All lives matter, Disabled people deserve to live through this pandemic. Impact of Covid-19 on Disabled people is really grievous. If you are Disabled and depended on other people for living, then it will create many problems for your life. Disabled people are passing very bad time now. Depression is crushing them horribly. They can't visit doctors to meet their minimal medical support. Only they have the access to the telemedicine services on emergency requirements which is also inadequate. It’s tough for the Doctors to prescribe appropriate medicine to the Disabled person and advice for healthy living through telemedicine other than seeing physically. Most of the Disabled people even feels worst in this current isolated social distancing situation as because they were already disturbed by the society. Reality is that the world is not equally accessible to them.  

A lot of people are freaking out in quarantine but Disabled people are not. Their daily is becoming more confined to home oriented. In house which is not change that much, get up from bed in the morning, cleaning, take breakfast, do some work, watch movies, take launch, listening music, sleeping etc. as it was done before. The only changed come into their life style is that now they couldn’t go out even for a walk – very much distressful to them.

Disabled people are drastically depending on the Doctor’s and therapist’s advice for their living which became occasional during this pandemic. Now the only receivable is the physical therapy via virtual or online that is necessary to keep the body moving and flexible offered by some therapist. But took this service in home is little bit scary, because it also requires some assistant to come to your home multiple times a week and enhance chances to have been exposed to coronavirus.

Disabled people can’t really practice social distancing because they are dependent on others for their basic physiological needs. Some of them can’t even wash their hand and dependents on somebody else who has to wash their hands which itself leads to physical touch. People with intellectual disabilities face the same challenges where they need somebody who's a guardian in front of them. Person who are deaf facing challenges where there is lack of accessible information for them in sign language. The blind again need to guide them through places where there is physical touch is needed. So social distancing is a challenges for a person with disabilities because of higher chances, they will get Corona virus.

In our country's perspective lack of self-awareness found around the society, we need to be aware of that. Lacking of accessible quarantine facilities throughout the country. More concerned about hospitals that are not really being accessible to person with disabilities. Three challenges faced by person with disabilities are:

More likely to attacked with COVID-19.

Most Likely to you have a sure case.

May face barriers in hospital.

The most important risk for people with intellectual disabilities is not their underlying condition but the lake of access to healthcare. Most of the health care professionals have not been treated on how to take care air off somebody with disabilities. To mitigate the challenges, we may create very simple online training to the healthcare professionals how to treat Disabled people:

• Step 1: Make sure that the words that we use for plain language and are meaningful.
• Step 2: Make sure that a person with disabilities has a support person available.
• Step 3: Making sure that people with disabilities are prepared for procedures and the testing they might have to go through like a nasal swab making sure that they can see what is going to happen before it does.
• Step 4: Make sure that people with disabilities are able to have those discussions and have those understanding of treatments that you are going to be requiring things like,

Having quarantine at home and what that looks like. As well as instructions and medications or treatment in the hospital. Finally, make sure people with disabilities are included in the healthcare system and make them available.

Dr. Selina sultana, Assistant Registrar 
Department of Child development and Paediatric, Dhaka Community Medical College and Hospital.