'I’d like to Go Back to the Times When There Was no Pandemic': The Temporality of the COVID‑19 Crisis in the Life of People with Disabilities

Abstract

The article considers temporal characteristics of the life experiences of people with disabilities in the conditions of the COVID‑19 pandemic. Based on an analysis of focused interviews with people who live with disabilities and experience limited mobility, the authors identify the dynamics of perception and assessment of the pandemic impact on everyday life. The effects of the pandemic in its successive waves have led to crucial changes, hindered access to specialized services, social and medical support for people with disabilities. The informants related experiences of a rapid reorganization of life caused by the need to master new rules, norms and meanings that limit life chances, complicate the implementation of mobility and communication, lower the level of subjective well-being, increase inequality and social exclusion. The dynamics of perception of the consequences of the pandemic and ways of coping with new challenges are presented in relation to time characteristics. The authors present the trials faced by children and adults with disabilities and their families, who were forced to rebuild their household structure, family budget, housing space and social environment, in the temporal context of the new pandemic reality. In the narratives, a combination of linearity and cyclicity, multiple temporalities of collected life stories are revealed. Strategies of reorganizing life to maintain living standards and health, such as receiving social services and payments, mastering digital services and inclusion in new solidarity, are highlighted. The issues of social status, physical and mental health of people with disabilities, new forms of inequality and consequences of disability of people due to COVID‑19 are problematized.