The importance of being informed about the coronavirus – from how to recognize the symptoms, to what to do to manage day-to-day life – is essential for all, and not to include people with disabilities is to leave them “without information that could save their lives”.

That’s according to Rosemary Kayess, vice-chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, who has spoken candidly to UN News from home in Australia, about her own fears and the intense challenges that people with disabilities are living with, during the pandemic.

Reports of some being locked in their rooms, while others have felt totally isolated and abandoned, are some of the examples of discrimination and inequality that those living with disability have experienced.

Ms. Kayess spoke via Skype, to Julia Dean from our UN Country Team, based in the Australian capital, Canberra.