My child and I both have Long COVID. Even in COVID-aware spaces, we are excluded because of their pre-existing disability.

I watch through the window as the seasons change, spring to summer. The heat permeates, the neighbor kids run and play. Sprinklers soaking their bodies as they dance in glee. My ten-year-old child, J, sits stimming, gleefully twisting at the waist from side to side, as their hair blows in the breeze, trying to sign. Trying to communicate to neighborhood kids, and a community who abandons and ignores. I smile and mirror “Nice work” in American Sign Language, and model with the augmentative and alternative communication, “I saw you said, ‘I like.’”  We return to the 14-hour tube feed in… Read more…