This report has organised recommendations into four domains:5 • Taking immediate action • Preparing for the continued responses to COVID-19 • Designing systems and policies for disability inclusiveness • Transforming society’s cultural assumptions about disability. After considering the submissions to this phase of the Inquiry, the Commission recommends that: Taking immediate action 1. Government agencies with COVID-19 responsibilities work in partnership with disabled people and their whānau, and disabled peoples’ organisations, to establish a coordinated approach to sharing COVID-19 accessible information, support (including access to masks and testing), and service navigation, developed especially for disabled people and their whānau. While this might involve a one-stop-shop, it cannot assume one size fits all. It is essential that information is provided in alternate formats and that low- or no-tech options are available for all disabled people and their whānau. This also requires: a. Revamping the COVID-19 website to ensure specific information, designed for disabled people and produced in a range of in alternate formats, is easily available. b. Ensuring information designed for disabled people takes into account the needs of tāngata whaikaha Māori, disabled Pacific peoples and their whānau. c. The contributions already made by disabled people and their whānau, and disabled peoples’ organisations to produce accessible and tailored information for disabled people about COVID-19 and Omicron, be acknowledged, built on, and appropriately funded. 2. The Government’s COVID-19 response immediately provide improved support to disabled people and their whānau so they can access specific Omicron supports, including: a. Increasing access to free Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kits for disabled people, to use at their discretion (for example for whānau and support workers to use when coming into the homes of disabled people). b. Providing in-home support for disabled people and their whānau undertaking RATs where required. c. Providing free access to P2/N95 masks for disabled people and their whānau. d. Providing details on vaccination centres, including low-sensory vaccination clinic and at-home vaccination options. 3. Government agencies with disability support responsibilities (particularly the Ministry of Health, ACC and DHBs across the country): a. Create a network for emergency, 24-hour, 7-days a week, caregiver support when carers are not available. This is an essential backstop for disabled people and their whānau when the usual avenues are not necessarily working. 5 These recommendations have been further informed by the “practical and moral compass for action” put forward by Jones et al., (2021), and the “framework for disability-inclusive pandemic responses and systemic inequities reduction for disabled people” described in the evidence-base by Jesus et al., (2022). 9