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The Covid-19 pandemic has affected communities globally, yet the impact has not been equal. People with disabilities were already often living with severe disadvantage and marginalisation and, as predicted by many disability-focused agencies, Covid-19 has exacerbated these inequalities. Emerging evidence from Inclusive Futures, a UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)-funded programme, highlights the catastrophic emotional and material impacts on people with disabilities in Nepal and Bangladesh. To respond to and plan for future crises, decision makers should consult inclusively with both organisations of people with disabilities (OPDs) and people with disabilities themselves.
 

Persons with disabilities are invisible and almost silent in the Indian media. This paper examines the emergence of articulate expressions of persons with disabilities (pwd) in the social media over the months March to June 2020 during COVID Lockdown. While technology has been seen as a great leveller for persons with disabilities, the digital divide, however, remains very real for masses of disabled persons, whereby it is largely the educated middle class who have access to internet facilities and presence on social media. This paper draws from observation and analysis of posts on Facebook by different categories of persons with disabilities. There appear to be a number of discourses emerging and imageries running almost parallel. Accessibility and support appear to be very important issues especially in terms of access to domestic workers, regular medical checkups, and procuring daily provisions as well as access to online teaching. On the other hand, little concern is being paid to the huge humanitarian crisis of returnee workers from cities to villages. Interestingly, disabled persons appeared more connected, participating in discussions and Webinars and voicing out their experiences with greater clarity and also analysing the COVID situation through Disability Studies (DS) perspectives.

Recent research in the global South has highlighted that persons with disabilities are a vulnerable category of persons during the COVID19 outbreak. This paper provides some preliminary insights into Sri Lankan government responses to the outbreak, which, as we will be highlighting, take an ableist approach that further neglect the interests of persons with disabilities while entrenching disability dependencies on informal structures of familial and household support and in turn, increasing their marginality and economic insecurity. The COVID-19 outbreak hit Sri Lanka during a period of political turmoil – national Parliament had been dissolved on 3 March 2020 with elections initially called for 25 April 2020, six months prior to the official end of the Government’s elected term. Drawing upon rapid interview narratives, we present the lived experiences of two women with disabilities and the unique challenges they are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we write this paper in September 2020, we acknowledge that the longer-term impacts of COVID-19 will not become immediately visible, particularly for disabled people from ethno-religious minority groups, including those residing within the former conflict zones.

A brief introduction to the development of digital technologies to support people with disabilities working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting 4 innovations:

• Seeing AI
• Google Action Blocks
• Zoom transcripts
• Android Voice Access

After nearly nine months of preventative COVID-19 measures in place by the Government of Syria, the protection sector and its area of responsibilities ( Child Protection AoR, Gender Based Violence AoR and Mine Action AoR) have attempted to understand the level and types of impact this has had on the implementation of activities, specifically on partners' ability to provide services through community centers, and on the most vulnerable groups of the served population. The aim is that this report will provide protection partners with key information for reviewing and revising their current activities in light of the ongoing pandemic.

The data presented in this report was gathered during December 2020 from 213 protection partners and staff working directly or through partners with the affected population throughout Syria through an online survey. The main protection issues affecting persons with disabilities as a result of COVID-19 situation are identified.

The International Organization for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (IOM DTM), Protection and Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support teams joined efforts with Humanity & Inclusion (HI) to undertake an assessment of the level of access to services and the barriers faced by persons with disabilities within Malakal Protection of Civilian site (PoC site). The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) contributed to the qualitative component of the study as the main Protection and Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) actors operating within the PoC site. The study, based on data collected between March 2020 and June 2020, aims to improve the knowledge base available to the humanitarian community about access to services by persons with disabilities living in the site. It provides a quantitative estimate of the prevalence of disabilities among the IDP population and an assessment of the barriers faced by persons with disability in accessing humanitarian services across sectors. It also seeks to empower persons with disabilities living within the PoC site, giving them the opportunity to express their concerns and preferences with regards to possible solutions and targeted interventions. It is hoped that the resulting data will help camp management and other service providers operating within Malakal PoC site, including IOM, UNHCR and DRC, to better account for the concerns and needs of persons with disability in humanitarian programming and service delivery. This study builds onto and expands previous studies in Naivasha IDP Camp (formerly Wau PoC AA Site) and Bentiu PoC Site.

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the social protection response and recovery initiatives by countries in the South Asian Region towards people with disabilities from the perspective of DPOs. The region is characterised by a high population with majority of states falling under low and middle-income status, high levels of economic informality, low social protection coverage, intersectional marginalisation due to gender, ethnicity and caste, and a high concentration of migrant population. The COVID-19 crisis has magnified vulnerabilities in the region and furthered the marginalisation of persons with disabilities
 

This report aims to assess the level of access that People with Disabilities have to services and institutions during the pandemic period, as well as to analyze their economic and financial needs to cope with the consequences of the crisis caused by COVID-19.

The survey was conducted in the form of a quantitative field survey. 360 individuals participated in the survey: 199, or 55.3%, of the participants were people with disabilities (PWDs) while the remaining 161 persons, or 44.7%, were guardians or parents of a person with disabilities. The survey was conducted in all 6 districts of the country. The questionnaire was designed to gather information on the perceptions, attitudes, behaviors and experiences of people with disabilities during the COVID-19 period.

Twelve inclusive practices are presented that explore the application of the inclusive approach to disaster risk management, thus enriching these and encouraging contributions to create more inclusive and resilient communities! Collecting and sharing inclusive practices is one axis of the project, “Inclusive Disaster Risk Management: An innovative approach towards inclusion of most vulnerable groups”, which aims to disseminate inclusive disaster risk management in Latin American countries in order to increase protection and resilience in high-risk groups. The project accompanies and strengthens regional, national, and local actors from the following countries: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru. This regional initiative for inclusive disaster risk management is led by Humanity & Inclusion (HI), in partnership with Save the Children International Peru (SCI) and Cooperazione Internazionale Paraguay (COOPI).