Disability, communication, and life itself in the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• disability
• media
• accessibility
• human rights
• disability justice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).