The Return of COVID-19: Working Together to Achieve Equitable Service Provision for Americans with Disabilities
by Rabbi Michael Levy
In my previous post, we explored what people with disabilities can do as individuals to prepare for and endure a COVID-19 outbreak. We must also “wake up “ all levels of government so that we receive equitable treatment as a minority.
Why our minority status so important—The Case of the CDC
The CDC identifies women, blacks, nonbinary individuals, certain religious “sects” and ethnic groups as minorities. Once their status was recognized, the CDC tracked how COVID-19 impacted them, endeavored to provide effective service, conducted post-pandemic follow-ups and assessed the effectiveness of its service provision.
The CDC never identified Americans with disabilities as a minority. It never tracked how COVID-19 impacted us, never endeavored to provide effective service, never conducted post-pandemic follow-ups and never assessed the effectiveness of its service provision.
Many of us with disabilities are unable to go online or access social media. The CDC could have reached us via radio and television with life-saving information. Nowhere could I find a non-visual description of using masks, washing hands, maintaining social distance, identifying symptoms and seeking treatment. As far as I know, there is no process within the CDC through which to request material in accessible format.
You can call the CDC at 1-800-cdc-info, but that number was never broadcast or provided to agencies and advocacy groups that work with us.
Try contacting the CDC by phone, and you will be appalled.
The sound quality is poor. Doctors, service providers and customers are all lumped under one number by a government which lavished millions of dollars on visually delivered material.
Those who answered the calls were not trained well.
Call to Action
Well-funded entities with contacts in government must work together to force the CDC to provide us with the level of service that other minorities receive. WE must temporarily put aside battles for inclusion in entertainment and athletics. Of course, we want society to respect our ability, but that won’t happen if COVID-19, which has no respect for life, incapacitates us. For now, let’s shift our focus from integration into temples, schools, and camps to scrutiny of CDC services to us should a COVID-19 outbreak surge again.
From Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur we plead:
Zachrenu lechayim—
Remember us for life,
O ruler who delights in life,
And inscribe us in the Book of Life,
For Your Sake, O Living God.
May the Ruler who delights in life bestow sweet respite upon his weary flock. May all Americans and the agencies who serve them unite to promote life and health during 5784.
A native of Bradley Beach, New Jersey, Rabbi Michael Levy attributes his achievements to G-d's beneficence and to his courageous parents. They supported him as he learned to travel independently, visited Israel, and became more Jewishly observant. For 65 years, JBI International supported him with braille and recorded Judaica material.
He received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1981 and an MSW from Columbia University in 1982.
As a board member and now President of Yad Hachazakah, Rabbi Levy strives to make the Jewish experience and Jewish texts accessible to Jews with disabilities. In lectures at synagogues, camps, and educational institutions, he cites Nachshon, who according to tradition boldly took the plunge into the Red Sea even before it miraculously parted. Rabbi Levy elaborates, "We who have disabilities should be Nachshons--boldly taking the plunge into the Jewish experience, supported by laws and lore that mandate our integration.”
He applauds Jewish Disability Inclusion News’s ambition to give voice not just to those who work with the disabled, but also to people with disabilities themselves. “About us? Not without us” he is fond of reminding those eager to listen, and the media to whom the maxim may be out of their comfort zone.
For over 20 years, Rabbi Levy served as director of Travel Training at MTA New York CityTransit. Now retired, he is an active participant in Congregations Aish Kodesh and Young Israel in Woodmere, New York. Most of all, he relishes the company of his children, grandchildren, and large extended family.