After 8 months of campaigning the ongoing issue relating to wearing face masks for people with disabilities and how this interacts with the public is still unresolved .Over 10 million euros sent on advertising in Ireland alone and none of this including a simple poster campaign or pass for those who can’t wear mask .
As outlined below the response from the public is getting more aggressive and as Ireland hopes to return children to school in 2 weeks parents must me concerned that their children will face bullying and further abuse because the cannot war masks .
‘Well he looks normal why can’t he wear one ? ” the lady heading into work on our bus blurted out ,as she was going by the man with the hard hat added ” best leave him at home man “ and so begins a normal day of travel in the new masked world of Dublin.
Make no mistake mask wearing is vital and fully supported in all locations and should have happened in March , nevertheless some people can’t wear masks in any circumstances and allowance need to be mad for these people as they go about their day.
Announcing that mask wearing was mandatory is fine but the failure to supply a mechanism to ensure that travellers and shoppers are made to realise that some people by not wearing a mask can’t comply with the instruction for health reasons has resulted in the ignorant people assuming that people with constraints are just non-compling and do not care about managing the virus .
This is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue as it will result in people with disabilities forced back into lock-down to avoid confrontation .
having spent over 160 days in lockdown with no day care services or respite care the slow opening up of Ireland and the ability to travel to various locations with their carers was such a positive moment until the mandatory instruction on mask was introduced without some system to ensure that persons with ASD and other disabilities could travel without masks .
Autism, kid looking far away without interesting
Regretfully based on the past 2 weeks reaction to masks on public transport and this weeks introduction of mask in retail may result in Ireland only opening for those who can wear masks and again those with special needs and vunerable will be left behind .