Prioritise vaccine rollout for people with disabilities

Has the vaccine rollout left behind the blind and people with other disabilities? RN Mohanty, CEO, Sightsavers India talks about prioritising vaccination for people with disabilities

The COVID-19 global pandemic has hardly left any human life untouched. Its repercussions whether on physical and mental health or on economic well-being have been felt by people across the world. The vaccination rollout to defeat the deadly virus is gaining pace as we gear-up to fight the third wave battle. What is lacking however is the absence of a clear strategy to address the needs of people with disability in accessing the vaccine.

Besides the actual vaccination there are other impediments like basic information in accessible formats for people with disability on the five Ws and one H of the vaccination. Why get vaccinated, where, who will administer it, when will it happen, what is it about and how will it be done? There are about 2.68 crore people with disability in India. The significant section is a total of 2.21 percent of India’s total population as per census 2011.

People with disabilities are also a vulnerable group and may have a higher risk of getting affected by the harmful effects of COVID-19. To maintain vaccine equity, we have to understand various factors including a higher rate of co-morbidities, dependency at times on caregivers for certain sections of disabled population, and accessibility challenges both for registration in the portal and for vaccination among others. You can simply multiply the challenges for a person with disability who is reeling under abject poverty, barely has had any education, is facing gender and caste bias and lives in a rural setting.

Sightsavers in India seeks to ensure that irreversibly blind and people with disability are supported adequately to lead lives of independence and dignity. Working together with like-minded disability sector organisations and the local governments, we intend to sensitise and create awareness among people with disabilities, their support groups on the importance of vaccination. This awareness creation and sensitisation programme will address the issues of inhibition, fear, misconception etc among the people with disabilities and their families for coming forward for vaccination.

Our vaccine equity campaign also has the key objective of facilitating accessible, informative and inclusive process and systems for vaccination of people with disabilities. Collaborating with the government and exploring possibilities of a mobile vaccination unit is a simple way out for reaching out to people with disabilities especially the ones who don’t have means to travel easily. Inclusion of all the eligible persons in the home of people with disabilities and care givers will ensure larger coverage and better safety . We have to break barriers in reaching people with disabilities as close as possible to their homes so that no one is left behind.

It will be vital to have people with disabilities as members in the state and district COVID-19 task force. Their voices will enable highlighting the challenges and possible solutions to ensure vaccine equity for the disabled. We have not done an audit of the vaccination centers and do not know whether they are accessible for people with disabilities. Easy and accessible registration for vaccination, on-the-spot physical enrolment for people who do not have access to technology, provision of accessible transport for people with disability are some of the basic solutions which can aid in vaccine equity.

Accessible and multiple formats like braille, sign language interpretation, local languages audio-visual material, large fonts, captions on videos are all enablers in accessing information regarding COVID-19. It will still be half the job done if we don’t take all the information at the grassroots. Outreach at the community level will be essential to increase confidence in the vaccine and the essential need for it.

A monitoring process for coverage is going to be critical for the success of vaccine equity. For Sightsavers, our focus for vaccine equity will be the core states where the organisation is present including Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. An unvaccinated population for lack of information and accessibility will only exacerbate the existing situation. Sufficient vaccine supply, inclusion of people with disability in a fair manner will only help the collective cause of humanity in fighting the dreadful virus and defeating it.