Introduction to Disability in the Time of Pandemic

In March 2020, as the pandemic arrived in the United States and generated a new reality of fear and anxiety, disability scholars and disabled people got to work.¹ From past experience of pandemics and national emergencies more broadly, they expected that disabled people, particularly disabled people of color, would be the most likely to die from COVID-19 and among the least likely to be protected from it. Their expectations proved to be true. The United States Centers for Disease Control quickly learned that those with chronic illnesses or disabilities, as well as those over the age of 65, occupy the highest risk categories for COVID-19 (CDC, 2019). Indeed, COVID-19 disproportionately affects disabled, chronically ill, and elderly people across the globe.