. Instigating systemic conditions that will empower people with disability to take full advantage of ordinary working trajectories is key. As the current global experiment in modified work and study practices has shown, structural, organisational and design norms need to change. The future of work and study is almost certainly more work and study from home. An expanded understanding of people with disabilities lived experience of the built environment encompassing opportunities for work, study and socialisation from home and the neighbourhood would more closely align with the UNCRPD's emphasis on full citizenship.
Originality/value
This paper examines what is currently missing in the development of a distributed work and study place continuum that includes traditional workplaces and campuses, local neighbourhood hubs and homes.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced a rapid adoption of telemedicine over traditional in-person visits due to social restrictions. While telemedicine improves access and reduces barriers to healthcare access for many, several barriers and challenges remain for persons with disabilities, and novel challenges have been exposed, many of which may persist long-term.
The challenges and barriers that need to be systematically addressed include: Infrastructure and access barriers, operational challenges, regulatory barriers, communication barriers and legislative barriers.
Persons with disabilities are a vulnerable population and little attention has been placed on their healthcare access during the pandemic. Access and communication during a healthcare encounter are important mediators of outcomes for persons with disabilities. Significant, long-term changes in technological, regulatory, and legislative infrastructure and custom solutions to unique patient and health system needs are required to address these barriers going forward in order to improve healthcare access and outcomes for persons with disabilities.
Celem artykułu jest pokazanie, jak na tle istniejących uwarunkowań społecznych oraz instytucjonalnych realizowana jest koncepcja integracji i inkluzji społecznej osób niepełnosprawnych, w której najważniejsze miejsce zajmuje aktywność sportowa. W badaniach przeprowadzonych wśród osób niepełnosprawnych, uprawiających sport, wykorzystane zostały dane jakościowe, zdobyte za pomocą techniki pogłębionego wywiadu swobodnego oraz obserwacji jawnej. Analiza i interpretacja materiałów empirycznych prowadzona była zgodnie z zasadami metodologii teorii ugruntowanej. Przeprowadzone badania dowiodły, że sport uprawiany przez osoby niepełnosprawne może wspomóc proces włączania osób niepełnosprawnych w szersze kręgi społeczne. Sport stanowi bowiem nie tylko szansę utrzymania sprawności fizycznej i zdrowia, lecz także wspomaga integrację i inkluzję społeczną osób niepełnosprawnych.
The purpose of the paper is to create a profile of an IT product, using IT tools to collect and to analyse information and enable communication between elderly people to support and activate them. PEST Analysis method was used to determine different factors of influence on the domain of elderly people activation and support Having evaluated the factors and defined the product characteristics, the Authors focused on defining the profile of the IT product by referring the aforementioned characteristics to the structure of the product in the marketing understanding thereof.
The article addresses the issue of the situation of disabled people on the labour market in Poland. A comparative and descriptive method was used to analyse the factors affecting the low activity of the disabled on the labour market and activities undertaken by the government aimed at their professional activation. The article noted that in the years 2006-2016 less than 20% of disabled people worked or declared that they were looking for a job. The work also draws attention to the phenomenon of poverty among the disabled as a result of the discussed problem.
Despite the Americans with Disabilities Act being more than 30 years old, many government institutions fail to fully support their constituents, and provide understandable and actionable crisis communications before, during, and after emergencies and disasters. When residents do not effectively receive, understand, and act on crisis communications in a timely manner, life safety issues can occur. People may choose not to evacuate when necessary or lack the information for properly sheltering-in-place. These and other bad decisions can be deadly. Crisis communications, as a subset of risk communications, should be aligned with all the disaster phase cycles—the before, during, and after stages of disasters and crises—so that impacted residents obtain complete information they can use. U.S. government websites, including posted crisis communications public releases, must be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) under Title II and they should use templated crisis communications available in other languages, English-only audio recordings, and videos of American Sign Language.
One of the most important activities of every human being is professional activity, but for people with disabilities the possibility to work has an additional dimension of social rehabilitation. Despite the existence of many forms of assistance and activities aimed at reducing the phenomenon of their exclusion from society, they still struggle with the problem of undertaking appropriate professional activity, with the COVID-19 pandemic adding to the already difficult situation. So what is the current professional activity and economic situation of people with disabilities? In the context of the research gap, attempts have been made to answer the research question: Has the COVID-19 pandemic led to a deterioration in the level of professional activity of people with disabilities and their situation? The main objective of the study was to assess the economic situation of people with disabilities and their professional activity at two different times - before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A research hypothesis was formulated, assuming that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the professional activity of people with disabilities and their economic situation. The article includes an analysis of the national literature on the subject, with an empirical part based on a secondary analysis of existing data. Descriptive statistics of the indicators of the tested variables were made together with an analysis of the normality of distributions using the Shapiro-Wilk test. An analysis with Student's t-tests and a two-factor analysis of variance in the 2x2 model were also performed. As a result of the statistical study, the research hypothesis was not confirmed.
Research Objectives
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened existing disparities in social participation among people with disabilities. However, there is little evidence to describe the causes of these disparities and their impact on participation. Thus, there is little to guide intervention development and delivery in rehabilitation and community settings. The purpose of this study was to describe experiences with community participation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic among people with disabilities.
Design
Focus groups and community asset mapping were conducted. Focus groups explored experiences with social isolation and social participation, and ongoing challenges related to the pandemic. Community asset mapping identified community resources and supports that have promoted better community participation. Two investigators independently coded results, which were shared with participants and other members of the disability community for member checking at a Town Hall event.
Setting
N/A.
Participants
Seventeen participants with diverse disabilities were enrolled.
Interventions
N/A.
Main Outcome Measures
N/A.
Results
Results suggest that people with disabilities have experienced significant social isolation throughout the pandemic, which is perceived to have worsened their physical and emotional health. Lack of equitable health care, attitudes of professionals and family members, lack of employment and volunteer opportunities, and lack of access to pre-pandemic social activities, services, and supports were identified as contributing to social isolation. Social supports, telework and telehealth options, virtual events, and online and social media platforms were identified as critical supports for community participation.
Conclusions
The results of this study can inform design of an intervention to improve community participation. Interventions should focus on accessing available community resources and supports, use of virtual and remote services and opportunities, and strengthening social support networks.
Author(s) Disclosures
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic changes in the lives of the general population. People with physical disabilities, who commonly encounter daily challenges such as barriers to community mobility, reduced access to healthcare services and higher risk of suffering from depression, may face additional challenges in the context of the pandemic.
Objective: This study aims to review the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and associated isolation and protective measures, among people with physical disabilities.
Methods: A rapid review of the published literature was conducted on August 10, 2020 through a search in six online databases to synthesize results from original studies regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with physical disabilities. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health was used to describe the population and the personal and environmental factors with a unified and standard health language.
Results: Eleven records were extracted from 1621 individual papers retrieved from the search strategy. Various impacts on daily functioning such as a decrease in access to healthcare have been noted during the pandemic. Changes in social and lifestyle habits, mood changes and decreased levels of physical activity were also noted.
Conclusions: Our results highlighted the lack of early research about the impacts of COVID-19 experienced by people with physical disabilities. Future studies should focus on specific consequences and needs of this vulnerable population to ensure their inclusion in public health recommendations and consideration by policy makers.
Keywords: COVID-19; Disabilities; Impact; Rapid review; Rehabilitation.
In this article we offer an analysis of a deeply problematic and troubling dual aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic: how disability is being understood within normative accounts of health and medicine to frame, interpret, and respond to its spread and implications; what are the terms of inclusion and exclusion in altered social life in the COVID crisis; and how people with disabilities fare. We find disturbing indications of disablism and oppressive biopolitics in the ‘enforcing of normalcy’ that frames and dominates COVID reconstruction of social life – a situation that we suggest needs urgent deciphering, critique, and intervention.
Abstract Families are critical in the provision of lifelong support to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Today, more people with IDD receive long-term services and supports while living with their families. Thus, it is important that researchers, practitioners, and policy makers understand how to best support families who provide at-home support to children and adults with IDD. This article summarizes (a) the status of research regarding the support of families who provide support at home to individuals with IDD, (b) present points of concern regarding supports for these families, and (c) associated future research priorities related to supporting families.
Niepełnosprawność a zagrożenie marginalizacją i wykluczeniem. Rozważania w kontekście teorii underclass
- I Chrzanowska
Ocena przystosowania atrakcji turystycznych dla osób z niepełnosprawnościami w Polsce
- S Francuz
- C Calińska-Rogala
Rodzina z osobą niepełnosprawną w społecznym systemie wsparcia
- W Janocha
Wpływ izolacji społecznej osób z orzeczoną niepełnosprawnością w aspekcie psychofizycznym i ekonomicznym
- M Kajnath
Niepełnosprawni: "Musimy walczyć o swoje prawa
- J Kiwnik
E-kształcenie szansą na uczestnictwo osób niepełnosprawnych w życiu zawodowym i społecznym. e-mentor
- E Lubina
Realizacja prawa do pracy osób niepełnosprawnych
- R Maciejewska
10 lutego). NIK o aktywizacji zawodowej osób z niepełnosprawnościami
- Nik
Przeciw wykluczeniu społecznemu osób niepełnosprawnych (s. 52-70)
- I Poliwczak
Główne bariery aktywności zawodowej osób z ograniczoną sprawnością
- Z Woźniak
Bezrobocie, niepełnosprawność, potrzeby
- J Kirenko
- E Sarzyńska
Determinants of unemployment among persons with disabilities in Poland
- D Kobus-Ostrowska
Raport z oceny wpływu izolacji społecznej w czasie pandemii osób niepełnosprawnych przez pryzmat kompetencji psychologicznych
- S Orłowska
7 kwietnia). Pandemia przyspieszyła cyfrową (r)ewolucję
- K Pasławski
Czas wolny osób niepełnosprawnych
- A Magiera
- T Sammut-Bonnici
- D Galea