Coronavirus: Stop using the word 'vulnerable' for disabled people government told

Disability rights campaigner Baroness Campbell is urging all councils and the government to stop using the word ‘vulnerable’ to describe disabled people, believing its use during the pandemic damages their human rights.

Baroness Jane Campbell, a crossbench peer, said the word was used a lot when describing disabled people during lockdown and only served to ‘anonymise’ their human rights.

Speaking at an online event about government policy responses to COVID-19, Baroness Campbell said: "We should stand up today and say we don’t want that word anymore. As of today, we will rid ourselves of the term ‘vulnerability’.”

Baroness Campbell relies on care at home and needs a ventilator to help her breathe at night. She uses a wheelchair and a computer on which she types with one finger.

‘A short walk’ from ‘vulnerables’ to ‘expendables’

"I belong to a group called ‘The Vulnerables’". Sadly, we are not a new pop group about to make our millions, but we are very popular at the moment", said Baroness Campbell at the event hosted by the London School of Economics (LSE).

With many disabled people put in the category of ‘vulnerable’ and others, like herself, told to ‘shield’, she told attendees she was forced to campaign for the basic human rights of disabled people during the pandemic.

Under the Coronavirus Act, she said disabled people lost crucial care. She called out the policy of ‘frailty scoring’ to prioritise ventilation and intensive care treatment and denounced the practice of GPs “ringing around asking the vulnerable if they wanted to consider a DNR on their notes”.

In April, at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in the UK, Baroness Campbell signed a letter along with hundreds of disability charities and campaigners urging NHS doctors and nurses not to trample on the rights of disabled people by denying them life-saving coronavirus treatment.

Baroness Campbell told attendees: “It began to feel like there was only a very short walk from being one of the ‘vulnerables’ to the chilling club of the ‘expendables’.

“It certainly didn’t feel like we were sheltered. Far worse. We were definitely not sheltered from the worst effects, with more than 13,000 older and disabled people having died from COVID-19 in care homes across England.”

She said use of the term 'vulnerable people' made her “uneasy” and “exasperated” because it highlighted “weakness, victimhood and a cry for others to take responsibility for us”.

'Barriers in society' are a form of lockdown for disabled

"Disabled people young and old, do not want to be typecast as vulnerable in order to get citizenship rights like daily help or reasonable adjustments in our lives. We want services relevant to our needs and access to the same environment as everyone else.

"Thousands of disabled people are used to a form of lockdown due to barriers in society".

Disabled people have said poor access to care, medicine and food during lockdown left some of them going hungry and others suicidal, according to a poll published in May.

Almost half of disabled people and their carers (45 per cent), responding to an online poll (conducted by Inclusion Scotland between 1-30 April), said COVID-19 impacted their social care support with 30 per cent reporting their care had either stopped completely or been reduced.

Most disabled people (64 per cent) said they struggled to get the food and the medicine they need. Some disabled people also had no way of proving their ‘vulnerable’ status or of obtaining food or medicines unless they or someone else at risk, goes out into a shop or a pharmacy.

Some people said they had been asked to sign Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) notices. Others said they were told they would not be ventilated if they contracted COVID-19. Social distancing and isolation proved very challenging for disabled people with significant numbers with existing mental health problems, feeling suicidal.

It also revealed that public bodies were failing to consider the experiences of disabled people before making decisions.

At the online event, Liz Sayce, former chief executive of Disability Rights UK and a senior fellow at LSE’s International Inequalities Institute, said: “It’s about disabled people strongly shaping policy, it’s based on reciprocity, participation and full inclusion for everyone.”

Also speaking at the event was Clenton Farquharson, a disabled person who is a member of the Coalition for Collaborative Care and a trustee of the Race Equality Foundation.

Clenton Farquharson said rules must be changed around sexism, disability, racism and institutional discrimination to promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, wealth or other status.

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