The unmitigated, seasonal, and repeated spread of COVID-19 is forecasting disaster as a mass disabling event. Not only does it represent the ableist exclusion of immunocompromised Canadians, many of whom will have become so as a result of the pandemic itself, it also suggests a continuous hemorrhaging of workers through chronic illness in already tight labour pools. Research shows that structural answers can help mitigate some of the risk, and get us closer to achieving a Canada that’s accessible to all: We have to fix the air we breathe.
The Air We Breathe examines the tensions and contradictions between Canada’s commitment to an accessible country and the compromises ableist economic policy and pandemic policy will make. It provides recommendations for governments and employers to improve indoor air quality that could help reduce the transmission of COVID-19 as, which is an airborne virus. Just as “living with cholera” meant education campaigns and infrastructural changes, so too must we do the same for COVID-19.