ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 crisis has revealed systemic inequities that uniquely impact persons with disabilities. Although governments have purportedly adopted a human rights framework in providing for persons with disabilities, the immediate policy responses to COVID-19 expose how governments have yet to internalize human rights-based commitments. As a result, the diverse needs of persons with disabilities have been neglected, and persons with disabilities have disproportionately been put at risk of homelessness, domestic abuse, unequal medical treatment, and, in extreme cases, complete abandonment. This chapter explores the differences between the traditional paradigm of welfare-based treatment versus the human rights-based treatment of persons with disabilities. It examines the ways in which the traditional paradigm appears to have dominated COVID-19 policy responses and the adverse impacts to persons with disabilities. In particular, unequal treatment was most pronounced in the delivery of medical care and in group home settings – institutions where persons with disabilities are disproportionality represented. This chapter suggests that policymakers must avoid anachronistic frameworks and provide greater support for persons with disabilities in subsequent crises. Ultimately, the human rights of persons with disabilities can be better protected by making their rights central to policymaking, encouraging greater civil society participation in the policymaking process, and deinstitutionalization.
