Emerging evidence suggests that people with disabilities are amongst the groups most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in all aspects of their lives, but more systematic evidence is needed to fully understand how and why this has occurred. To this end, we have conducted narrative interviews with a diverse group of 40 jobseekers with disabilities in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda who are involved with the Inclusion Works programme.
The use of narrative interviews allows us to document the lived experience of people with disabilities. This methodology foregrounds the participants’ priorities and perceptions, allowing us to explore their perspectives on what is needed to build disability inclusive pathways to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic’s effects on them. The first round of interviews were conducted in July and August 2020. The next round will be conducted in October and November, to document the impact of the crisis on the lives of people with disabilities over time. The data gathered from the first round of interviews provide useful learnings of the impact of Covid-19 on people with disabilities. As such, we wanted to share our initial three key findings from each of the countries, before the more detailed analysis is published at a later stage.
Bangladesh
- People with disabilities are facing financial crises due to the loss of their jobs, small businesses, day labour activities and only sources of livelihood. The relief provided by the government to people with disabilities is not sufficient and their financial crisis means people with disabilities are not able to afford daily necessities like food, medicine, and Covid-19 hygiene kits, which has led to domestic violence, depression and stress.
- Covid-19 delayed the completion of their degrees for job seekers with disabilities, which hindered them from entering the job market. Job seekers with disabilities were not able to enter any new jobs due to the delay of recruitment processes as well as the competitive job market. This creates an extra mental pressure on the potential job seekers.
- People with disabilities’ physical and mental health deteriorated, due to lack of access to health services, especially for those needing various therapies, not being able to afford hygiene products needed to protect from Covid-19, and the stress of the situation.
Kenya
- Covid-19 has exposed weak social protection programmes as people with disabilities required and expected support from the government, which was often not being provided. They did not seem to want to heavily rely on organisations for people with disabilities or non-governmental organisations but instead looked to the government to provide them with social protection. They place the responsibility of care on their government.
- Lots of information about Covid-19 is not accessible, while the amount of information/misinformation makes it scary and challenging to know where to go for the correct information.
- As in Bangladesh, the majority of people with disabilities work in the informal sector. With lockdown and curfews, many have lost their sources of income, which increases stress levels and vulnerability.
Nigeria
- Loss of income was also a concern for people with disabilities in Nigeria.
- People with disabilities are not being factored into the provision of aid by government and non-governmental organisations to relieve the impact of Covid-19.
- People with disabilities who do not have access to technology and the internet are particularly marginalised as many employment or training opportunities now require virtual access.
Uganda
- As in Kenya, information about Covid-19 is not always accessible in Uganda. This is especially the case in rural areas.
- During the pandemic, people with disabilities seem to have lost hope, especially those who were in the process of finalising their studies or were jobseekers when the crisis hit.
- People with disabilities are having to rely on charity to survive, which compromises their dignity, individual autonomy and independence.
In addition, across the countries there have been increased cases of gender-based violence and worsening mental health experienced by people with disabilities.
It is important to recognise that disability is not homogenous, and people with different types of impairments have faced different types of challenges during the lockdowns. It is important to consider diversity of experiences. It is also not clear which of these impacts are specific and/or more severe for people with disabilities compared with the impact on the rest of the population.
Next steps are detailed thematic analysis of the interviews and writing up of the findings – so look out from more to come from us, the disability team at IDS and in the four countries. Once each participant has been interviewed twice, a participatory analysis method (online) will be used to draw out findings and interpretations, we hope in collaboration with some of those with disabilities who were interviewed.
Eric Wakoko (Uganda), Fatema Akter (Bangladesh), Josephine Njungi (Kenya), Shadrach Chuba-Uzo (Nigeria) are action learning group facilitators working on behalf of IDS for the Inclusion Works programme, using participatory methods to learn more about the experiences of people with disabilities involved in the programme.