Disability advocates say that disabled lives were systematically devalued throughout the pandemic. In this story, we meet a woman with a disability who recounts her experience of medical bias during her hospital stay. And, we meet the advocates fighting the discrimination they say is infused throughout the state’s pandemic response.

Dr. Peter Poullos is a radiologist who leads the Stanford Medical Abilities Coalition. He and his students are working to increase disability awareness in medicine.

For the last 50 years, people with developmental disabilities have had the right to live the same kind of lives as people without disabilities. But when the pandemic hit, this support system fell apart, leaving many families desperate for help. And it exposed a caregiving crisis that is only expected to get worse.