Meltzer Ariella, Barnes Emma, Wehbe Ayah
Centre for Social Impact, University of New South Wales, UNSW, 704, Level 7, Science and Engineering Building (E8), Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
Centre for Social Impact, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Disabil Health J. 2025 Apr;18(2):101720. doi: 10.1016/j.dhjo.2024.101720. Epub 2024 Oct 17.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, people with disability had a right and an acute need to access accessible COVID-19 information, in formats such as sign language, Braille, large print and Easy Read/English. Yet such information was not always provided and many people with disability were without sufficient accessible information.
This paper explores the experiences of Australian accessible information provider organizations of producing accessible information during the pandemic. The intent is to understand why insufficient accessible information reached people with disability.
In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 accessible information provider organizations and one other stakeholder in Australia, and thematically analyzed.
The findings show that accessible information provider organizations felt an immense depth and breadth of responsibility for providing accessible information to people with disability during the pandemic. However, they were hampered by constantly changing information; workforce challenges; and a lack of financial, logistic and partnership assistance. Other notable difficulties included having no source of clear/accurate information to translate to accessible formats and not having medical/health expertise themselves.
The findings have implications for better preparation for accessible information access in future public health crises. There should be greater funding and logistic support for accessible information provider organizations. Provision of clear/accurate information and subject matter checks of accessible products would be helpful. Responsibility for this should be scoped into existing outreach, education and communications roles - for example, in local health services, general practice clinics and government health departments.
在新冠疫情期间，残疾人有权且迫切需要获取以手语、盲文、大字印刷品和简易读物/英语等形式提供的无障碍新冠信息。然而，此类信息并非总能得到提供，许多残疾人无法获取足够的无障碍信息。
本文探讨了澳大利亚无障碍信息提供组织在疫情期间制作无障碍信息的经历。目的是了解为何残疾人获得的无障碍信息不足。
对澳大利亚17个无障碍信息提供组织和另一个利益相关者进行了深入访谈，并进行了主题分析。
研究结果表明，无障碍信息提供组织在疫情期间深感有责任为残疾人提供广泛的无障碍信息。然而，他们受到信息不断变化、劳动力挑战以及缺乏财政、后勤和伙伴关系援助的阻碍。其他显著困难包括没有清晰/准确的信息来源可供翻译成无障碍格式，以及自身缺乏医学/健康专业知识。
研究结果对未来公共卫生危机中更好地准备无障碍信息获取具有启示意义。应为无障碍信息提供组织提供更多资金和后勤支持。提供清晰/准确的信息以及对无障碍产品进行主题审核会有所帮助。对此的责任应纳入现有的宣传、教育和沟通职责范围，例如在当地卫生服务机构、全科诊所和政府卫生部门。
