Disability (in)justice
The disabled population is the largest minority group in the United States and globally, but is largely underrepresented in the fight for climate justice. Disability justice expands beyond the disability rights movement, highlighting other identities alongside disability and advocating for proper recognition, inclusion, and integration in all spaces.
By defining disability and the models of disability, this webpage sets context for the societal perspectives, understandings, and experiences of disability. This page is entitled "disability (in)justice," because the last section of this page looks at structural injustice, inequity, and intersectionality within the relationship between disability and climate.
What is Disability?
An individual with a disability (definition) is defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment.
Language
Person-first language: people with disabilities
Identity-first language: disabled people
This website uses both people-first language and identity-first language, recognizing that people choose to identify differently in regards to their disability, aiming to use the same language used by the original author when referring to an external piece of writing.
It's important to note that the term "disability" is very broad, and many people around the world use other language or terms to describe themselves or their disability.
Ultimately, it is not our place to define what disability is, or who suffers at the hands of ableism and climate injustice, but rather to look at the structural ways in which disability and climate justice intertwine.
As defined by the CDC, disability can be:
Related to conditions present at birth
Associated with developmental conditions
Related to an injury
Associated with a longstanding condition that can cause a disability
Progressive, static, or intermittent
Apparent and non-apparent disabilities
Apparent disabilities (definition) are also called observable or visible disabilities. They are noticeable with physical or behavioral traits, assistive devices, or visible impairment. Examples include, but are not limited to, certain physical, visual, mobility, auditory, and intellectual disabilities.
Non-apparent disabilities (definition) (also called non-observable or invisible disabilities) do not have easily recognizable behaviors, equipment, traits, or qualities, meaning that most people would not know that they are disabled. These are more often written off or invalidated. Examples include, but are not limited to, sensory, intellectual, mental health related, and pain related disabilities.
Models of Disability
Models of disability are lenses used to understand and perceive disability. As "models" are an academic term, many probably do not even realize which model their way of thinking aligns with. Thoughts, opinions, and actions can align with multiple models.
These asset-based models do not deny the disability, but look at how certain factors affect the experience of the disabled person:
Social model - views society’s attitudes and built structures as the barrier, recognizing that disability is an aspect of people’s identities
Human rights model - recognizes that disability is a part of a diverse society and that all people deserve access to the same human rights
Biopsychosocial model - looks at the whole person, recognizing that disability goes beyond the biological aspects and affects the psychological and social aspects as well
Cultural model - honors the shared experiences, history, and culture created amongst disabled people
These models view disability as a deficiency and look down upon people with disabilities:
Medical model - views disability as something that needs to be fixed, prioritizing the perspectives and advice of health professionals and focusing on prevention and treatment of a condition
Moral/charity model - interprets disability as a consequence of someone's actions, often seeing people with disabilities as victims
Economic model - focuses on the economic burden of disability
Disability Justice
This fight for justice is spearheaded by people of color, queer and non-binary people, and those most impacted by injustice. Disability justice (definition) is cross-disability, honors and embraces differences "in disability, identity, and culture," uplifts the whole self, and involves uniting various groups affected by systemic oppression to find empowerment in community.
As Mia Mingus explains, disability justice is a ‘multi-issue politic,’ combating many social issues beyond just ableism. Ableism (definition) is difficult to define (as are many -isms), but consists of the oppression of disabled people by disregarding their rights, autonomy, perspectives, and needs.
“Disability justice aims to align itself with other movements working toward liberation, including environmental justice, racial and class justice, restorative justice, and LGBTQA+ equality.” - Engelman, Craig, and Iles, 2022
Structural Injustice, Inequity, and Intersectionality
Disability justice does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, it is deeply intertwined with factors such as social class, physical location, age, gender, education, sexuality, and race. Disability justice activists recognize that the fight for equity and liberation overlaps with other movements. Intersectionality (definition), a sociological concept coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, is the way that multiple social identities overlap (such as being a queer, disabled, female immigrant), resulting in multiple forms of discrimination or privilege.
"They (climate disasters) act as trigger points that expose existing and often deeply rooted inequalities and injustices that influence every aspect of daily life. People who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, and institutionally marginalized in society are also disproportionately impacted by climate-related disasters." - Calgaro, 2021
Race
People of color are more likely to live in environments that increase the risk of disability. Historically underserved neighborhoods, where people of color are more likely to live, are more exposed to environmental hazards, which can increase prevalence of disability and health impairments. For example, living in areas with higher air pollution can lead to higher asthma rates, which can make outdoor activities inaccessible, which can lead to negative mental health effects.
Globally, disabled people of color living in low- and middle-income countries are at increased risk of becoming climate refugees. Disabled people of color are more likely to face forced displacement and encounter obstacles to safe inclusion. Disabled people, especially disabled people of color, are more likely to live in poverty, making recovery from disasters more challenging.
Income & education
In climate response, social capital (education, social networks) and access to resources (such as money, transportation, healthcare, assistive devices, and evacuation centers) can mean the different between life and death.
Restricted access to formal education, due to physical, economic, and societal barriers, excludes disabled people from the networks, knowledge, resources, and opportunities that education can open the door to. Formal schooling and education contribute to factors that increase individuals' knowledge about climate change, which can aid in the adaptive capacity of individuals, families, and communities.
Disabled people are less likely to be employed due to exclusions in policy, education, and workplaces. Even those who are employed often face barriers in income, which places stress on their families. "Disability is both a cause and consequence of poverty," as people facing unemployment, homelessness, and economic crises are at higher risk of becoming disabled.
The climate crisis not only affects those who currently have a disability, but increases the likelihood of becoming disabled. The majority of people with disabilities live in poverty globally, and those in poverty are likely to experience the worst effects of climate change. Additionally, life costs more for people with disabilities.
Age
Aging and disability are not the same, despite the fact that the elderly and disabled are lumped together in many contexts. However, as people age, their risk for becoming disabled also increases, as 70.5% of those aged 80 and older in the United States have a disability. Both people with disabilities and older adults are more likely to be affected by climate change and disproportionately impacted by physical, political, economic and social factors. Ageism also leads to restrictive policies and emergency plans.
Children and youth are also in a vulnerable position to climate change by having limited access to the social capital, resources, networks, power, and autonomy that adults have. Children with disabilities face higher risks of being separated from their families during an evacuation and are dependent on often-inadequate school disaster responses, while also facing higher risk of abuse and neglect than their non-disabled peers. Children with disabilities disproportionately live in lower-income areas, with an estimated 80% of children with disabilities in low- or middle-income countries.
Gender & sexuality
Differences in how society expects men and women to behave lead to uneven effects when disasters strike. Disabled women have different gender expectations and more limited resources, putting them at increased risk during evacuations and disasters. Women with disabilities may have reduced social and physical mobility due to their disability and gender roles. For example, women with disabilities face heightened risks of violence and are more likely to experience poverty, compared to non-disabled women and men with or without disabilities. During climate crises, they are more likely to suffer from neglect and abuse.
LGBTQ+ people with disabilities are also more at risk during climate disasters due to systemic inequalities. For example, LGBTQ+ youth experience houselessness at higher rates than their cisgender and heterosexual peers, making them more vulnerable to health issues, food insecurity, unstable income, and extreme weather, all of which are worsened by the climate crisis. In the U.S., LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be disabled than the general population.
Health & pandemic
We associate societal value with traits like disability, race, gender, and age. Over time, we come to think that people with higher status deserve more resources, creating and recreating inequalities across institutions like healthcare. For example, doctors often assess the quality of life of people with disabilities as lower than that reported by people with disabilities themselves. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that Americans with disabilities were about twice as likely as those without disabilities to experience high levels of psychological distress during the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic presented the first global, urgent health disaster humans have encountered in the modern era. To avoid biases influencing important decisions about the allocation of resources during disasters, it's important to have a process for broad public engagement that develops disability-inclusive climate policy.
Sources Used & Suggested Reading
Disability Justice
Guide to Disability Rights Laws - ADA.gov, last updated 2020. A webpage with an overview of laws in the United States that pertain to disability rights.
Disability and Health Overview - CDC (Center for Disease Control), last reviewed 2024. This section of the CDC website provides definitions and examples to understand various different kinds of disabilities, using legal and medical definitions.
Language matters! The long-standing debate between identity-first language and person first language - Krista Best, et. al., 2022. This academic article explores the historical and cultural influences behind using person-first language (people with disabilities) or identity-first language (disabled people).
Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally - Emily Ladau, 2021. This book acts as a guide to understanding disability and how to be an ally. It explains various models of disability, including the medical model, social model, cultural model, and economic model. A preview is available on Google Books.
Models of Disability - Anitra Rowe Schulte, 2022. This guide on the models of disability is geared towards parents and educators, and explains how these models may inform our thoughts, whether we realize it or not.
Four models of disability - Youth Disability Advocacy Service. A webpage that defines 4 models of disability: the medical model, social model, charitable model, and human rights model.
Mia Mingus on Disability Justice (interview) - EquitableEducation, 2013. A 20-minute YouTube video explaining the need for disability justice and what the movement looks like in action.
Disability Justice - a working draft by Patty Berne, 2015. A must-read on disability justice history, contextualization, and principles. Disability justice centers the experiences of those facing multiple forms of oppression, which distinguishes it from the largely un-representative disability rights movement.
What is disability justice? - Disability and Philanthropy Forum. This webpage highlights various key points of disability justice and includes quotes and perspectives from some disability justice activists and organizers.
Disability Justice Framework – N. Ortiz, 2012. A blog post including framework and definitions for disability justice, derived from notes from a Disability Activist Collective Meeting in 2009.
An inclusive future: disabled populations in the context of climate and environmental change – Aleksandra Kosanic, Jan Petzold, Berta Martín-López, and Mialy Razanajatovo, 2022. An academic article that discusses the need for research on the impacts of environmental and climate change on disabled groups.
Global Disability Justice In Climate Disasters: Mobilizing People With Disabilities As Change Agents - Alina Engelman, Leyla Craig, and Alastair Iles, 2022. An academic article written by deaf researchers calling for integration of disability justice in climate preparedness and for power to disabled people, organizations, and service providers through policies and practices.
Climate Disaster Risk, Disability, and Resilience – Emma Calgaro, 2021. A research essay acknowledging inequalities that people with disabilities face, while recognizing that vulnerability narratives disregard the knowledge, experience, and resilience that they bring to the climate justice movement.
Kimberlé Crenshaw on Intersectionality | The Big Idea - The Institute of Art and Ideas, 2021. A 5-minute YouTube video in which Kimberlé Crenshaw explains the origins of intersectionality, which is the overlap of multiple social identities.
Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure in the United States - Steve Lerner, 2010. A book detailing how low-income minority neighborhoods from across the United States fought against the high chemical pollution they were subjected to.
The effect of Hurricane Katrina on the prevalence of health impairments and disability among adults in New Orleans: Differences by age, race, and sex – Narayan Sastry and Jesse Gregory, 2013. An academic article that looks at how Hurricane Katrina increased the rates of disability among adults in New Orleans.
Disability, Displacement and Climate Change - UN Refugee Agency, 2021. A 2-page PDF exploring the risk of displacement people with disabilities face and emphasizing disability-inclusive approaches to mitigate the effects.
Financial Inequality: Disability, Race and Poverty in America – Nanette Goodman, Michael Morris, and Kelvin Boston, 2019. A 26-page PDF report from the National Disability Institute that investigates rates of disability across different races and ages, specifically looking at the effects on education, employment, health insurance, banking status, food insecurity, and medical debt.
Disasters and Social Inequalities: Disasters and Social Inequalities – Megan Reid, 2013. A sociological academic article looking at the relationship between race, class, gender, and disaster recovery.
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.
Disability inclusion enhances science - Aaron C. Hartmann, 2019. This brief article explores the small percentage of people with disabilities working in the scientific field and how an increase in diversity will benefit all people, disabled or not.
How climate change disproportionately impacts those with disabilities - UN Environmental Programme, 2019. This short article highlights 3 ways that climate change impacts those with disabilities through 1. limited access to knowledge and resources, 2. compromised health that increases vulnerability, and 3. difficulty in evacuation and migration.
Disability Employment Statistics - U.S. Department of Labor. This webpage highlights data about employment of persons with a disability in the United States, based on age and race/ethnicity.
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.
We cannot accept a system which allows disabled people to live trapped in poverty - James Taylor, 2021. This article from SCOPE (a UK Charity that focuses on disability) discusses how society has continually pushed disabled people further into poverty and how the pandemic and welfare system have further exacerbated inequalities.
Aging with Disability and Disability with Aging - Lois M. Verbrugge and Li-shou Yang, 2022. This academic article explores the sociodemographic, health, disability, and social participation characteristics of persons with childhood-onset disabilities and persons with adulthood-onset disabilities.
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.
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.
Analytical study on the promotion and protection of the rights of older persons in the context of climate change - Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/47/46), 2021. A global human rights analysis of the impacts of climate change on older persons.
School Disaster Planning for Children with Disabilities: A Critical Review of the Literature - Helen Boon, et. al., 2011. This critical literature review focused on school disaster planning policies in English with a particular focus on children with disabilities, finding that the U.S. has policies that are neither comprehensive nor inclusive, while no policies were found in countries like Australia, the UK or Canada.
Education Cannot Wait Policy and Accountability Framework on Disability Inclusion - ECW, 2022. This framework is the basis for the organization Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and includes data, facts, and statistics about education and disability around the world.
Disability, disasters and empowerment: Evidence from qualitative research in a disability inclusive disaster preparedness program – Sightsavers, 2015. A report based on a study in Bangladesh, researching sources of vulnerability to disasters and approaches to increasing empowerment for people with disabilities.
Forgotten Sisters - A Report on Violence Against Women with Disabilities: An Overview of its Nature, Scope, Causes and Consequences - Stephanie Ortoleva and Hope Lewis, 2012. This report, written by members of the Working Group on Violence against Women with Disabilities, explores the multiple, pervasive, and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence that women with disabilities face, and calls upon international organizations to take action.
Issue brief: Making the SDGs count for women and girls with disabilities – UN Women, 2017. A report on the progress of the inclusion of women with disabilities in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
The LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness Report – The Albert Kennedy Trust, 2021. Research and reports on the statistics and accounts of LGBTQ+ youth who experienced homelessness.
Summary for Policymakers - Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2022. This summary includes findings from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, detailing the differential impacts and risks of climate change, adaptation measures, and potential for climate resilient development.
LGBT People with Disabilities – Movement Advancement Project, 2019. A report detailing the results of a survey about the overlap between LGBT and disability identities.
The Just World Theory - Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez, 1990. This article talks about the ethics of the Just World Theory, in which people believe that victims of misfortune deserve what happens to them. This theory bleeds into the moral/charity model of disability, in which disability is seen as a punishment.
Why Status Matters for Inequality - Cecilia L. Ridgeway, 2013. This sociological article analyzes how status impacts resources, power, authority, and inequalities.
Quadriplegic man’s death from covid-19 spotlights questions of disability, race and family - Ariana Eunjung Cha, 2020. This article explores discussions of quality of life in end-of-life conversations, particularly for disabled people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
8 facts about Americans with disabilities - Rebecca Leppert and Katherine Schaeffer, 2023. This "short read" highlights key data about Americans with disabilities in relation to race, income, COVID-19 pandemic, technology, education, and more.
People with disabilities are worth saving, too: Ensuring healthcare equity during the COVID-19 pandemic - Molly M. King, 2020. This blog post by Molly King compiles information about inequitable resource distribution and highlights the need for disabled community input in disaster planning and policymaking.