COVID Safe Campus centers disabled academics in COVID-19 response in terms of health equity, equal opportunity for education and employment, and the health of our communities at large.
Throughout this year of significant policy changes, COVID Safe Campus has collected robust data each semester, tracking policy change over time as these shifts occur with broader trends in our communities and governments.
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Our academic research is designed for action and use in advocacy directly, to make an impact in real time. We develop advocacy tools and guidance to best support those most impacted by COVID policies and lack thereof in higher education.
COVID Safe Campus' poster presented at the American Public Health Association's 2022 Annual Meeting & Expo
Click to view the poster on figshare: here
Click to view the poster as a tagged PDF here
Click to view the abstract here
Recommended poster citation:
Griest Schwartzman, E., Matas, K. J., & Bergan, C. (2022). COVID Mitigation is Disability Access: An analysis of COVID policies
at Institutions of Higher Education across the United States (Version 1). figshare.
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21586110.v1
Our analysis of 141 universities and colleges across the US in April 2022 found none of the schools analyzed met the most protective COVID mitigation best practices.
Masks:
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35% had a mask requirement of classroom or greater.
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13 % had a campus-wide mask requirement.
Hybrid:
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Only 11% of student respondents to our policy evaluation form were offered bi-modal hybrid access to learning.
These policies were once widespread and normalized. We find these changes to be alarming.
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Policy and mitigation strategy bans:
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48.2% of schools sampled either banned or discouraged people from requiring masks.
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44.2% of respondents reported their school prohibited or discouraged providing hybrid access.
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These bans are cause for concern for disabled academics, who have a right to equal opportunity.
Both masks and remote access have been found to be reasonable modifications for disabled people. To learn more, view our advocacy letter.
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Our follow up research: the Higher Education Policy Tracking Database, Fall 2022
Currently tracking the US News Top 50 National Universities, US News Top 50 Public Health Schools, Big 10, and Ivy League.
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Thus far, it has revealed deeply troubling trends since the initial research displayed in our poster. View our fall database at this link.
August 2022
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16% have mask requirements
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16% have any routine testing requirement
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80% have vaccine requirements
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46% have active COVID dashboards
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September 2022
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14% have mask requirements
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16% have a routine testing requirement
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80% have vaccine requirements
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48% have active COVID dashboards
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October 2022
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4% have mask requirements
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6% have a routine testing requirement
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80% have vaccine requirements
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6% now require bivalent booster
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44% have active COVID dashboards
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November 2022​​
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4% have mask requirements
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6% have a routine testing requirement
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80% have vaccine requirements –– 8% now require bivalent booster
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44% have active COVID dashboards
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