For someone who has literally died, I’m in good health. My short bout with death a decade ago left its mark, and a computer in my chest, but overall I still do most of what I did before I stopped breathing and my heart stopped beating in a useful way. Before that point I thought our city and overall society didn’t do enough to ensure accessible infrastructure is built everywhere, and I feel it more pressing today as I’m a decade older and nearing middle-age.

Being in a pandemic only makes the concern more urgent. Millions of people have died, but tens of millions more are disabled. Some haven’t come to terms with the loss of their health, and many deny the cause. The health system is constantly overwhelmed, and specialists are rare, with generalists unwilling to accept that the pandemic is ongoing and controlling infections is part of their job.

There are others like Kelly who explain what it’s like for someone who was disabled before the pandemic added so many people to her condition’s ranks. And what have measures used to fight the pandemic 4 years ago, and later to push the public into supporting the old economy, meant for her accessing healthcare or wider society at all? It’s presently bleak.