Impacts of COVID-19 on People with Disabilities

When it comes to planning, meeting accommodation needs, and accessibility issues, people with disabilities are at a disproportionately high risk during times of crisis compared to those without. Additionally, many people with disabilities are immunocompromised and are at a greatest risk of serious complications and death due to infection from COVID-19. This survey was launched in April of 2020 to look further into how people with disabilities have been experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, how their daily lives have been impacted, and how and where they were accessing information on best practices and early recommendations by various information sources. We were particularly interested in learning about differences among people with disabilities in both urban and rural areas in the United States. To collect this information, we launched a survey on Amazon MTurk, which is a common platform for recruiting participants in hard-to-reach populations within social science and human subjects research. After a brief set of screener questions asking about age, disability status, and checking for bots, the survey questions asked about participants’ health, daily activities, community participation, trust in information sources, pandemic response behaviors, and how those things have been impacted by changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results were analyzed using statistical software and used to produce research briefs, factsheets, and peer-reviewed journal articles, and may be incorporated into future presentations, national conferences, and additional publications.