Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are four philanthropic disability-inclusive approaches to COVID-19 that can help inform foundations' responses to the pandemic.

• How can individual donors build disability-inclusive responses or support inclusive organizations? 

• Read more about implementing disability-inclusion methods in grantmaking. 

This resource offers four disability-inclusive approaches, each accompanied by examples, to inform your foundation’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For so many of the 1 billion people worldwide who have disabilities – including chronic illnesses – the repercussions of COVID-19 will be disproportionately catastrophic. Society has always failed to prioritize access and inclusion for people with disabilities. But now, the pandemic has significantly amplified how urgent it is for all of us to uphold the rights of the disability community to access life-saving healthcare and other life-sustaining services. As the world finds ways to heal, rebuild, and move forward, it is more vital than ever to recognize and address the needs of the disability community in our grantmaking.

How can you incorporate this lens into your COVID-19-related responses? Four key approaches to disability-inclusion in your current responses include:

  1. Flexibility. Providing grantees flexibility in terms of the grant purpose, deadlines, reporting and grant periods, allows grantees to best address this unprecedented challenge and maintain strong operations.
  2. Disability-focused rapid response. The Disability Inclusion Fund’s rapid response grantmaking will provide support for organizations on the front lines that are serving people with disabilities during #COVID19—including mutual aid, support for systems-change advocacy, and more.
  3. Inclusive grant application processes. Provide proposal and report forms in accessible formats for people with disabilities. This can be as simple as ensuring that a Word Document or PDF is accessible.
  4. Sharing disability inclusion resources with grantees. Encourage engagement with the disability community within their COVID-19 responses.

Read the full article about disability-inclusive approaches to COVID-19 from the Presidents' Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy.