Disabled and Deaf Trans People’s Survey Fact Sheet
The COVID-19 Pandemic
The Disabled and Deaf Trans People’s Survey (DTPS) is a groundbreaking effort by the Disability Project of Transgender Law Center to design and deliver a disability and trans led survey about the lives of disabled and Deaf trans folks in the United States. The DTPS sought to document and amplify the experiences, needs, and priorities of disabled and Deaf trans people. Too often, due to ableism, eugenics, and anti-Black racism, our cultural and collective knowledge and perspectives have been overlooked in research, making it harder specifically for Black, brown, Indigenous, queer, trans, undocumented, and poor disabled and Deaf communities to advocate for the changes we deserve.
The DTPS team is deeply committed to honoring the trust that so many of our folks placed in us by taking the survey. In releasing this series of fact sheets, it is our hope that the findings from the DTPS provides a useful tool for the vital work ahead of shifting narratives, organizing across historic divides, and building collective power.
The findings below make unmistakably clear that Deaf and disabled trans people have encountered profound, systemic barriers to accessing essential care during the COVID-19 pandemic—and that their lives and wellbeing are routinely treated as disposable.
Barriers to Healthcare & Services during COVID-19 Pandemic
Many Deaf and disabled trans people have not been able to get access to the care and services they need during the ongoing pandemic.
Out of those who needed services:
- 46% did not receive safe and adequate medical care, medications, or medical equipment.
- 85% did not have safe and adequate access to personal assistants.
- 71% did not have safe and adequate access to disability-specific services.
Devaluing the Lives of Deaf and Disabled Trans People During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Many Deaf and disabled trans people feel that their lives and wellbeing have been devalued during the pandemic.
- 85% felt that medical providers devalued the lives of people like them when deciding who to treat.
- 87% said that other people have behaved like their health and safety was not important.
- 89% worried that if they would get sick, they would not get the care they needed.
Nearly all participants (97%) said that during the pandemic, politicians and the media have talked about people like them as if their lives didn’t matter as much as other people’s lives.
Conclusion
During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2023), Deaf and disabled trans people were systematically denied the care and services they needed to survive. Many disabled and Deaf trans people were not able to receive adequate personal attendant care, either because there was a PPE shortage, attendant shortage, or folks needing differing levels of COVID safe measures depending on their needs and comfortability. Even in moments of acute need, care was often inaccessible. Some were warned to stay home for non-COVID medical issues due to hospital overflow. Others chose to avoid hospitals and clinics altogether, fearing exposure to COVID during routine appointments.
Culturally, the message was unmistakable: if you are Deaf, disabled, and trans—especially if you are also Black, brown, Indigenous, fat, undocumented, or poor—your life is not a priority. The medical system, media, and policymakers sent clear signals that our lives were expendable. Participants feared that if they got sick, they would not receive care. They worried their life-saving equipment—like ventilators—could be taken and given to someone seen as more “deserving,” more “able-bodied,” more “healthy.”
As the government and elite send a clear eugenic message that the pandemic is over and as those with more privilege return to a mask-free “normal,” the systems and networks that Deaf and disabled trans people rely on are continuing to be stripped away. Deaf and disabled people know without a doubt that COVID is not a thing of the past, but a continuing, shifting pandemic that continues to kill, disable and further impact BIPOC, trans, poor people in particular. Meanwhile, our current administration continues to announce with enthusiasm spending cuts and Executive Orders that will disproportionately harm those living with long COVID and other chronic conditions.
Now, even as the immediate crisis has faded for some, Deaf and disabled trans people continue to face the aftermath. Now more than ever, we must carry forward the legacy of care within Deaf and disabled trans communities, sustaining and expanding the networks of mutual aid, interdependence, and community.
About the Disabled and Deaf Trans People’s Survey
Open to all trans and nonbinary disabled and Deaf adults in the U.S., the survey was accessible in ASL, Spanish, and English in both spoken and written forms. To keep the survey short and accessible, the DTPS was broken into five different topics and participants were able to choose which sections they wanted to engage with. The information represented in this fact sheet is from the COVID-19 and Extreme Weather portion of the survey (n=1,062). This survey was possible due to the innumerable trans, disabled, Deaf, and ill community members who generously gave advice, direction, and reflection.
We worked in close collaboration with disabled community based strategic advisors Ma’ayan Anafi, and Akemi Nishida and the research team of Ash Stephens and Emily Maurin-Waters.