Our society is ableist. Disabled people have always known this. In order to have a just transition as we move to a sustainable world, we must listen to disabled people to build systems that include and value them at every level, creating a society that's better for disabled people and the environment.
Ableism is the discrimination or social prejudice against disabled people and those perceived as disabled.
Ableism characterises people as defined by their disability and upholds damaging stereotypes against disabled people. These stereotypes can be towards individual disabilities, for example: believing that wheelchairs confine people or that people with speech disorders also have an intellectual disability. Or towards disabilities in general, such as thinking disabled people need help caring for themselves. All ableist stereotypes paint disabled people as inherently inferior to non-disabled people.
Ableism comes in many forms, all of which are damaging in their own ways.
This is when disabled people see themselves as weak and lesser than others due to society's hostile messaging. It decreases self-belief and self-trust and worsens a person’s mental health. Some of the messages society projects about disabled people are so awful that a person may believe they’re useless or unnecessary because of their disability. This is not the case. Firstly, the disabled community has just as rich a pool of talent as the abled community. Secondly, a person's worth is not determined by their ability to provide labour - that's just another of capitalism's damaging ideologies.
Non-disabled individuals who see disabled people as lesser or find it acceptable to disrespect them display interpersonal ableism. This spreads ableist messages through the abled community, making them more “believable” and leading to institutional ableism as they gain popularity. Interpersonal ableism isolates disabled people from the community around them and can worsen their mental health.
Societal systems which see disabled people as inferior and ignore their needs or specifically discriminate against them are guilty of perpetuating institutional ableism. This includes laws in the US allowing disabled employees to be paid below minimum wage, autistic and chronically ill people being consistently overlooked in healthcare, and media stereotypes such as “villainous disability” and “inspiration disability”.
Now that we have an overview of ableism, let’s look at how it intersects with the climate crisis.
First and foremost, disabled people are more likely to suffer during and due to climate disasters, which we know have been increasing in numbers as the climate crisis worsens.
People with mobility issues of any kind may struggle to leave a building or quickly escape fire or falling debris, for example, if they are upstairs or trying to fight through large crowds of other people trying to exit. They may also have more trouble crossing rubble or water, both when fleeing immediate danger and travelling long distances to find refuge elsewhere.
Many disabled people rely on medical equipment to keep them alive each night (and day). If a natural disaster occurs close to one of these people’s homes, they may be forced to stay anyway as they can’t leave without knowing where they can access this equipment or treatment outside of the disaster zone. This is an increasingly prevalent issue in more rural, lower-income places as the equipment is less abundant.
People facing climate disasters often rely on the directions of external organisations and governing bodies through verbal warnings, lights and signs. Lights and signs alone are unhelpful to many blind people, as is verbal communication to deaf people, and neither is wholly helpful to blind-deaf people. A person with any of these conditions can be put at a disadvantage when trying to escape a climate disaster or access help from rescue teams.
Finally, people with learning disabilities and previous trauma can be hit harder by the upheaval of a climate disaster. Learning disabilities often come with difficulty describing experience and associated emotions and challenges finding agency over their own lives: all of which makes recovering from trauma harder. Additionally, multiple traumatic events can severely change how a person sees themselves and the world around them, making recovering harder, especially when paired with constant fear or sleep deprivation.
Disabilities can increase disease risk for many reasons, including comorbidities (multiple interacting conditions), difficulty managing illness and difficulty accessing healthcare during local outbreaks. For example, the risk of death from COVID-19 in England in 2020 was 3·1 to 3·5 times greater for disabled people than for people without disabilities. As climate change continues, pollution of waterways and the emergence of new pathogens will increase infectious disease outbreaks, further demonstrating the disparities disabled people have known about for decades.
Disabled people are also at a higher risk during extreme weather events. Physiological disabilities can impair the body’s ability to deal with conditions like heat stroke, dehydration and hypothermia. Intellectual disabilities, however, can make it harder for a person to identify when they’re experiencing these conditions, leaving them without treatment for longer. Fainting, falling and other injuries caused by these conditions are also more prevalent in disabled people because of this.
It’s well known that air pollution worsens lung and heart conditions such as asthma, cystic fibrosis and cardiovascular disease, but evidence now shows it’s associated with low birth rates, dementia and type 2 diabetes, amongst other conditions.
People living in highly polluted areas are far more at risk of developing new conditions and suffering worse symptoms from pre-existing health conditions. Added to a current fatphobic trend among health professionals of suggesting patients are simply ill because of their weight, the growing urgency of air pollution as an environmental factor of health poses a massive threat to the lives of millions of current and future disabled people. We must put new pollution-reduction methods in place and treatments and procedures for patients as soon as possible.
Pollution isn’t limited to the air; it’s damaging our waterways, soil and foodstuffs, all of which threaten people with underlying health conditions. People most at risk are those with allergies, skin conditions, mental illnesses (including climate anxiety), stroke, cancers and multimorbidity.
For climate education to include disabled people, children (and adults) must be taught to respect, love and nurture all disabled people. This is essential in a world that cares about disabled people. If we want climate responses to cater to disabled people, those working in green jobs must understand how to include disabled people and when to ask them for help. Accessibility must be at the forefront of engineers’ and architects’ minds. Efficiency officers must account for medical equipment when powering homes.
All policies surrounding sustainability, retrofitting and net-zero must account for disabled peoples’ needs and ensure disabled people’s voices are heard and included. For years, legislators have argued that their equality acts are “inclusive” and “supportive”. They’ve also made huge claims that their climate policies will be “strong” and “demanding”. It’s imperative that climate policies merge the qualities of both of these types of legislation.
Plastic straws were demonised by the sustainability movement but are vital for disabled people who need flexible, soft straws. Many disabled people rely on single-use plastic products, from sterile medical products to carrier bags, which some campaigns want to ban. Instead of just banning single-use plastics, in order to support disabled people, we must find near-perfect alternative products before we get rid of them.
The majority of the movement isn’t ableist and actually focuses on universal equality, making it a safe space for disabled people (though, of course, it isn’t perfect). However, some parts of the movement are ableist due to a lack of knowledge. Individuals who haven’t interacted with disabled people may struggle to understand why certain sustainable ideas are ableist. But once they speak to disabled people, they quickly understand and work with the community for better solutions.
Other areas of the movement are ableist in more sinister ways. Some groups refuse to look for different solutions or advocate for policies such as population control. A higher human population does have a more significant impact, but population control policies almost always slide into eugenics and target particular groups, including disabled people. This blog won’t go any further into this side of the movement.
Teach the Future is not a disability-led campaign. Many of our members (including myself) are disabled and provide invaluable insight for the campaign. However, we do not have all the answers as to how we can best respond to the climate crisis for disabled people. We look to disability-specific climate campaigns for how we should best support disabled people during the climate crisis. The International Disability Alliance has some great information.