Written evidence submitted by the Sister of Frida (MRS0377)

Summary

In this document we present evidence shared with us about the unequal impact of COVID-19 on disabled women. We share evidence of the following issues for disabled women.

-          Food access issues (section 4) including:

-          Difficulties using supermarkets

-          Serious difficulties with online shopping

-          Safeguarding issues with volunteers

-          A lack of support with food preparation

-          Problems accessing health and medical services (section 5):

-          A lack of access to COVID-19 testing

-          An increased burden of care for disabled family members of those with COVID-19

-          Overcrowded conditions causing health risks and problems self-isolating

-          Cancelled medical appointments putting health and life at risk

-          Specific health impacts of COVID-19 for BAME communities, including BAME disabled women

-          The plight of older and disabled people in care homes

-          Fears that disabled people’s survival will not be prioritised if treatment (e.g. ventilator) rationing is instituted by the NHS

-          Information not always available in accessible formats

-          A digital divide preventing up to two-thirds of disabled people from accessing volunteer services via the internet

-          Parenting challenges for disabled mothers (section 6):

-          Cuts to postnatal services

-          Impacts of home schooling for disabled mothers

-          Social services not prioritising disabled mothers’ support

-          Problems for disabled women who use Personal Assistants (PAs) or carers (section 7):

-          A lack of PA/carer availability (due to illness, self-isolation or fear of spreading the virus) leaving people without support

-          Severe PPE shortages

-          Some people's fear of telling social services about where they are living during self-isolation, in case PA support is cut

-          The rights of disabled women during COVID-19 (section 8) - evidence of reversals of hard-won disability rights including:

-          Impacts on the rights of BAME disabled women

-          Measures weakening the rights of women with mental health problems, including changes to sectioning

-          Suspension of Care Act 2014 duties (“easement”)

-          Disabled women and domestic violence under lockdown (section 9):

-          An increase in domestic violence affecting disabled women (already twice as likely to experience domestic violence)

-          Lockdown conditions preventing effective advocacy for organisations advocating for Deaf/disabled women experiencing domestic violence

-          Difficulties leaving home, for those in abusive relationships

-          Issues for disabled women in prisons/detention and policing (section 10)

-          Increased impacts of COVID-19 for disabled women in prisons

-          Higher risks for women with mental health problems in prisons

1. Introduction

About Sisters of Frida

Sisters of Frida (SOF) is a disabled women’s collective. We are an unfunded organisation, with directors led by a steering group. We focus on disabled women’s issues and are inclusive of self identified women, girls, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming disabled persons. We do not claim to speak for all disabled women. We seek to build networks of disabled women, share experiences and explore intersectional possibilities. We engage with both women’s organisations and Disabled People’s organisations. We follow the Social Model of Disability.[1]

2.                   About this submission

We put out a call for evidence, asking disabled women to share their experiences of COVID-19 and its specific impact for their intersecting identities. We wanted to ensure the voices of disabled women are visible as they are often omitted as examples of multiple protected characteristics.

We have collated this evidence here, looking at those issues that are impacting rights at the intersection of gender and disability during this crisis. We are working with Inclusion London and ROFA (Rebuilding Our Future Alliance) on the rights of disabled people under the Care Act 2014 where these are being eroded, the urgency of access to food and services for disabled people, and access to PPE for their Personal Assistants (PAs) and themselves.

3.                   Risk factors for COVID-19 impact on disabled women

Disabled women’s concerns are no different from the rest of the disabled community, but there are additional gendered factors which make them more likely to be affected by COVID-19:

●       There are more disabled women than men in the UK (23% compared to 20%).[2]

●       Women are more likely to provide informal care than men up to the 65-74 age group.[3]

●       Disabled women are twice as likely to experience domestic violence than non-disabled women.[4]

●       26% of households with a disabled person are in poverty, compared to 22% in the overall population.[5]

●       Disabled women earn 22.1% less than non-disabled men, a gender pay gap four percentage points higher than between all men and women (UK Women’s Budget Group, 2018).

These statistics highlight women’s already precarious position in society, leaving them more at risk during COVID-19 lockdown measures.

The most immediate concerns of disabled women and the impact of COVID-19 are as follows:

4.                   Access to food

The lockdown for disabled people (especially in the high risk ‘shielding) group) is not expected to be lifted soon, and many disabled people are not listed for priority access to shopping. Disabled people are currently experiencing food shortages for a number of reasons. Panic buying leads to food and household shortages (including essential supplies for disabled people, such as toilet rolls, gloves and sanitisers) which creates particular problems for people who cannot make repeated trips to the shops or travel long distances to find shops that still stock the food and other essential items they need. Some disabled people also require specific food items in order to manage their health conditions and impairments, which is becoming more difficult with shortages. Disabled people are finding themselves without vital support due to carers/PAs falling ill or needing to self-isolate (see section 7), and this lack of support is preventing them from getting and preparing food. While volunteers have been offered to some disabled women, this has impacts on their safeguarding needs, as volunteers are not being vetted. Food access issues will be exacerbated for women from BAME communities.

‘Wheelie Mum’ wrote to us on the issues she has faced getting food, as she has had to compete with others for groceries:

[S]hopping [is difficult] if you don’t have help getting little ones ready and to wait outside at 6am so you don’t have to queue for three hours surrounded by a hundred people... I ride tandem with a mobility scooter and buggy, then add supermarket trolley held on the side. A couple literally cut in front of me in the queue to Waitrose.

Dr. Sarabajaya Kumar told Sisters of Frida about how the requirement for her whole family to ‘shield’, together with government advice for everyone to shop online, has impacted her access to food and increased her informal dependency on others:

I was unable to shop online for the initial 4 weeks of lockdown… because the government encouraged everyone to shop online without making provision for those of us who are effectively under house arrest and cannot leave home to shop. The demand for online food shopping went from 7%-30%... I had been in queues for several hours on numerous occasions only to be told there were no delivery slots left and was thrown off the site. [6]

She tried to locate volunteers to shop for her, but had a mixed experience which raised safeguarding concerns for her:

It would have been much better to have had a vetted volunteer. This has caused a lot of unnecessary psychological stress.

‘A’ told us she was experiencing difficulties accessing food that she could prepare, due to unmet care needs as a disabled person:

The government has ensured access to food items but not considered how people like me would be able to open, cook or use the food. Trying to access ready cooked meals is more often than not impossible due to high demand. Social services not providing [help] either.

Supermarkets are now facing mass legal action from disabled people left anxious and distressed because they are unable to buy food and other groceries during the coronavirus crisis.[7] 

Actions

1.               Urgent action: It is vital that the government and local councils work with supermarkets to prioritise disabled people/women's needs for groceries and shopping.

2.               There should be strategies for future emergencies for groups that share protected characteristics so that disabled people will not be deprived of food, similar to policies in a crisis zone. It is also important to remember the cumulative intersectional impact in such strategies.

3. Safeguarding procedures for volunteers should be reviewed to ensure that disabled people are not put at further risk.

5. Access to health and medical services

Both the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 are gendered. Women, including disabled women, are the majority of those providing care, paid and unpaid, and are the majority of health workers.[8]

Older people and disabled people with underlying health conditions, including respiratory conditions and diabetes, are the most at risk from severe health impacts if they contract COVID-19.[9]

As hospitals and other health services have to cancel or postpone non-urgent cases, older, sick and disabled people are facing longer waits for treatment, exacerbating existing health problems. At the same time, many women and girls also are skipping important medical check-ups  including  family planning services for fear of contracting the virus.[10]

Michelle told us how she could not get access to testing after her partner was sent home from hospital with confirmed COVID-19, and how it has impacted her in having to care for him. 

I was not tested when he came home still infectious… He has blood clots on his lungs... it’s very bad ...but they would only follow up on [the] phone... he is extremely weak and weighs about 60 kilos. When he arrived home in our small shared flat, I now have to live in the living room while he has [the] bedroom.... I am knackered cooking food, cleaning etc. There are no guidelines for me to read in a format (as a dyslexic woman) that I could check or have someone to talk to.

Begam, a disabled mother-of-four, is finding it difficult to self-isolate with her family in an overcrowded two bedroom flat. Her 20-year-old daughter, who works as a professional carer as well as providing personal care for Begum, does not even have a bed, and sleeps on the sofa, while Begum sleeps in a bed with her 6-year-old youngest son. She has two other sons, an 18-year-old, who also has health problems, and a 14-year-old, who shares the second bedroom. This situation increases her risk of catching the virus.

‘A’ wrote to us about her difficulties accessing medical care, and how this is putting her health and potentially her life at risk:

All my hospital treatments have been postponed meaning impairments getting worse, limiting me even further trying to do anything. There will be long term impact on me of delayed treatments. I live one day at a time, knowing for me things can get worse rather then better. For some will not survive, not due to [the] virus, but due to neglect and not understanding the complexity of disabled people’s lives.

There are particular health impacts on BAME disabled people. A report out this week from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) suggested that ethnic minority groups are already being impacted more by the novel coronavirus. The Coronavirus pandemic is drawing attention to existing health inequalities.[11]

‘S’, a disabled woman from the BAME community, wrote to Sisters of Frida about how institutional racism and attitudes towards her community affect recognition of her situation, and how COVID-19 has affected her health more generally and access to carers:

As disabled women carers especially from the BME community, we are often not recognized, especially if their conditions like mine are hidden... I can’t go to hospital as l am worried of catching it (COVID-19) and l had an appt cancelled [for a cancer scan]. I have the same symptoms l had for my breast cancer on my right side. My carers couldn’t [come to support me] as my husband had the virus.

S.’s concerns reflect the reports in the news that “almost 18,000 more people with cancer in England could die after the coronavirus pandemic led hospitals to suspend treatment and deterred patients from seeking NHS care.”[12]

N., a disabled woman of Pakistani descent, told us verbally of her struggles to get medical attention for her aged parents.

Particularly concerning is also the plight of disabled people in care homes. While we do not have gender disaggregated data for care home residents, reports are out of “residents dying of any cause has almost tripled in a month, from around 2,500 per week in March to 7,300 in a single week in April - more than 2,000 of the latter were confirmed COVID-19 cases.”[13] Women are disproportionately affected by the dangers of living in a care home. In 2011, 214,000 women aged 65+ lived in care homes, almost 3/4 of the care home population aged over 65 (ONS, 2014). Many younger disabled people also live in care homes.

Disabled people are also terrified that if they do catch the virus, their survival will not be prioritised when the NHS is under such unprecedented pressures that decisions will be made to ration treatments based on patients’ chances of survival or non-disability status, including such possible measures as limiting ventilators to those with perceived higher ‘quality of life’. L told us she had these worries for her disabled son:

Not knowing whether he’d be allowed treatment or refused an ICU bed is adding to my fears.

While Kate (not her real name) said fears about rationing of treatment made her less willing to register as shielding, which prevented her from getting essential help:

And don’t get me started on DNR forms and ’no ventilator for you, missy’ guidelines. I’ve never felt so unsafe to live in the UK - words I never thought I’d say.

‘A’ was also concerned that registering on the list of ‘vulnerable’ people would lead to Do Not Resuscitate orders, and that this could threaten her life:

Joining that list is so worrying due to data sharing and concern that it means I will be classed as DNR [Do Not Resuscitate] if admitted to hospital. I fear admission to hospital as none will know how my impairments and health issues impact me, no one allowed to be with me at a time when I am extremely ill to communicate my needs, means I will be at even more risk.

Access to information in accessible formats is essential during this crisis. In a survey by Glasgow Disability Alliance, only 37% of disabled people surveyed had access to the internet. This digital divide is likely preventing many disabled women from accessing emergency and alternative services and volunteer networks.[14]   

Actions

1. Publish the critical care guidance being used by the NHS to decide who to treat and how to apply Do Not Resuscitate Orders, so that disabled people can be reassured that their right to life under Article 2 of the Human Rights Act will be protected, should they become critically ill.

2. Ensure support is given to BAME communities for access to medical care and services.

3. Ensure information is available in accessible formats, Easy read, Large print, and in BSL and in the different ethnic languages. Ensure all essential public broadcasts are simultaneously translated into BSL. Ensure people are aware of the alternative services and volunteer programmes, and how to access them, including for those not able to access the internet.

6.      Disabled mothers

Disabled mothers are facing particular stresses during COVID-19 lockdown, due to multiple factors including home schooling and cuts to support for disabled parents.

‘C’, a new disabled mother, tells us how cuts to services due to COVID-19 have impacted access to health support for her and her baby, leading to a traumatic birth followed by cuts to home health support:

Services are cut for us. I feel very alone. I am scared he will get sick because I don't believe that we will get proper help… I'm not being monitored at all. I'm not getting my postnatal check up and although his vaccinations are planned to go ahead they said that could change. He isn't registered as being born either.

‘Wheelie Mum’ told us that getting food and groceries is particularly difficult for disabled single mums and those with disabled children:

[S]hopping [is difficult] if you don’t have help getting little ones ready and to wait outside at 6am so you don’t have to queue for three hours surrounded by a hundred people... I had people walk in front of me in the queue. They didn’t know it was a early access hour shop so that was particularly disgusting. I had my baby with me in the buggy on my scooter and I was stunned.

‘L’, a disabled mother of a disabled son, tells us about her difficulties finding care for him during the crisis, and the practical and emotional impact. Her son’s two main carers are in Poland and could not get back to the UK, and she is having difficulty finding substitute carers as she tries to minimise the risk to her son:

We have just had to refuse to have someone else to come and work with him as that person is sharing a house with 7 other people... If I make a wrong decision [my son] could die as a result.

As a disabled mother I am also worried that I might not be able to care for him myself even if there was no other alternative.

‘A’ wrote to us about the stress of this crisis, as both a disabled woman and a carer of a disabled son, with four adult children who also need support:
 

I have been so emotionally and physically stressed since [the] start of lockdown due to COVID-19.

Fiona Anderson of Enabled2Parent told us that Social Services are not prioritising disabled parents for support, even though parenting has become more difficult due to school closures:

Many disabled parents rely on their child being at school or nursery immensely to allow them to recharge. Not having a rest causes their symptoms of their condition to worsen… feeling like they're failing their child through increased pain and fatigue making them unable to do quality time activities and adequate home schooling...Social care aren't seeing disabled parents as priority right now.

Actions

1. Ensure that disabled parents are prioritised for social care support. Require local councils to assess those disabled parents facing increased need for support as a result of school closures and other effects of lockdown.

2. Ensure that disabled parents receive safe postnatal care despite lockdown conditions.

7. Access to support/paid and unpaid care

An estimated 70,000 disabled people use personal assistants (PAs).[15] Under lockdown conditions, this poses complications for disabled carers/PAs as well as for the disabled individuals who need the support for independent living.

Disabled people may be left without vital care services if their carers/PAs fall ill or have to self-isolate. Older and disabled people who rely on social care delivered by PAs via direct payments or a personal health budget, including informal care from family members, may find it harder to self-isolate. This is an urgent question that has been raised to us by many disabled people:

Q. I employ personal assistants (PAs) through direct payments. If a PA or the whole team needed to be isolated, how would my care needs be met? And if I contracted COVID-19, could my PAs still assist me? This is a worry for a lot of people.[16]

PAs cannot be untrained volunteers: they need to be trained in personal care and have a good working knowledge of the work and the individual’s care needs.

Severe PPE shortages are being reported by users of PA/care services. While virus testing is now being rolled out in care homes, it is not being offered to users of care/PA services who live in their own homes,[17] and guidance is limited on how to avoid catching the virus from carers who work with multiple clients. 

Fiona Anderson of Enabled2Parent told us that she is having trouble finding enough PA support during the pandemic:

PAs are dropping off rotas like flies. Either having to self isolate due to symptoms or a member of their household having symptoms/vulnerable person. [I am] having to buy PPE off Amazon with little guidance. PAs not feeling safe with the quality of PPE that we ARE able to obtain e.g plain surgical masks instead of proper filtered ones.

‘A’ wrote to us about her difficulties accessing care/PA support in this crisis, as both a disabled woman and a carer of a disabled son:

One of my PAs left due to fear of infection, reducing my care by half. The other PA’s hours [were] reduced to limit risk of infection to her and me.

Kate (not her real name) told us she is worried that self-isolating with her mother could affect her access to direct payments to pay for her care:

I’m struck by how little trust I have in services and the Government when it’s needed most. To avoid being cared for by my PAs (all women with second jobs or caring for large families) I moved to live with my older parents… I’m scared about being honest with Social Services about where I am in case they make me stop me paying my PAs - for some, they’d be destitute if that happened. I didn’t register on the Government website for vulnerability for weeks in case it revealed where I was living.

Dr. Sarabajaya Kumar told us about the impact of PPE shortages and difficulties finding carers:

I have felt that much of the independence I had previously had (pre-COVID-19), has been much reduced. I have lost my carer due to lack of PPE and my concerns about her being a vector for the disease; and this has meant that my daily living is very strenuous and difficult.

Actions

1. Urgent action: PPE must be made available to all disabled people who have PAs/carers working in their homes.

2. COVID-19 testing should be made available to all carers/PAs of disabled people, so that they are not at increased risk of catching the virus from carers who work for multiple clients.

3. Comprehensive guidance should be released advising people on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while using care/PA services, whether the care is funded by direct payments or unpaid, such as that provided by family members.

8. COVID-19 and the rights of disabled people/ women

The Coronavirus Act raises many concerns in regards to the rights of disabled people as a whole, and this includes disabled women.

Dr. Sarabajaya Kumar writes that COVID-19 measures are impacting disabled people’s rights, particularly women with multiple protected characteristics. Due to having to shield and self-isolate from her family as a result of being in the ‘extremely high risk’ category, Dr. Kumar has seen an impact on her independence:

I am becoming increasingly concerned that disabled people’s hard-won rights are going backwards.[18] As a disabled woman I have felt COVID-19 has meant I have lost what little control/agency I had, because of the strict, albeit necessary, requirements of ensuring I and my family and the NHS are safe. In other words, my dependence on others seems to have increased; and that has put strain on me and other family members.

She also notes that BAME disabled women are particularly impacted by this curtailing of disabled people’s rights, especially in a health crisis.

[T]here is research which finds that women, and people from BAME backgrounds, are often not listened to, understood, believed, or are dismissed when they present with symptoms which results in differential and inequitable health outcomes for us; and being of intersectional identity - a disabled, woman of colour - means… that I experience oppression/discrimination compared to that of a non disabled, white person.

Particularly concerning are the measures which weaken the safeguarding against abuse within mental health settings. For instance, time limits have been extended on psychiatric detention, so that now only one doctor is required to authorise sectioning, with no second medical opinion necessary before forcing psychiatric medicine upon someone against their will. These measures will disproportionately affect members of the BAME community, who are already over-represented in detention, stay in psychiatric hospitals for longer, and are eight times more likely to be subjected to forced outpatient treatment, according to a 2019 independent review.[19]

The Coronavirus Act also essentially, for up to two years, suspends the 2014 Care Act duties of local authorities in England to provide social care services to all who are eligible, leaving disabled adults at risk of neglect in their homes. It will also mean a relaxation of the standards of educational support for disabled children [20] which will disproportionately affect women as they are more likely to be primary carers.[21] 

Given that the social care system has been undermined by the ten years of austerity and the demise of the Independent Living Fund, this Act is very worrying for disabled people, who see it as rolling back disability rights and putting many lives at risk.[22]

Public discussions of rationing of essential treatment for COVID-19 are also making disabled people afraid for their life, as described above.

Shantha Rau Barriga, director of Disability Rights at Human Rights Watch, argues that support for disabled people should not be limited under COVID-19 measures. “These are the groups among the most at risk in this pandemic; they should not also be at risk because of the response.”[23]

Actions

1. Require any councils enacting Care Act easements (i.e. reducing care for disabled people) to release a document showing how they are continuing to deliver their duty of care to disabled people.

2. The government should review the suspension of Care Act duties no less than every three months, reviewing its impact for disabled people who receive care funded by social services. This should consider how the suspension is impacting those who have multiple protected characteristics, such as disabled BAME women.

9. Domestic Violence

We know that disabled women are twice as likely to be abused than non-disabled women[24] and we have already witnessed a dramatic increase in calls to domestic violence helplines and support services during the coronavirus crisis.[25][26] As End Violence Against Women has noted, the lockdown provides a frighteningly ‘conduicive context’ for abuse. Isolation means that abuse can occur without detection much more easily with connections to friends, neighbours, family and services (for instance school teachers who may be able to spot signs of child abuse) severed. It also means that many will find it much harder to flee dangerous situations, or to find the refuges and services they need to make that decision. This will affect most those who have already struggled to access support and justice, including disabled women, BAME women, migrant women, those with ‘no recourse to public funds’, women with ‘complex needs’ and sex workers. EVAW argues these women will “have an even stronger sense that they are not the priority and that their abusers can control them without interruption, unless there is proactive work to counter this”.[27]

StaySafe East, a user-led London-based organisation which supports Deaf and disabled survivors of domestic and sexual violence, have told Sisters of Frida about extra problems for those they support, caused by COVID-19 restrictions. Women with learning difficulties no longer have one to one access to their advocates as before. Deaf women are having communication issues, not just because of BSL access but also because of the social distancing and requirements for communication to be handled by phone. Advocates working from home are not able to be as effective in advocating for their disabled clients.

StaySafe East told us about a safeguarding meeting in which an advocate could not be as effective as usual, due to lockdown measures:

A safeguarding meeting was held in relation to a disabled woman experiencing domestic abuse; on arrival at the meeting, she and her advocate found that the perpetrator had been invited. He was asked in front of the victim whether he was abusing her; he denied it… the social worker asked the disabled woman specific questions about the abuse and advised her to find a refuge space. The advocate eventually managed to stop the meeting so that she could support the disabled woman to be safe (a refuge was not an option due to her support needs). Had the advocate not been present, the disabled woman would have returned to her home and faced further abuse.

Tracy asked for advice in her struggle with her husband in a difficult divorce; she was preventing from leaving due to lockdown measures:
 

I’ve spent days searching the net [during] an acrimonious divorce - house now on the market, he's angry that I've had to suspend viewings... if the distancing continues he will be chomping at the bit for court. I want out of this house and was hoping to be moved by September, but with my lungs I'm at risk. I'm trying to find out if he can force me… to move house if social distancing continues?

Actions

1. Alert frontline Violence Against Women and Girls organisations and refuges to the needs of disabled women in danger of Domestic Abuse and the communication and access needs of disabled women.
2. Ask local authorities to be more flexible with care packages for disabled women trapped in social isolation and in danger from domestic abuse.
3. Support Staysafe East’s amendments to the Domestic Abuse Bill.

10. Prisons/Detention and Policing

Epidemiologists have estimated that up to 1% of people in prison could die if the coronavirus spreads across the estate, resulting in 800 deaths.[28] Many prisoners already have other pre-existing and severe health conditions making them especially vulnerable to COVID-19; this and other factors mean the death rate within prisons may well be significantly higher than among the general population.[29] Disabled people are overrepresented in the prison system: 55% of women prisoners are disabled compared with 34% of men[30]; 7% of people in contact with the criminal justice system have a learning disability, compared with 2% of the general population (NHS England 2016). These disabled prisoners are likely to be disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

The Prison Reform Trust describes high rates of mental health problems among women prisoners, and show that women in prison are more likely to self-harm and attempt suicide than women in the community.[31] Women whose mental health is already at risk in prisons are likely to experience more impacts of COVID-19, including potential worsening of their mental health.

WISH is an organisation supporting women with mental health problems.[32] Women they support in in prison, hospital and the community told us about some of the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on their mental health:

This reminds me of being locked up in hospital or prison and has heightened my anxiety.

I am now terrified every time someone rings my doorbell but I am unable to go out and shop myself.

It is really difficult managing my OCD with all this handwashing I have to do.

Actions

1. Review the impact of COVID-19 on disabled prisoners, particularly women and those from marginalised groups.

2. Monitor police actions taken towards disabled people, people from BAME backgrounds, and other marginalised groups, under the powers of the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020.

Conclusion

There is a common thread through all the disabled women’s stories shared with us, that social isolation during this pandemic is causing psychological distress.  Although DDPOs and informal groups of disabled people have been coming together to support each other, online support groups and information are not available to everybody, especially to those who do not use the internet or lack access to WiFi. People in BAME communities might be more reliant on community and family support, especially with disabled family members.[33]

Final Recommendations

-          Co-production with disabled people and our organisations should be central to government policy-making on COVID-19, both during lockdown conditions and as we leave lockdown.

-          The government should carry out Equality Impact Assessments on all its COVID-19 policies, including the Coronavirus Act 2020, the amendments to the Care Act 2014, and the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020.

We call on the government to seek the input of disabled people’s organisations, including disabled women’s organisations, in all policies that impact disabled people. Looking to a post-COVID-19 future, grassroots disabled people’s organisations DDPOs need to be funded and capacity built so that they can work co-productively with their councils and MPs to prepare for emergencies.

We thank Magda Szarota for this insight on how even policies and briefs intended to focus on “vulnerable” marginalised populations are often violating the human rights of disabled women:

“More often than not even those documents which were meant to specifically focus on 'vulnerable' marginalized populations and were promoted as intersectional in their approach overlooked disabled women and their situation. As much as this negligence is disappointing and cruel because it might and does cost lives… it is far from being the 'new normal' caused by the pandemic. It is the old, so-called, normal ways of discriminating and disposing of disabled women. That is why I am alarmed every time I hear that ‘we should go back to normal asap’ because this innocently sounding 'normality' from the perspective of disabled women is underpinned by systemic and daily violations of human rights. Do not resuscitate… this version of the world."

A Sisters of Frida brief, collaboratively written by

Eleanor Lisney

Naomi Jacobs

Lani Parker

Fleur Perry

Emma Vogelmann

April 2020