From The Commissioner’s Desk

Hello Everyone,

Over the past few months, NYC has been focusing on the outbreak, containment, and treatment of COVID-19. We have worked to flatten the curve of COVID-19 through the expansion of accessible testing facilities, continuance of health education, and adherence to social distancing as well as face-covering mandates. Despite the positive indications of our progress, we cannot ease up on health and safety practices.

Everyone should continue following NYC Health Depart- ment guidelines. Stay home unless absolutely necessary. If you need to go out, wear some form of facial covering, stay a minimum distance of six feet apart from others whenever possible, avoid touching your face, and wash your hands frequently. For the latest Health guidelines visit nyc.gov/coronavirus or text “COVID” to 692-692.

If you are in need of food delivery, home healthcare ser- vices, mental health services or anything else during this time, please visit our website at NYC.gov/disability-coronavirus for continually updated COVID-19 disability resources.

If you do not have access to a computer or the Internet, you can still reach out to our office using other ways to receive resources and assistance.

Beyond COVID resources, my office has been work- ing to ensure accessibility in the digital space. On Global Accessibility Awareness Day (5/21), we released a series of accessibility guides for web- sites, documents, social media, videos and virtual meetings. For a complete list of these guides visit NYC.gov/ accessibility guides.

In addition, to help pass the time we have put togeth- er a collection of accessible virtual events that you can enjoy from home. Our Virtual Activities Toolkit contains activities such as virtual events, museum tours, workouts, performances, podcasts, and more.

To view our continually updated list, please visit NYC. gov/disability-virtual activities. In addition, we plan on virtually celebrating the 30th anniversary of the ADA throughout the month of July so please visit nyc.gov/ada30 for updates on virtual events.

As we begin to plan for what an inclusive recovery process looks like, MOPD will continue to advocate for the needs of the disability community. If anyone with a disability needs any kind of assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office using the contact information above.

Thank you to all of our doctors, nurses, home health aides, personal care attendants, and other frontline healthcare staff who are saving lives every single day. Thank you to our grocery store workers, our local restaurants, food delivery services, transit workers, taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers, sanitation workers, and other essential employees who continue to keep our City running.

We are all in this together and we will move past this stronger than ever,

Ciao,
Commissioner Victor Calise