Affect, dis/ability and the pandemic

Abstract

The pandemic has heightened anxieties, impacted mental health and threatened to create an overwhelming sense of existential dread. We recognise the material ways in which disabled people have been differentially impacted by Covid‐19 and make a case for understanding the affective dimensions of the pandemic. We develop a theoretical approach ‐ cutting across medical sociology and critical disability studies ‐ that understands affect as a social, cultural, relational and psychopolitical phenomenon. We introduce a public engagement project that took place in March and April of 2020 that garnered blogspots from around the world to capture the pandemic's impact on the lives of disabled people. Our data analysis reveals three key affective themes: fragility, anxiety and affirmation. To understand the emotional impacts of Covid‐19 upon the lives of disabled people we embed critical analyses of affect in the dual processes of disablism and ableism: the dis/ability complex. We conclude by considering how we might conceive of a post‐pandemic recovery that places the health and well‐being of disabled people at the centre of proceedings.