The Impact of Covid-19 for People with Disabilities: Indonesia Case Study (Research Assignment in 2021 for Asia Society Australia)
Background
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| Training for People with Disabilities for their livelihood |
Based on data from the COVID-19 rapid assessment report for persons with disabilities carried out by the Inclusive COVID-19 Response Disabled People Organization (DPO) network in April 2020, which reached 1683 respondents with disabilities from 32 provinces and 216 regencies/cities in Indonesia. Where respondents consist of 44% women and 56% men with various physical disabilities as much as 53%, sensory as much as 27%, mental as much as 3%, intellectual 11%, and double 6%. Where based on these data as many as 806 or 48% of respondents have jobs, the rest or as many as 877 or 52% are unemployed, of which some are not working because they are still children, or some are not able to work. Around 89% of respondents work in the informal sector, while 11% work in the formal sector, where at the time of the assessment, almost 45% of respondents have no income or about 266 people do not have a fixed income, 455 have odd income, and 733 informants have no income at all.
Challenges and Barriers in the covid-19 situation for PwD
Some persons with disabilities have experienced changes in their daily activities, during the pandemic, based on the data and the informant that we interviewed spend their time at home, most of them also lose their jobs which are one of their only livelihoods. Pak Suharto, is the co-founder of SIGAB (Sasana Integrasi & Advokasi Difabel) a non-profit organization and disabled community movement that is dignified, progressive, and creative for the realization of the revolution towards an inclusive society in Indonesia. He said this covid-19 situation personally impacted his activities, especially the offline activities that he used to hold and attend, but because of this pandemic, everything has changed to be online, even though it has a positive side that he can attend more than 1 meeting in a day, but still, the negative impact that people can not be experienced the practical activities to interact with disabled people because of the online meeting, that is supposed to be offline to get a better understanding on how to interact and talk with disabled. At the same time, people tend to be misfocused on other things when people attended online meetings. On the other hand, his organization is also impacted because they postponed some offline activities, for example, the training activities for disabled people because it needs face-to-face training, especially on practical things, for example, crafting, learning sign language, or even training on how to interact with disabled people directly. On the other side, not all disabled having access to technology which makes them difficult to attend the online meeting and it takes time for them to be familiar with online systems (e.g how to use zoom), the lack of internet access also make it worse meanwhile at the same time they lost their livelihood, and of course the most important thing they need assistance.
Based on his experience in advocating for disabled people, Suharto said it makes a significant impact on disabled people, especially for the one who works in informal sectors, such as masseuse, street seller, crafter, barber, etc. The masseuse, in the early pandemic, lost their income and livelihood because most people were afraid to have direct contact with others. Selamet as our respondent said, “this pandemic has a huge impact on friends with disabilities, for the blind like me especially, who more than 80% of blind people work as a masseuse, now it has decreased in terms of income and even some have no customers at all during this pandemic”. For the crafter, they can still make crafts but sometimes it's difficult because of the lower purchase rate not as good as if it was not a pandemic because people will definitely focus more on personal needs and health needs like vitamins and so on, it becomes very urgent during the pandemic, so the impact on disabled's income is limited but also have to meet health needs. In another experience, for physical or aural disabilities, they mostly work as a tailor, tire patches at the workshop, and a barber. This informal sector needs direct contact with the customer which makes it difficult for them to get the same earnings as before the pandemic.
Then, related to covid information challenges, for example, this covid information is much less accessible, especially for sensory disabled people, because a lot of the information conveyed is not accessible, especially for electronics, a lot of it is difficult to access for the blind, so it becomes very limited also for mass media, such as tv, many of which they have not been able to access, because not all tv channels provide sign interpreter, although there is an interpreter also for certain news only, not all of them are available, so the information received by disabled is also limited, especially about covid-19 information, how to get social services, hot to get the health access if they are getting the virus symptom, and even how to get the vaccine information. Based on the data that Suharto conducted with the team, the accessible information is based on also the PwD who has access to media internet, such as WhatsApp, but it will be difficult for those who do not have access to the internet and digital information. Suharto said it depends on where also the PwD settles in, for those who live far from the city, they can only get the information from television, and not all the tv have sign language interpreters. Based on the assessment that SIGAB did, 60,3% of the PwD respondents said they had the adequacy of the information. However, this is not directly proportional to the increase in knowledge and understanding of COVID-19, where only 31.81% know how the covid-19 transmitted and only 34.80% admitted know about physical distancing protocols in 2020. The adequacy of the information obtained does not guarantee an increase in understanding and knowledge, but there is a significant change in behavior at least. This is also experienced by deaf friends where not all media have accessibility in providing information, for example, there are no fluent readers, unavailability of sign language interpreters, and also for online media such as videos on Instagram or youtube not all of them have a caption to explain what the speakers said.
At the same time, the challenge faced by the disabled children who go to schools, it's also has a tremendous impact, they have to move from face-to-face learning to online models, this technology is new to them and in the beginning, there is a lack of access for children, especially for children with disabilities, they don't have screen readers, they don't have a listening partner to talk to, they don't have an interpreter for sign language, it becomes difficult for them to access lessons. Also, children who need more assistance, rehabilitation, and therapy, and those who need regular check-ups are also disrupted due to limited mobility and distance during the pandemic.
Response to Covid-19 Situation (Advocacy, social services, assistance, etc)
COVID-19 widespread has delivered numerous nations with an exceptional open wellbeing catastrophe that crippled numerous nations through large-scale lockdowns and driven them to financial and social emergencies. Within the case of Indonesia, the government organizations have different limitations, such as large-scale social confinements (PSBB), social distancing, and the closure of non-essential administrations. Work and school exercises were done remotely at domestic, and businesses were too constrained to cut their working hours and restrain the number of guests. As a result, individuals are incapable to work at the office, and businesses have less adaptable opening hours, ending conventional financial action. A well-documented consequence of the pandemic is large-scale unemployment, particularly among people with disabilities.
The decreasing number of patients and social restrictions imposed by the government, of course, have a slightly better impact on people with disabilities. This is also supported by the massive vaccination process in each region, but it is not evenly distributed throughout Indonesia. This vaccination program for some people is very impactful because it makes them dare to return to work with the decrease in the number of daily cases of Covid-19 patients and the social restrictions imposed. Selamet, a blind person who is also the head of a disabled people's organization in South Kalimantan said "the current situation has improved quite a bit and has made me brave again to open massage services and people are also starting to dare to get massages. Of course, it also improves the economy to be better than the previous year which almost 80% I lost my income".
Indeed related to this vaccination has been handled in various ways by friends with disabilities and also the general public because there are many hoaxes that accompany vaccination, many people with disabilities also believe in hoaxes, and these disabled friends have limited access to information. Based on Suharto said, "achievement of vaccination for people with disabilities in Jogja is good because there are many institutions that carry out vaccinations that reach disabled friends, the numbers are pretty good in Jogja for vaccinations". Suharto and friends in SIGAB still fight hoaxes to raise the awareness of people with disabilities. Unequal vaccination programs still occur in some provinces, such as in West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara, it was still lacking but I appreciate that the government is also targeting people with disabilities. People with disabilities are supposed to be a priority for getting health access and services with their limitations on several things including mobility in daily life.
Various advocacy groups have been carried out by organizations for persons with disabilities and the government to increase accessibility to information regarding COVID-19 and the necessary social services. Suharto said he and his organization tried to advocate for covid-19 issues through alternative media, such as calendars, electronic banners, video, and even radio and television in order to raise awareness for friends with disabilities so they won't be consumed by hoaxes. The hoaxes about vaccination for the disabled said they will get sick after getting the vaccine, so it makes the PwD afraid in order to get the vaccine. At the same, when the vaccination program started there are some requirements that makes it difficult for the PwD, such as having ID cards based on the location they are settled in or even not all of them having the ID card yet. Selamet also did the same approach to make the PwD aware of the vaccination, in an interview with us he said that they share information through associations of organizations, both online and offline, but there are still many people with disabilities who are afraid to be vaccinated. Some issues say that if they don't want to be vaccinated, they will have difficulty getting access to social services, so some decide to get vaccinated because of this issue.
Access to health services declined at the beginning of the pandemic, and some people with disabilities had concerns about accessing hospitals, health centers, or other public places. Some also face problems in accessing rehabilitation and therapy centers. SIGAB's efforts were to open a hotline program so that PwD could consult with doctors, but indeed there were some obstacles, such as limited funding, coverage, human resources, and transportation. Bahrul Fuad from the National Commission on Violence Against Women (KOMNAS Perempuan) and is also a board member of AIDRAN (Australia Indonesia Disability Research and Advocacy Network) said "even before the pandemic, the access to health services was already difficult for the PwD. In the pandemic situation, they had to keep their distance, public services were also reduced, this was also an obstacle for them. Agreements to meet doctors and others are also difficult."
As a vulnerable group, PWD is more likely to become unemployed due to the pandemic. In order to curtail costs, employers prefer to dismiss disabled workers, who have historically been regarded as costly due to their association with the accommodation for certain types of disability care. Moreover, disabled people as a whole are more vulnerable to severe health issues associated with COVID-19 than their able-bodied counterparts. In order to support the economic improvement of persons with disabilities, SIGAB conducts several pieces of training that focus on management and marketing, both how to manage finances, market products, package products well, and how sell online. It is hoped that training programs like this can be considered by the government to be implemented in the future, especially for people with disabilities in order to help improve their economy in small and medium enterprises.
New Normal Policies
Various policies have been made by the Indonesian government in response to the pandemic that occurred, especially policies in the new normal. This is a concern for people with disabilities, which some policies are not yet disability-friendly. Dr. Bahrul Fuad said "The new normal policies are still not disability-friendly. For example, the use of masks, for deaf people the communication has to be lips reading, and they have difficulties with that. Then friends with disabilities have to keep their distance in public places, many of these are not accessible. For a wheelchair user, the infrastructure (even before covid) is still not safe and too high to access, which needs attention such as a ramp, accessible handrail, and stairs in public spaces. The social distancing sign is also not disability-friendly. The problem of information in this new normal, for access to service and access information still needs to be improved."
In addition, the rules of social restrictions also have a major impact on each region, the level that each region has a significant impact in supporting the running of the economy again, especially for people with disabilities to return to business. Selamet said that now, apart from the Blind who started to open a massage business again, physical disability and deaf are also starting to open their own businesses, including cutting hair, sewing, patching tires, and selling.
This impact is also felt by persons with disabilities in the community who are now brave enough to help directly, both for services to public areas, hotels, stations, malls, etc. Some have dared to hold hands, direct contact, or direct assistance, now they are better than in 2020 which caused quite a lot of concern about keeping a distance. Based on the rules applied to prevent Covid-19 transmission, namely by keeping a distance and setting some special signs in some public places make it difficult for blind friends, especially in terms of adjustment and accessibility, which of course have changed greatly. When accessing public places, the given cross usually only uses a marker, it is not made visible or accessible to blind people.
Recommendation
1. Regarding access to information, various new policies issued by the government in this epidemic and new norms, the government often issues new policies. It must be accessible for friends with disabilities and supposed to be for all types of disabilities. For example, if there is a change in the social restriction level, it is always volatile, suddenly level 3 continues to level 1, it must be made accessible to that information and other policies.
2. Health service programs, including vaccine services, and other health services related to the prevention of COVID-19, must be made as friendly as possible and accessible for friends with various types of disabilities.
3. The government program for economic empowerment must be made accessible for people with disabilities. Related to the program to increase economic recovery. For example, it must also target people with disabilities who have businesses, small and medium businesses, or who work in the formal sector who lost their jobs during this pandemic, must also get attention from the government so that they can work again, including those who work in the informal sector, how the government supports the capital, this is really important to get them back to be able to rise economically.
4. The data for friends with disabilities is still not good, often if there is a government program, friends who have to get assistance do not get their rights because their only problem is not recorded, this must be fixed, the data system in Indonesia is for friends with disabilities need to improve more.
5. Inclusive response in various criteria of public services, both health, social and economic.
6. The availability of appropriate functional-based assistive devices/assistive technology (AT) with ease of use for persons with disabilities has made a significant contribution to overcoming the various impacts of COVID-19 (personal and social impacts, economic impacts, educational impacts). Increasing access to affordable aids based on an assessment of the priority needs of persons with disabilities in this era of Covid-10 or post Covid-19.
7. Ensure the provision of accessible education, especially for students with disabilities during a pandemic or new normal, especially in access to technology and access to health services or therapy.
8. Disability and Disaster Inclusion Perspectives to Consolidate COVID-19 Response Operation Plan.
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