Pandemic barrier against accessibility

From rights to fear in contemporary cities

Abstract

This paper discusses how the appropriation of city spaces has been changed with the Covid-19 pandemic, extending the discussions about barriers to accessibility to the issues of health safety. Therefore, is presented a Brazilian overview that show how the disabled person is inserted in the dynamics of urban life and in the period of proliferation of the covid-19 pandemic.  The theoretical basis is supported by the texts of Bauman (2009), Lefebvre (2001), Jacobs (2011), Gehl (2015), Castells (2020), Agamben et al. (2020) and Morin (2020). The discussions pointed to growing forms of social exclusion in relation to the different presentations of disabilities in the social strata of the Brazilian population. The pandemic aggravated previous urban problems, making explicit the health security crisis in Brazil and the lack of accessibility to consistent information by these people for their protection and prevention of the disease. In the face of the uncertainties that permeate today, the post-pandemic future does not yet present itself as a promising scenario. We are left with the hope of change for better health security conditions, access to information, and a new mentality focused on policies that assist people with disabilities, that aimed their social and urban inclusion.