The Chosen Few of the Pandemic
For Disability History Month, the recent history of how disabled people were treated at the start of the pandemic in my country is tokenism at best. When the country lockdown was announced, six types of health conditions were given letters from the government. These people had severe lung conditions (not asthma or basic COPD) and were told to stay at home to save their own life. This is asking disabled people to exclude themselves from society, while other people could go out for 'essentials'. The only support these six groups received was priority booking for delivery slots from major supermarkets.
Only, the supermarkets only gave you priority if you already had an account with them. If you'd never shopped at a major supermarket before (I think six counted), then you couldn't get anything delivered. The queues for everyone signing up for an account so we could stay at home crashed websites. You were greeted with waiting times about where you were in the queue to look at the site. It worked on the presumption that you could afford home Internet and the electricity to run it, had technology that could use the Internet, and had the ability to use it. Assuming you had an account and waited in the queue to log in, then came booking a slot three weeks away, so it assumed you had provisions to last that long. Most people I know drink animal milk and it goes off after ten days, assuming you can afford to refridgerate it. Some people can only take medication with food, so they can't run out.
Then, while ordering items, most things were unavailable as the supply chain to supermarkets had also slowed down with the lockdown. There were item restrictions, too. So faced with only getting a delivery slot every three weeks but only being able to order two dairy items (milk, butter, yoghurt, cheese, etc) meant you'd probably run out. There was a total item restriction on the order, so 70 items had to last a household for three weeks (25 items a week). At this time, supermarkets were reducing their plastic use, so a pack of baked beans suddenly became four separate items. Then came the delivery, and not everything you ordered is delivered, even though you said you wanted it three weeks in advance. Priority given to people shopping in the stores discriminates against those that can't leave the house. Substitutions on an order could be allowed, but plenty of disabled people have IBS and dietary requirements so the pot luck (you can't specify parameters such as vegetarian or soy free) could harm you. Supermarkets also put a surcharge on orders below a certain amount, so it assumed you had the money to cover that 'tax' or the money to make that size order without going into debt on other bills or rent.
Priority booking for a tiny portion of disabled people is tokenism. So many assumptions were made about the finances, home situation, capacity of supermarkets, food availability. Then there were all the other disabled people who were considered abled enough to go food shopping. People with mobility problems were expected to queue outside with no seating for hours, in all weathers. I emailed a supermarket about disabled people having a separate queue inside so they could sit down and have access to the toilet without losing their place. They replied agreeing with my ideas but never implemented them. We've had a whole year of lockdown in a temperate climate which included heatwaves, tropical thunderstorms, and snow.
The priority booking was only given to supermarket access. If you needed to access any other service, like the Post Office, the bank, or medical services, it again assumed you had Internet access at home and the accounts in place. "Don't go out, you'll die," they said. But they didn't make sure you could stay in and survive.
