The invisible lockdown: reflections on disability during the time of the Coronavirus pandemic

Abstract

In this autoethnography, BW and I explore the various ways in which my experiences of lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic are not altogether different from my everyday experiences as a visually impaired person. Further, we make sense of my experience that, notwithstanding the social world’s expression of feelings about lockdown and social distancing, my own reactions to disability-imposed lockdown remain unrecognized, invalidated and unseen. Making sense of these experiences of invisibility is essential, since it is only when our experiences are truly contemplated by others that we can have the hope of being fully known.

Points of interest

• In this paper, my co-author and I explain the various ways in which my experiences of lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic are not altogether different from my everyday experiences as a visually impaired person;

• I provide examples to illustrate that there are anxiety-provoking challenges lurking outside my home;

• Yet, giving in to these anxieties and being confined to my home is too painful to give in to;

• While my everyday experiences are, too some extent, what the world is experiencing at the current moment with social distancing and lockdown, my feelings about disability-imposed lockdown remain unrecognized, invalidated and unseen;

• It is important to voice and make known these realities, For it is only when our experiences are truly seen—when we are completely known—that we can move towards self-acceptance.

Keywords:

• Disability
• Coronavirus pandemic
• lockdown
• confinement
• invisibility

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.