[community] Disability Advocacy during the Coronavirus Crisis

[Cybele S]

I also remember the group Not Dead Yet was engaged in the MAID conversation.

Re pre-existing conditions, we should be quite specific.  I remember still
how those with lung conditions were left out of the Uber policy
conversation.  They should not be left out now.

So who is particularly at risk in that sense?

Thinking about advocacy, good to include:

COPD and asthma and auto-immune groups.  And diabetes groups.  And HIV
groups.  And heart and stroke groups.  And others helping folks who are
immuno-compromised.

Also thinking about people being forced to work who are at higher risk from
this.

And people experiencing homelessness and poverty.

And all types of people with mental health struggles now.  At this point,
everyone’s mental health is probably challenged so must be amplifying for a
lot of people.

The decisions made about who gets a vent could also include those with
intellectual disabilities and biases against various cognitive disabilities.

And of course all of the age discrimination groups like ACE.

We sometimes have an issue in Canada that disability advocacy is difficult
because it can be hard to build constituency.  Now it is so needed.

I will start reaching out soon.

Should we try to arrange a zoom call to discuss?

Best,

Cybèle

On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 8:51 AM Jutta Treviranus <jtreviranus at ocadu.ca>
wrote:

> Catherine Frazee and the group that created the Vulnerable Persons
> Standard http://www.vps-npv.ca, the Canadian Association for Community
> Living, and the Council of Canadians with Disabilities were addressing this
> bias before COVID-19. With the passing and revision of Medical Assistance
> in Dying (MAID) legislation in Canada, there were regulators (and medical
> decision-makers) that questioned whether a life with disability was worth
> living. VPS,CACL and CCD have been fighting this attitude and the
> regulations that have an impact on these choices in healthcare for some
> time.
>
> Jutta
>
> > On Mar 24, 2020, at 8:11 AM, pina.dintino at gmail.com wrote:
> >
> > I did see something from David Lepovfsky last week, but not much more.
> > Pina
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: community <community-bounces at lists.idrc.ocadu.ca> On Behalf Of
> Ushnish
> > Sengupta
> > Sent: March 24, 2020 12:19 AM
> > To: Inclusive Design Community <community at lists.idrc.ocadu.ca>
> > Subject: [community] Disability Advocacy during the Coronavirus Crisis
> >
> > Anyone know who in Canada is doing disability advocacy work during the
> > cirisis, ensuring rights remain protected in a changing context?
> >
> > Wall Street Journal, Trump and now CNN as I watch it and others are
> musing
> > out aloud, while others are making more quiet implicit fatalistic
> > calculation of jobs vs lives. Who lives is decided according to some
> > utilitarian calculation of potential long term economic value of a life.
> In
> > some calculations, the elderly and disabled are accorded a lower value of
> > life.
> >
> > THESE ARE NOT MY VIEWS, I am raising them as issues being discussed
> openly
> > in mainstream media. Here is a sample of articles from the UK and the US
> > below. Not much to be found from Canada on the topic.
> >
> >
> https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/23/uks-emergency-coronavirus-bi
> > ll-will-put-vulnerable-at-risk
> >
> >
> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/coronavirus-washington-triage-disabled
> > -handicapped.html
> > --
> > Ushnish
> > ________________________________________
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