Neighbours in time!

 Disability and climate change

As a disability specialist, activist and [recovering] academic. My interest in sustainability came about when I observed that disabled people as a group had been excluded from conversations about the planet. As a group of 600+ million people world wide, it seemed we’d been ignored in the first articulation of the Sustainable Development Goals. While this has been rectified, I still question the hierarchical nature of the goals, which implies a subordinate position for a number of specified groups. 

I remember a conversation with my supervisor, in which we pointed out to each other why all the goals affected disabled people disproportionately. We agreed that any failure to address the Sustainable Development Goals priorities impacted on those marginalised by unsustainable growth more severely due to compounding problems linked to structural disadvantage and global inequality. 

The one paper I could find linking disability and climate change at the time (2018) stated that strategic conversation largely failed to consider the voice of disabled individuals and groups backing their interests. For example, the placement of recycling points or failure to organise bin collections often demanded more of those not considered in terms of access. Result: disabled people were doubly disadvantaged by the extra effort and relatively higher cost of making their households more sustainable.

Poverty is a huge factor here, because without recognising the extra effort demanded of disabled people with regard to employment, for instance, the knock-on impact in terms of well-being cannot be measured. That is without adequate income matters of education, housing, transport, health and participation cost more. Without even delving into the private predicament of impairment, being subject to higher demands for lower returns is fact of life for a significant number of disabled individuals. No justice there then!

Returning to climate change specifically, the hierarchy within the Sustainable Development Goals itself, suggests that the disabled population is a subcategory of a subcategory – rather than a central priority. Yet, as research suggests, the disabled population is a global majority! An identifiable population with a shared voice, defined interests, concerns and priorities that is getting louder on the issue of climate change, sustainability and social justice. The number of conversations and texts relating to climate change have mushroomed. However, while disabled academics, professionals and activists have spoken with insight, expertise and wisdom on these matters, few high profile critics have acknowledged this contribution - or the uniqueness of its insight, knowledge and wisdom.  This lack of recognition has been identified as a wider issue of trust. Exemplified by the rejection or marginalisation of a ‘disability’ voice, typically associated with individuals, groups and the Disabled people’s movement as a recognised association within the civil rights movement acting on climate change.

On a personal level I’ve had lots of comments about the straws I need to drink. These comments are neither rare, or benign I feel, but is an example of prejudice, discrimination and ultimately inequality. Good evidence suggests that the average household disposes of more plastic in a week than my 20 straws a year. [yes, I wash them!] On a organisational level I’ve encountered discrimination which has voiced assumptions about my lack of value. From exclusion from meetings to unfair pricing at networks and conferences. This negative view of disabled employees is defended by arguments based on the extra resources and a lack of acknowledgement of effort made. Most startling I feel was the national response to the pandemic, characterised by the DNR’s sent to disabled individuals, the deaths of disabled people in institutions, the lack of priority given in the vaccine roll out and lack of financial support and care given to those shielding. 

The human rights of the disabled population should concern us all, as most of us are touched by disability in some way - if not personally impaired then within our relationships with disabled friends, colleagues and neighbours. In the global-north the likelihood is that most of us face the reality of old age and impairment, therefore, that sustainability needs to be critiqued from a disability perspective in. Furthermore, because disabled people are highlighted as one group of specific interest within policy, but, despite being a protected characteristic under the law, strategic decisions still largely affect disabled people disproportionately unfair. The National Director of the Equality and Human Rights Commission states, disabled people face a social apartheid: “Far from enjoying increased visibility and being able to participate more fully in every aspect of life, there is a risk that disabled people will become more invisible… positive changes are masking increased social isolation for many disabled and older people as Britain’s society and economic life undergoes significant structural changes” (Naysmith, 2015). 

My research examined the issue of lack of language that leads to this cultural toxicity, often under the radar of most, which has negative implications that drives inequality and covers up an institutional refusal to consider disabled people’s human rights.