Disability and the Pandemic is a funded research project that seeks to document and contextualize the personal stories behind the pandemic at the local level where community members can best be seen and heard. Some of the interviews gathered spotlight existing social inequities experienced by people with disabilities in healthcare, housing, independence, and education. Others simply show the changes in our collective lives through the lens of individuals living with disability.
The project has two goals: 1) to contribute to the local historical record of the pandemic through interview collection with people with disabilities, and 2) to engage community members today with stories inspired by these interviews.
Our collaborators included disability advocacy and service organizations and community media outlets in the Greater Philadelphia Area. By pairing academic research with social engagement, the project builds a network between community media and the disability community that will persist beyond the pandemic.
Future projects may address the following goals:
• Creating opportunities for writers who identify as disabled
• Story collection with people living with disability
• Collaboration with community newspapers to cover disability issues