Disabled people are dispensable

Croeso Y Cymru....

Debbie Foster said how Covid restrictions impacted disabled people should have been understood. Debbie Foster said how Covid restrictions impacted disabled people should have been understood earlier

Debbie Foster, from Cardiff University, produced a report on the impact of Covid on disabled people in Wales.

She said problems included things like "the wearing of face masks which disadvantaged people with hearing impairments, the social distancing regulations which were problematic for people with visual impairments, and the locking up of a lot of people with learning disabilities” due to lockdowns. She added that many of these issues “should have been understood” early on.

The inquiry heard that seven in 10 deaths between March to July 2020 were of disabled people. Asked if that was seen as inevitable, she said there was a culture of “inevitability” coming down from the UK government when it came to people who were vulnerable because they had pre-existing health conditions.

She said there had been a feeling among the group involved with the report that “disabled people were generally seen throughout Covid as dispensable."