Many countries are not providing quality health services for people with disabilities. Furthermore, few countries’ health systems gather data disaggregated by disability. This makes it difficult to craft and advance measures that ensure people with disabilities have access to the health services they need.

While barriers to access and lack of data are not new, national COVID-19 pandemic responses have made the effects of these challenges painfully clear. The failure to provide disability-inclusive responses has put people with intellectual disabilities at higher risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19.

Despite their higher risk, people with intellectual disabilities have been largely overlooked in discussions about which populations should receive priority access to COVID-19 vaccines.