Disability and COVID-19: Challenges of Mask-Wearing

Photo of smiling person, looking at camera, wearing a white button-down shirt with a leopard print. Plain blue background.

By: Zuleny Gonazalez, MAC’s 2019-2020 Young Adult Leader Fellow

We’ve been in quarantine for a while now because of COVID-19. People are trying to get used to this way of life. Some people are ok being quarantined, some people are not. I am a person with disabilities. My disabilities are Autism and Intellectual disability. For me, it has been difficult for many reasons.

I will be writing a series of blog posts about my experiences during this pandemic. This is the first one and I will be talking about wearing a mask.

When I am outside wearing a mask or anything that goes over my face, it makes me overly sensitive. Overly sensitive, for me, is when a lot of sensory things happen at the same time. For example, I get overwhelmed or just have too many clothes on and it feels like I can't breathe. When I am in confined places or have too many clothes on I get anxious and sweaty. When I wear a mask, I feel anxious because it feels like I only have the little air in the mask to breathe.

If I go outside and take my mask off, I get self-conscious about what people are thinking of me. I start to feel judged and think that people don’t really know the reasons why I take my mask off.

When I do take it off people stare at me and it freaks me out. I've been judged before and it's not a good feeling. When I take the mask off, I'm not sure if they are just staring or judging me. Masks are great for protection but for certain people like me they can be your worst enemy if you don't like being confined.

My suggestions for what schools should do to help when re-opening are: for students with disabilities that don’t have a mask, especially for students that are low-income, the school should find ways to get them a mask. Schools can find ways to make masks that accommodate people that have sensory needs with face coverings. I found a place that made a mask for me for my sensory needs. For example, mine has more space between my face and the mask. The school can make a mask with an extra string when students don't want it on their ears. Schools can also give students with disabilities those blue breathable masks. I hope this blog of my experiences helps you with what you are going through during this pandemic. Thank you for reading.