Ontario needs emergency plan for urgent needs of millions with disabilities

David Lepofsky, Contributor Opinion, The Star, April 20, 2020
Media have reported on some of the most extreme COVID-19 impacts on people with disabilities, the tip of a horrific iceberg, like the government’s scandalous failure to effectively protect residents in nursing homes and independent living residences. Let me reveal a worrisome but unreported thread running through those reports that connects hitherto-unconnected dots. People with disabilities suffer a brutal triple whammie during this crisis, beyond what the broader public faces. First, many people with disabilities are disproportionately medically prone to contract COVID-19 and to suffer its harshest physical impacts. Second, a cruel confluence of government policies and neglect makes people with disabilities even more prone to contract COVID-19. Third, people with disabilities can fear going to hospital. They face a health care system replete with disability barriers pre-dating COVID-19.