Consequences

Now that we have reviewed what climate change and disability justice are, we need to explore their implications in society. What does this mean for people with disabilities? In this section, we will explore heighten risks of climate disaster, eco ableism in the environmental justice movement, and who the responsibility to prepare falls on (and who it should fall on).

In this section...

A birds-eye view of a flooded highway with no people or cars in sight.

Whether by "conscious design or institutional neglect", low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, and people with disabilities experience an inequitable affect of environmental harms and climate change effects. This page seeks to explore some of the risk factors that affect disabled people in this fight for climate and environmental justice, including physical location and built environment, heightened vulnerability, exclusion from research and disaster preparation, and risk perception.

Hands holding up various medical devices. The importance of this photo as the header for the "Eco-Ableism" page is that they are plastic devices, which will later be noted in discussions of plastic bans and limitations.

Eco-ableism refers to ways in which disabled people are excluded from or not considered in climate activism and eco-friendly pushes. Ableism is deeply engrained in society and can be complicated to recognize, as it is often rooted in ignorance. In this page, we aim to point out some ways that eco-ableism can present itself and ways in which environmental justice, climate justice, and eco activists have caused harm by excluding the experience of people with disabilities.

Climate change and its mitigation and effects are often seen as personal responsibilities, failing to account for greater structural and societal shortcomings. Pressure is put on individual people to prepare for disaster and insure that external accommodations are in place, although that is mainly out of their control. Failure to create accessible social and structural change causes mitigation and adaptation strategies to fall on indviduals, specific organizations, and certain communities.