New Legal Guidance and Resources to Ensure—and Expand—Access to COVID-19 Vaccines for People with Disabilities and Older Adults

As part of a shared commitment to President Biden’s National Strategy and Executive Order to ensure an equitable COVID-19 response, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the Administration for Community Living (ACL) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have published several new resources to help states, vaccination providers and others leading COVID-19 response activities improve access to vaccines for people with disabilities and older adults. These resources clarify legal requirements, illustrate some of the barriers to vaccine access faced by people with disabilities and older people, and provide strategies – and examples of how the aging and disability network can help employ them – to ensure accessibility. (See the announcement from HHS.)

Documents

Guidance on Federal Legal Standards Prohibiting Disability Discrimination in COVID-19 Vaccination Programs (hhs.gov)

Disability Access in Vaccine Distribution (hhs.gov)

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