Ableism and COVID-19
Our DIP Seminar devoted two weeks to dissecting ableism and COVID-19 response, using The Relationships Between COVID-19 Anxiety, Ageism, and Ableism by Amanda A. Arcieri as a launchpad for discussion. Attendees were also encouraged to explore two supplemental articles on COVID-19 response and ableism in health care and academia.
The following week, the DIP community dialed our focus into the particularities of UMass with four short articles from the UMass Daily Collegian. These articles explored the opportunities and the challenges that COVID-19 presented from the reflective space to explore queer identities during lockdown, to the rocky transitions back to in-person instruction for faculty and staff, undergraduates, and graduate students.
Seminar time allowed for students to leverage critiques of the UMass COVID-19 response and to share personally. Attendees discussed mental health, the need for community, concerning trends around the expectation to attend zoom calls even when sick, and the nefarious coupling of endowments and cut-backs. On a more positive note, attendees also discussed the benefits and freedoms of working remotely, both for people with and without disabilities. This is just one example of how designing policies that center the needs of people with disabilities can also benefit the broader public.
Additional Resources
The UMass Office of Equity and Inclusion Podcast Episode on Disability Visability