Whether by "conscious design or institutional neglect," low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, and people with disabilities experience disproportionate risk and effects of environmental harms and climate change. Risk is the potential for consequences where something of value is at stake and where the outcome is uncertain. It results from the interaction of vulnerability, exposure, and hazard. Risk is not inherent, but by design and formed by inequitable social structures.

This page explores the risk factors that affect disabled people in the fight for climate and environmental justice, including physical location and built environment, heightened vulnerability, and risk perception. 

Physical Location & Built Environment

People do not always get to choose where they live. Even when given the choice, there are many factors outside our control that affect vulnerability to climate disasters. Is there anywhere on Earth that will be unaffected by climate change?

Extreme temperatures

Carbon Monoxide Safety - Person with a prosthetic leg testing their carbon monoxide alarm. [Wide angle; horizontal]

People with disabilities may be especially prone to effects from extreme heat and cold. With the high cost of air conditioning and heating installation, repairs, and usage, people who spend their days primarily at home, whether by choice or necessity, are vulnerable to uncomfortable and dangerous living situations. The isolation of staying home can also have a negative effect on mental health through heightened anxiety and risks of depression. Many – particularly the unhoused population – do not have the choice to stay home and must face the effects of extreme weather. 

Some symptoms and chronic conditions are heightened by extreme temperatures and some people with disabilities may not be able to regulate their bodily temperature on their own. Not everyone is aware when extreme temperatures will occur, especially with barriers in communication, language, and access to news sources.

Built environment

Multiple people are crossing a snowy street, with one person pushing another in a wheelchair in between mounds of snow piled on opposite sides of the pathway and behind cars..
"Not Wheelchair Accessible" by Adrianne Behning Photography is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

The built environment (man-made environment) affects how physically accessible a space is during a climate disaster. In the event of an evacuation, people with disabilities face questions of whether to evacuate, where to go, if it is safe, if it has what is needed, if the proper information is communicated, and if evacuation personnel are trained to react appropriately. Those with assistive devices and service animals must also consider whether they will have the proper supplies necessary to maintain their health and wellbeing while away from home.

Access to electricity & power

An aerial image of New York city shows many lights on, while one section of the city sits in darkness, as buildings have no power or light.

In blackouts and power outages, people with disabilities may experience heightened vulnerability by losing access to life-sustaining equipment, modes of communication, cooking devices, etc. Power outages, even planned power outages, are not always well communicated, so puts those who rely on power at risk of their safety or life. Even if it is communicated, people may not be able to self-sustain power amidst an outage due to the financial burden of purchasing the proper backup supplies.

Refugees and migrants

Multiple people walk away from a bus, one is carrying items on their head, one is using crutches to walk, and a child walks alongside them.

Climate change is a leading cause in displacement and climate refugees. Climate refugees consist of those who must leave their home due to climate disasters. Many people migrate internally within their own country, depending on the season or climate threat. By 2050, 216 million people are expected to migrate within their countries.

Refugees and migrants with disabilities must adapt to their needs away from home, which puts them at higher risk of harm, violence, illness, or death. When it comes to evacuations and migrations, some people may not even be given the proper information or the option to leave. Because their basic needs may be denied in their journey or destination, they may not receive the adequate care that they require to thrive or survive. 

Climate migrants and refugees are often viewed as both a threat and a victim, which impact their reception and adaptation to a new area. The medical model of disability informs immigration policies, which can deny access to migrate.

Environmental pollution

People walk through a hazy street. The figures and cars closer to the camera are easy to make out, while the figures further away become blurry and disappear into the pollution haze.

Environmental racism and classism heighten the exposure to pollution, hazardous chemical accidents, waste treatment and disposal, and motor pollution. People with disabilities are more likely to live in these high-risk areas, even when controlling for other sociodemographic factors. This is an issue of distributive justice. Pollutants in the air, water, food, and environment can exacerbate symptoms of certain disabilities or illnesses or can have other negative effects on health.

Indigenous communities

Imperial mindsets lead to a separation of people from the earth, viewing the land as something to conquer, own, and control. The exploitation of Indigenous land and labor, alongside other inequitable policies, put Indigenous groups at higher risk of experiencing effects of climate change.

 Generations of oppression, violence, genocide, abuse, institutional harm, and neglect take a toll on the health of indigenous people, with the resulting that some indigenous communities have as high as 50% of the population with a disability. The destruction of the environment also causes a loss of cultural sites and sacred land for many indigenous communities. 

Colonization and colonialism do not just exist in the past, but actively impact everyday relationships to the environment and climate.

Conflict zones

People who live in conflict zones are at heightened risk of having limited access to the food, water, medication, power, resources, and assistive devices that they may need. Living in these areas may exacerbate the effect felt from climate disasters, as infrastructure is impaired and resilience is weakened. There are often limited resources set in place to accommodate people with disabilities, even though a higher percentage of the population is disabled. Disabled women and children, along with others with intersecting marginalized identities, face higher rates of violence and abuse and are often left behind if they have difficulty fleeing. Disaster zones even heighten the risk of becoming disabled, through physical conflict, improper healthcare services, and rising mental health crises. 

Homelessness

A person laying on some cardboard underneath an overpass. They appear to be sleeping and use a sweater as a pillow.

People with disabilities are more likely to experience homelessness and face housing discrimination. Accessible housing can be difficult to acquire and afford, especially as disabled populations face higher rates of poverty. Unhoused communities face high rates of abuse, discrimination, neglect, and violence.

As climate change increases displacement, homelessness will become more common. People experiencing houselessness have a lower adaptive capacity, as they have less means to evacuate, have fewer resources to protect themselves from disasters and emergencies, are less likely to receive adequate communications and warnings, and have less access to food and water. 

Access to water & food

Many re-used plastic water bottles are lined up and appear to be catching rainwater.

Due to climate change, increasing pressure is being placed on the food system, causing prices to soar. The availability of safe and nutritious food then becomes scarce during extreme weather events. 

Monocropping and factory farming pollute land, water, and air, as well as make areas more susceptible to landslides, flooding, and droughts. Chemical contaminants, such as pesticides, harm those who consume the produce, the workers who apply it, and the environment in the surrounding areas. Pollutants in water and food sources can cause increased risk of contracting diseases or living in unsafe and unhygienic conditions. 

"Vulnerability must be understood at the intersection of environmental, physical, and social systems, rather than an individual failing." - Hemingway, et al.

"The most vulnerable are gonna suffer the most, and it doesn’t matter how much money you have. We don’t come from a poor family, but when my dad’s ventilator went out and his bed was deflating and the water was rising, it didn’t matter. Your money’s not going to save you then." - Ciara, respondent from Disability Climate Justice Research

"There are many elements in evacuation that cannot be completely planned; for example, though one may check in advance about the accessibility of an evacuation center, one cannot know if the center will be set up well for people with disabilities during the actual disaster event." - King, Martinez, Pachoud

“Disasters are a place that I worry where people with disabilities get left behind, both intentionally and unintentionally. One, because our rescue systems and response systems are almost never built with people with disabilities in mind. And two, because… in the realm of people who calculate QALYs and DALYs and the… econometrics, like calculating out, what you save in the world-type thing that people with disabilities are devalued in disaster situations when people are asked to place value on people’s lives.” - Margaret, respondent from Disability Climate Justice Research

"Reduced information resources and mobility, increased health risks, and a lack of visibility in climate change discourse put people with disabilities in a more vulnerable position in the climate crisis. However, this vulnerability can be mitigated through relevant and sufficient access to information, risk mitigation strategies, and policy-shaping power. However, when these resilience-building resources are not accessible to disabled people, it exacerbates their vulnerability to climate change and becomes an issue of climate (in)justice." - King et al. 2022

Vulnerability

The capacity to adapt affects the ability to prepare and respond to disasters on individual, community, and institutional levels. The adaptive capacity of individuals and groups of people is often impacted by their vulnerability and risk factors.

Resources and social networks

Climate justice means an "equitable distribution of power and resources in planning for inevitable hardship and disaster." Not all people have equitable access to these resources or community networks, especially if they live alone, are new to an area, or have limited communication with others. Many disaster and climate change resources exclude disability-specific information. Strong social networks and access to resources increase people's knowledge of disasters and can help them prepare better. 

Evacuations

Many evacuation centers are not properly accessible. Lack of attention to accessibility may cause harm, neglect, or even death in a situation where evacuations are required. Only 20% of emergency managers reported having disability guidelines in place among 30 randomly selected Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster sites. Recovery following evacuations takes longer for people with disabilities, they are more likely to live in worse conditions, and most do not return home. Further, many disability organizations are untrained or unprepared for disaster while at the same time disaster organizations are untrained or unprepared for people with disabilities.

Medical needs and health risks

Natural disasters can exacerbate pre-existing conditions or cause those who already experience chronic pain to suffer further. In climate disasters, limited or restricted access to pharmacies, medications, doctors, hospitals, cars, power, and assistive devices can prevent treatment, putting one's health and even life at risk. Certain groups of people, including those with disabilities, are more likely to feel the effects of climate change on their health.

Societal attitudes

Societal attitudes affect how resources are distributed and who is prioritized in an emergency. The "imagined near-dead status of disabled folks" treats them as acceptable losses, expected casualties, and collateral damage amidst disaster. With a lower value placed on their lives by medical personnel, first responders, and policymakers, these societal attitudes influence the structural devaluation of people with disabilities. In other words, the lower moral worth placed on disabled people influences social structures and policies, resulting in inequitable support and access. Climate darwinism, which promotes a "survival of the fittest" attitude, predisposes certain populations to suffer. The medical model, moral model, and charity models all take away agency from people with disabilities and diminish their worth.

Risk Perception

The way disabled people perceive risks, as well as their approach to seeking information about those risks, can impact how they perceive climate-related disasters and the steps they take to deal with them. People with disabilities have a higher perception of vulnerability and risk. Individual characteristics – rather than cultural or political narratives – largely shape how people perceive the risks associated with climate change.

“Foresight allows disabled people to perceive the many structures over which they do not have control in climate-related emergencies – a lack of accessible transportation, poor training of emergency personnel, power outages – and how these may impact them. These missing structural enforcements are a source of anxiety and fear for people with disabilities, whose individual preparations can only get them so far in an emergency evacuation situation without external support. As a result, they perceive less control over the outcomes because of their sociocultural context." - King, Martinez, Pachoud

A visually impaired Black person uses a safety rail to guide themself onto a bus. They are wearing a work uniform, head wrap, and prescription glasses. The scene is set at a sheltered bus stop next to a streetlight with a push button and a posted schedule for the bus line. Skyscrapers and evergreen trees fill the background, with the overall illustration set in tones of pink, purple, and teal, while warm, yellow lighting highlights the bus interior.
Photo by Disabled and Here is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Sources Used & Suggested Reading 

Summary for Policymakers: Climate Change 2014 Impacts, Adaptations, and Vulnerability - IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), 2014. A 34-page PDF combining findings and implications from research, particularly with a global perspective that highlights specific risks by region. 

Environmental Justice - Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's definition of environmental justice and a timeline of historical moments, court cases, and studies in the United States' history relating to this movement.

How climate change risks disproportionately impact people with disabilities - PBS NewsHour, 2024. A 9-minute introductory video analyzing various areas of risk that PWD face. The video includes an ASL interpreter and English closed captioning and transcription.

Majority of disabled people never go home after disasters – Thomas Frank, 2023. This news article discusses a study by the Census Bureau about outcomes among people with disabilities after disasters.

Climate justice can't happen without racial justice – David Lammy, 2020. A 9-minute TedTalk video in which David Lammy, a member of Parliament for Tottenham, England, discusses the critical intersection between race and climate, and the importance of highlighting voices of people of color, specifically Black people, in climate justice movements.

Unequal Proximity to Environmental Pollution: An Intersectional Analysis of People with Disabilities in Harris County, Texas - Jayajit Chakraborty 2020. An academic analysis of proximity to 3 different types of pollution sites, finding that "individuals with disabilities are experiencing a 'multiple jeopardy' defined by the convergence of disability with other social disadvantages such as racial/ethnic minority and elderly status and amplified by their proximity to pollution sources."

In Heat Response, Include People With Disabilities - Jonas Bull 2023. An opinion article originally published in Público about the risks that people with disabilities face amidst heatwaves in Spain and actions taken (or that should be taken) in Andalusia, Spain, the European Union, and internationally.

The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment - U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2016. A 9-part summary looking at the relationship between health and lived experiences. 

Climate change hits disabled and Indigenous communities hard. Kera Sherwood-O’Regan wants their voices heard - Lisa Marshall, 2020. A brief panelist story on Kera Sherwood-O'Regan from the "Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit" in 2022 where she talks on the intersection between Indigenous rights and disability rights.

The unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality - Farhana Sultana, 2023. An academic article detailing the effects of climate colonialism and what decolonizing climate means.

A new discussion paper highlights the devastating impact of armed conflict on children with disabilities - United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG CAAC), 2023. A summary of a report focusing on how the intersection of disability and physical location affect children in conflict zones.

Defining Vulnerable Communities in the Context of Climate Adaptation - Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, 2018. An 18-page PDF exploring climate vulnerability in California, not disability-specific.

Unequal Impact: The Deep Links Between Racism and Climate Change – Beth Gardiner, 2020. An interview with activist Elizabeth Yeampierre discussing current justice issues of race and climate, as well as calls for policy and social change.

Indigenous People With Disabilities Are on the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis - Jen Deerinwater, 2021. An op-ed focusing on the disproportion weight of the climate crisis felt by Indigenous people with disabilities and how the United States' colonial history continues impacting realities felt today.

How PG&E's Power Shutoffs Sparked an East Bay Disability Rights Campaign - Matthew Green, 2019. A KQED news article detailing the dangers of power outages, even when planned, and how communities can turn to one another for support. 

US Power Outages Endanger People with Disabilities - Stephanie Collins, 2019. An article exploring the human rights risks associated with power outages, especially as people are not given the same resources as when facing natural disasters.

Eco-Ableism - with Elizabeth Wright and Syren Nagakyrie - You First Podcast, 2021. A 47-minute podcast episode in which multiple guests challenge eco-ableist beliefs in environmental spaces.

The impacts of climate change on migration; An interview with Eunice Ndonga - 2024. A one-page article on page 6 of the Quaker Action Report detailing some impacts of climate change on migrants, displaced people, and refugees, not disability-specific.

Groundswell Part 2: Acting on Internal Climate Migration – Viviane Clement, et al. 2021. A report from the World Bank including projections and analysis for global internal climate migration.

Seeking a disability lens within climate change migration discourses, policies and practices – Sarah Bell, Tammy Tabe, and Stephen Bell, 2019. An academic article (including audio) calling for integration of disabilities studies in climate discourses and understandings of climate migrants/refugees, focusing on research from the Asia-Pacific region.

Disability, Displacement and Climate Change - UN Refugee Agency, 2021. A 2-page PDF focusing on risks of displacement on people with disabilities and disability-inclusive approaches to mitigate the effects.

Racialisation and the Figure of the Climate-Change Migrant - Andrew Baldwin, 2013. An academic paper that implores critical race theory in discussions of climate change and migration.

Disability, Human Rights, and Climate Justice - Penelope Stein and Michael Stein, 2022. This academic paper examines a number legal mandates that require the inclusion of PWD in climate change mitigation efforts.

People with Disabilities - California Department of Housing and Community Development. This brief governmental webpage analyzes the intersections between disability and access to housing.

Dual Hazards of Homelessness and Climate Change - Kayla Minton Kaufman, 2024. A law review article highlighting the injustices intertwined in lack of accessible housing and climate change, summarizing that "ending homelessness...is key for environmental and climate justice."

Natural Hazards, Human Vulnerability and Disabling Societies: A Disaster for Disabled People? - Laura Hemingway, 2014. An academic article employing the social model of disability theory to understand the construction and reality of societal vulnerabilities within "natural" disasters.

"Disability and climate change: A critical realist model of climate justice." - Molly King and Maria Gregg, 2022. An academic review written by Molly King, using a critical realist model to seek to understand risk perception, vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and information seeking amongst physically disabled people.

Factors Associated with the Climate Change Vulnerability and the Adaptive Capacity of People with Disability: A Systematic Review - Cadeyrn J. Gaskin, et al., 2017. A systematic review looking at factors impacting vulnerability and adaptive capacity of PWDs, including personal and environmental factors, activities, and participation.

Disaster Preparedness and Response for Persons With Mobility Impairments: Results From the University of Kansas Nobody Left Behind Study - Michael Fox, et al., 2007. A study analyzing the preparedness of counties in the United States between 1998 and 2003, finding that "people with disabilities were poorly represented in emergency planning".

Leave No One Behind: People with Disabilities and Older People in Climate-Related Disasters - Human Rights Watch, 2022. A report compiling data from over 100 interviews that looks at risk factors associated with disability and age within various types of disasters. 

SEASON 1, EPISODE 1: WE LOVE LIKE BARNACLES - Into the Crip Universe: Cripping the Anthropocene by Sins Invalid, 2020. A 38-minute podcast episode with a transcript exploring the "imagined near-dead status of disabled folks" and intersections between climate justice and disability justice.

I’m disabled and need a ventilator to live. Am I expendable during this pandemic? - Alice Wong, 2020. An article exploring the devaluation of vulnerable populations in our society, especially during the pandemic and in other crises.

Climate Darwinism Makes Disabled People Expendable - Imani Barbarin, 2019. An op-ed unpacking how ableism is integrated into society and affects societal attitudes in discussions of climate change.

Teaching & learning guide for disability and climate justice - Molly King, et al., 2022. A guide with various resources, focus questions, and activities to aid in teaching on or to learn more about the intersections between disability and climate.

Multilevel analysis of climate change risk perception in Europe: Natural hazards, political contexts and mediating individual effects. - Echavarren, J. M., Balžekienė, A., & Telešienė, A. (2019).  This scholarly paper discusses how individual factors influence how people perceive the risks associated with climate change.