05/2020
Like any community, the disability community at large has faced many uphill battles in the struggle for justice. Today, we continue to bear witness to the wagering of some lives as more valuable than others. In the wake of COVID-19 and worldwide shortages of life-saving medical equipment, there has been a noticeable uptick in dangerous rhetoric about disabled lives. There have been not only implications, but unapologetic statements, that the death of a person who is elderly, who is immunocompromised, who is already living with a disability, is merely collateral damage in this unprecedented global health crisis. Those of us who are listening have begun to ask questions, and to make demands. Where are our voices? Who are our advocates? What makes one person less deserving of a respirator than another?
This issue of Disability Disclosed is the second ever issue of the journal, and IHED members had envisioned a very different outcome for the project when we began meeting as a group in the fall of 2019. We envisioned many more meetings and celebrations together, a hard copy of this issue to be circulated through university libraries, and a launch event with friends in the spring. I know that many of our group members envisioned having more time, more energy, and more resources to devote to submitting a piece. I had originally drafted a very different editor’s note than the one I am writing now. Instead, as pieces began to be received and edited, undergraduate students at Harvard were instructed to leave their on-campus homes, courses at HGSE and across campus began online instruction, and all campus buildings effectively closed for the remainder of the semester. Our time and energy, especially the time and energy of disabled students, had to focus elsewhere. It has truly been, as we have heard many times, an unprecedented experience.
Despite all of this, I am thrilled to see that our project has been able to transition to a solely digital platform, and I hope that in this format it can become accessible to more readers. I feel very proud of this collaborative work which has, during such dark and uncertain times for our community, offered stories of resilience, power, and identity from students across Harvard campuses. Disability Disclosed began as a project seeking to amplify disabled voices at Harvard, and I believe that it came not a moment too soon. In the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, it is crucial that we not cast aside disabled voices, but listen, learn, and advocate fiercely. To quote our founders, disability is a part of the human experience, and an invaluable element of human diversity. We offer our stories in collective mourning and celebration for the lives lost to COVID-19, and we continue our work in hopeful pursuit of a brighter future.
Libby Federici