As restrictions loosen up, advocates for people with disabilities say their needs haven't been considered

When Marya Bangash, an advocate for people with disabilities, had COVID-19 last January, she says not only did it make her feel like she "was going to die," it also took away the disability support systems she relied on prior to the pandemic.

"While I was going through the motions and recovering, it just felt like all my surroundings that used to help me and be there for me … didn't want anything to do with me," she told The Current's Matt Galloway from Markham, Ont.

Bangash, who uses a wheelchair and is immunocompromised, is the co-ordinator for SMILE Canada, a support group for refugee and immigrant children with disabilities.

She said she's been fighting a lonely battle for her right to live as a person with a disability in the pandemic. 

"Because of people's selfishness, I've had to isolate and stay away a lot longer, while others with an average immune system are able to go outside." 

It's why she doesn't buy it when some officials suggest it's time to start "living with COVID" nearly two years after the first lockdown in Canada.

"When I see people saying that we have to just live with this pandemic — I can't live with the virus that can knock me out any day now," she said.

She's not alone.

Disability activist Allen Mankewich, who also uses a wheelchair, said public health officials have failed to address the concerns of people with disabilities during the pandemic.

The Winnipeg native believes their inaction is evidence of the discrimination in favour of those who don't have disabilities that Canadians like himself have had to deal with for years prior to the pandemic.

"It's embedded in society, it's embedded in attitudes, it's embedded in systems, it's embedded in policy and it's manifested in many ways," he said. "The insidiousness of ableism has really surfaced through the pandemic."

A recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal looked at 1,279 admissions to seven Ontario hospitals for COVID-19 between Jan. 1, 2020 and Nov. 30, 2020. 

Researchers found that patients with a disability had longer hospital stays and a greater risk of readmission than those without a disability. 

Hilary Brown, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto who co-authored the study, said it reflects "a real lack of community support" for people with disabilities.