Individuals with Disabilities

The State of Connecticut remains committed to ensuring the safety of residents with disabilities throughout the response and recovery phases of COVID-19.

The resources on this page are provided to ensure individuals with disabilities, and those who care for persons with disabilities, can continue to make informed decisions. In addition to the below resources, daily COVID-19 press briefings are uploaded to YouTube with closed captioning functionality, and picture-in-picture interpretation is included. 

At the direction of Governor Lamont, the Department of Aging and Disability Services has been incorporated into the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Board.

The following communication cards and video have been compiled to make the COVID testing process easier to understand. You should always reach out to your preferred testing site to get exact information about the testing process at that site.  

• FDA Card (Health Pulse - Audere) 
• CDC Testing Instructions
• NuVance Health – English
• NuVance Health – Spanish
• NuVance Health – Portuguese
• Testing Site Walkthrough Video- Community Health Center, Inc.

Resources for Testing Sites

• Translation, Interpretation, and Accessibility at Testing Sites

Important General Resources

• Guidelines for Hospital and Emergency Department Visits (Español)
• Aging and Disability Services
• Department of Developmental Services
• Resources from Ready.gov

Department of Developmental Services COVID-19 Pages

• For Individuals & Families
• For Providers

Information for Students

• Coronavirus - COVID-19 & College Students with Disabilities (National Center for College Students with Disabilities)

Resources for the Blind Community

• National Federation of the Blind
• CRIS Radio (CRIS Radio is radio-reading service that has been serving people who are blind or print-challenged for nearly four decades.)
• American Federation for the Blind
• Freedom Scientific is a manufacturer of assistive technology products for those with vision impairments or learning disabilities with available resources:
  • Free home licenses of assistive software for low vision and blindness
  • Training Resources

• Hadley Free Training on Technology and Other Blindness Skills
• Learning Resources from American Printing House for the Blind
• iPhone Vision Accessibility Information
• iPad Vision Accessibility Information
• Microsoft Disability Answer Desk (This includes product issues, accessibility questions, and use of assistive technology.)

Resources for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community

• CDC information on COVID-19 in ASL
• National Association for the Deaf

Communication Cards

• Yale New Haven Health
• New Jersey (Español)
• Massachusetts 

The following tech-based resources were compiled by the National Association for the Deaf:

 

Video Remote Interpreting

• CyraCom (iOS, Android)
• FaceTime communication between the remote interpreting agency and the deaf or hard of hearing patient using the patient’s own FaceTime number in the event traditional VRI devices do not work
• Purple VRI (iOS, Android)
• Stratus VRI (iOS, Android)
• Linguabee is offering free video interpreting for COVID-19 testing

Speech to Text

• Ava (iOS, Andriod)
• Google Live Transcribe (can type back many languages) (Android)
• Microsoft Translator (can type back, can translate, many languages) (iOS, Android, Windows)
• Otter.ai (English only) (iOS, Android)
• Web Captioner (many languages) (universal web page)

Typing Back

• Big Note (iOS, Android)
• Cardzilla (iOS, Android)
• Google Keep (iOS, Android)
• Sorenson Buzz (iOS, Android)

For phone calls*, patients may want to consider having more than one video relay service (VRS) provider’s app on the provided device, in case one provider experiences technical difficulties. Patients also may want to consider text-based relay services if they cannot get a reliable internet connection.

• Convo (iOS, Android)
• Global VRS (iOS, Android)
• Purple (iOS, Android)
• Sorenson (iOS, Android)
• ZVRS (iOS, Android)

Text-based fallback options for phone calls

• IP Relay (iOS, Android)
• Mobile TTY or real-time text (RTT) calling 711 (iOS, some Android) 

In addition to the tools above, DeafBlind people may want to load an application that can display text in large type.

• Apple Notes (built in on iOS)
• Make it Big (iOS)
• Cardzilla (iOS)

 

 

*The FCC currently prohibits the use of VRS when all parties to a call are in the same room. If parties are not in the same room, VRS is allowed. Patients should comply with all FCC rules.