Critical lessons still need to be learned five years on from COVID-19, RNIB CEO says

The UK was “woefully ill-prepared" when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020, RNIB CEO Matt Stringer said

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Young female adult spending time with blind old person outdoors on winter day and walking together

Getty/Dejan Marjanovic

13 March 2025

The UK was unprepared to successfully manage the needs of disabled people at the outbreak of the pandemic and lessons have still to be learned five years on, the chief executive of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has said.

“The UK was woefully ill-prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, and indeed any type of pandemic, with regards to the rights and needs of blind and partially sighted people,” Matt Stringer said.

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020.

The five-year anniversary highlights that “critical lessons” need to be learned in order to inform the UK’s response to future national crises, Stringer emphasised.

“We need to ensure that contingency planning considers the needs and rights of disabled people,” he said.

Stringer referenced Office of National Statistics data, which showed that blind and partially sighted people in some age groups were 40% more likely to die from COVID-19 than the general population.

“Five years on, we’re still waiting for research to find out why this was, and how this increased risk could be prevented in future pandemics,” Stringer said.

The lack of preparation was not down to the fact that COVID-19 was an unknown virus, Stringer added.

Instead, he emphasised that “it was systemic, with clear failures from decision makers to learn or act on the experience of previous virus outbreaks when the accessibility of communications for blind and partially sighted people was raised as a concern.”

By January 2023, more than 202,000 people in the UK had died with the virus.

The ongoing issue of exclusion

As a member of the Disability Charities Consortium, the RNIB gave evidence to the COVID-19 inquiry in autumn 2024.

As part of its evidence, the charity highlighted how ongoing problems with inaccessible communications during the pandemic left blind and partially sighted people feeling excluded because they could not read crucial information – including advice on shielding.

“Five years on, we’ve little confidence that this situation would be any different if a new pandemic was to happen,” Stringer said.

Implementation of the 2016 Accessible Information Standard in England was patchy, he believes, as was the implementation of similar standards in other parts of the UK.

He noted that this was despite blind and partially sighted people having a legal right to health and care information in an accessible format.

“Too many blind and partially sighted people are still being put at risk with appointment letters, health advice and medical instructions which they can’t read,” Stringer said.

He added: “We urge the UK Government and devolved administrations to improve their understanding of the effects of sight loss and account for this in policymaking and future pandemic readiness planning and to listen to the voices of blind and partially sighted people when developing policies and guidance.

“Never again must decisions affecting all aspects of people’s daily lives be made without involving blind and partially sighted and disabled people from the very start.”