Toolkit for People with Disabilities

Purpose

Provide COVID-19 guidance and resources for people with disabilities and care providers. More about the Toolkit for People with Disabilities

Populations of focus

People with disabilities and care providers of people with disabilities

Partners

FEMA, CDC Foundation, Georgia Tech Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation, University of North Carolina Center for Literacy and Disability Studies, DeafLink, and National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services

Description

People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 because of a variety of factors, including: 1) underlying health conditions that make them more likely to get severely ill, 2) increased likelihood of unavoidable close contact with care providers, 3) increased likelihood of living in a congregate setting, and 4) additional barriers to accessing health care, health information, and resources to follow COVID-19 prevention guidelines. There is a need for guidance and resources that are tailored for people with disabilities and their care providers. This project aims to compile and develop guidance and tools to help people with disabilities and those who provide services or care for them make decisions, protect their health, and communicate with their communities. The tools and guidance developed in this project reflect what CDC has learned about the needs of people with disabilities and care providers from partners and listening sessions, projects, and research efforts.

Early impact

• Developed and launched the CDC Toolkit for People with Disabilities web page.
• Utilized feedback from partners indicating a need for more information geared toward people with disabilities related to vaccine access, accessible vaccination sites, and accessible communications products/web resources to develop web content, fact sheets and one-pagers, scheduling language, and a promising practices document on vaccination access for people who have challenges leaving their home.
• Began the integration of information related to people with disabilities as well as social media and web-based graphics that reflect varying disabilities throughout the CDC sites instead of just on disability-related webpages.