Consumer Protection of Persons with Disabilities Amidst the COVID-19

• Main Author: Heffron, James Keith C.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: consumer protection; COVID-19; PWD; persons with disabilities; Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics; Commercial Law; Consumer Protection Law
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/res_cbrd/4; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/res_cbrd/article/1007/viewcontent/DLSU_Business_Notes_and_Briefings_Vol_10_1.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Persons with Disabilities (PWD) sector was one of the most overlooked and affected sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic. As consumers, PWDs have suffered difficult challenges in the access of essential goods and services, including healthcare, and these challenges have been unduly aggravated because of the crisis. The article exposes and examines the negative impact of the crisis on the consumer rights and behavior of PWDs with a special focus on the novel barriers brought about by the pandemic on their right to access. The current pre-pandemic legislation is not adequate to protect PWDs from these novel barriers as there are patent gaps and outdated provisions that need to be addressed. The article uses the doctrinal, analytical, and comparative approach in presenting these gaps and uses the same methods to recommend plausible legislative solutions that would mandate inclusive accessible information and communication technology practices in all online commercial transactions, free access to technological hardware and software, and priority in online commerce for PWDs. These proposed legislative solutions hopefully will mitigate these novel barriers to access with the aim of strengthening consumer protection for PWDs not just during the crisis but more so thereafter.