Since March of last year, the Law, Disability & Social Change (LDSC) Project at Windsor Law has compiled over 1,200 news stories relating to people with disabilities and COVID-19. Now, as we pass the one year of the pandemic, the research centre at the Faculty of Law is sharing its findings with the public as a searchable online database of Canadian news stories covering a wide range of topics.
The new resource was developed by Associate Dean (Research & Graduate Studies) Laverne Jacobs and two student researchers: Dalal Hjjih, who tracked and collected the stories, and Nadia Shivratan, who created the searchable database on their website.
“Initially, we started collecting stories because media was one of the most effective ways of tracking the legal and non-legal developments relating to people with disabilities as the pandemic evolved,” says Dr. Jacobs.
“At that time, no one thought that we would still be experiencing the pandemic a year later. We hope that this database provides a resource on the legal and other issues affecting people with disabilities during this historical time period. I think it will be useful for a variety of researchers and advocates.”
The LDSC Project plans to continue updating the database as more news stories become available.
The research centre undertakes a variety of projects that feed grounded research and theory into policy development and legal decision-making. Since 2014, the LDSC Project has conducted research into current legal and policy issues to help empower people with disabilities to fully achieve their rights and, more generally, to foster and develop inclusive communities. The project focuses on listening to, incorporating, and respecting the voices of people with disabilities and aims to further the motto “nothing without us.”
For more information about the Law, Disability & Social Change Project, visit its website.