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Disabled people make up an estimated 16% of the global population, but are disproportionately impacted by both climate risks and efforts to mitigate and adapt to them. At the same time, disabled people have lived experience of adapting to an uncertain world – expertise that often goes unrecognised in climate adaptation efforts. This exclusion of disability knowledges is doubly harmful, negatively impacting disabled people’s lives whilst also limiting the effectiveness of climate adaptation.  

Following a decade of work researching the barriers which disabled people face in experiences of nature, health and wellbeing, Dr Sarah Bell became interested in the connections between disability and climate change. This led her to create the Sensing Climate study. Based at the University of Exeter, this study explores how the expertise of disabled people can be embedded in climate adaptation strategies, with a focus on three case study cities: Bristol, Glasgow, and Dublin.

In a recent paper published in Geo, Sarah and her colleagues Dr Rebecca Yeo, Andrew Shipley, and Dr Alice Venn draw on findings from the Sensing Climate study and reflect on interviews conducted with disabled people in Glasgow and Bristol. We spoke to Sarah to hear more about their findings. 

Disabled knowledges: the need to listen 

The climate crisis requires us all to adapt to uncertainty and difficult living conditions. Lou, a Sensing Climate participant in their 20s, describes how disabled people are already experienced in doing just this: “Disabled people have wisdom, and valuable creative problem-solving skills that need to be listened to. If anyone knows what it's like to deal with adversity, it's disabled people.” Despite this, disabled people's perspectives are too often ignored in climate adaptation policy.  

The adaptive expertise of disabled people is being repeatedly overlooked. At times, people are being actively excluded or their knowledge is being co-opted in ways that derail efforts to embed climate justice. That in turn undermines the effectiveness of climate adaptation efforts.Sarah

Disabled people are disproportionately impacted by climate events so their knowledge is essential to making climate resilience planning effective for all. Flooding, for example, can be more of a risk for wheelchair users who live in accessible ground floor flats. Extreme heat is more dangerous for people with impaired thermoregulation. Heat can put pressure not only on disabled people’s bodies but also on their equipment. Otis, a participant in his 30s, reflects on this difficulty: “The climate affects my mobility and me being able to get places because it can affect the mechanics of my wheelchair…I remember going somewhere and my wheelchair just stopped, I couldn't get it working.”   

Importantly, weather events that might appear unremarkable to some could be extremely dangerous for a disabled person. Gwen, a participant in her 60s, described how heavy rain made leaving the house dangerous for her as a long cane user and for her friend, a wheelchair user. She recounted an incident where poor drainage meant that the rain pooled in the road, concealing a pothole which caused Gwen’s friend to fall from her wheelchair and badly injure herself. Excluding the experiences and knowledge of disabled people from climate adaptation policy can have serious consequences when adverse weather events hit. 

We need to think more about the less extreme events of climate change. An amber heat warning might be really dangerous for a disabled person with impaired thermoregulation or if they live in poorly adapted housing. Rainfall that might not cause active flooding can be dangerous if it obscures hazards.Sarah 

Creating climate policy for a just world

Excluding disabled people’s knowledge from climate adaptation efforts can also result in pro-climate policies which further disadvantage the community. These policies are eco-ableist. For example, Clean Air and Low Emission Zones disproportionately impact disabled people who cannot access public transport and who, due to socio-economic pressures, often cannot afford exempt vehicles. Without access to city centres, disabled people risk being further locked out of employment and education opportunities. 

Eco-ableism describes the tendency to exclude disabled people from climate and environmental action and how that exclusion can lead to interventions that make things worse. It needs to be standard practice for planners and decision makers to be working with disabled people's organisations from the design stage to stop these eco-ableist practices being rolled out.Sarah

As Sarah explains, the inclusion of disabled people’s knowledge in climate adaptation efforts must be a priority to tackle eco-ableist policies. Lou describes how this inclusion cannot be tokenistic but integral, arguing that policy makers must genuinely acknowledge disabled perspectives: “listen to the wisdom and creativity of disabled people and value it. Don't just take it and walk away from them, keep them involved in the conversation.” By taking this knowledge into account, policy makers can respond to the needs of disabled communities, creating a climate-safe, just future for all. 

I want to see practical solutions. I'd like to see resilience teams working with disabled people to develop a system so that emergency responders know exactly who needs support before, during and after an emergency, and in what forms. I'd like to see designers working with disabled people to design property-level flood and heat resilience measures that don't compromise accessibility features. I’d like to see people thinking about climate mitigation, adaptation and accessibility together.Sarah

Next steps  

The Sensing Climate study is heading into its final case study where the team will be working with disabled communities in Dublin, Ireland. Following completion of the fieldwork, Sarah and her team will be working on a programme of engagement, dissemination and outreach to ensure the learnings can reach as many people as possible.

Read the paper explored in this blog.  

This spotlight was written by Safia Bailey (Cardiff University).

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