Crip Up Climate Conversations
By Sarah Bell and Emma Geen
Over the last couple of years, we have been developing the ‘Crip Up Climate Conversations’ guidance series; a set of guidance notes that share new stories of climate and disability, new ways of understanding disabled people in the context of the climate crisis, and suggestions for how to support respectful conversations about disability and the climate crisis.
These are conversations that need to happen to inform collective climate action that leaves no one behind.
We are delighted to be launching this guidance at the Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership ‘Climate and Disability Showcase’ event in Bristol on Thursday 2nd October 2025!
The story behind the guidance
The idea for the Crip Up Climate Conversations guidance came from early discussions between Emma and Sarah in 2021, when very little was being done around disability and climate change.
When not framed out of discussions about climate change, disabled people were often framed simply as one of several ‘climate vulnerable’ groups, with little reflection on the social, political and economic systems that create vulnerability.
This is not to say that vulnerability doesn’t exist. It does. But vulnerability is created by our society not by our bodies, and it doesn’t have to be that way.
The single story of vulnerability also overlooks the rich knowledge and skills of disabled people within climate action. Climate change is disabling; it is making our world more uncertain, more unpredictable, more harmful. Yet the people who know what it means to navigate a disabling world – disabled people – are so often left out of this work.
Stories have powerful effects on how we understand the world. They may echo existing stereotypes and expectations of how people live – or ‘should’ live – in the world. Or, they can be used to resist these; and to widen out whose lives, and ways of living, are valued and respected.
In the ‘Crip Up Climate Conversations’ guidance, we share new stories: stories that value the knowledge of disabled people about living within limits, problem solving and creating communities of care; and stories that recognise how climate action – if designed and implemented properly – may be our best opportunity to make our everyday environments more accessible in our lifetimes.
The focus of the guidance
There are four guidance notes, for people who would like to initiate conversations around climate action and disability with:
Disabled people and Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs);
People involved in the climate and environmental movement who might not understand disability or the knowledge that it brings;
Policy and decision-makers;
People who would like to co-produce a community climate action plan with disabled people. This fourth guidance note was created in collaboration with the Community Climate Action project coordinated by the Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership, and funded by the National Lottery.
Each guidance document is different, but content includes:
An introduction to disability and climate issues;
Background to the language we use around disability and impairment;
Our approach for how to create change – emphasising continuous learning, building relationships, drawing on a range of tactics, engaging in care to reduce the risk of burnout, recognising diversity amongst the disabled community, and sharing the load – one person cannot do everything;
Examples of new stories to use to understand the issues;
Tips for initiating discussion with different groups;
Advice for creating safe and accessible conditions for engagement and co-production;
Challenges you might come across and potential solutions;
Take-home messages;
Links to further resources.
Language in the guidance
Throughout the guidance, we use identity-first language (‘Disabled people’, ‘Disabled person’) to reflect the terminology used (at the time of writing) by the majority of the disabled people’s movement in the UK.
This language is informed by the social model of disability; the social model is rooted in the disability rights movement. It makes a distinction between impairment (an embodied condition) and disability (societal barriers and discrimination). It recognises society as disabling and moves away from a position of locating shortcomings within a disabled individual. It calls for disabling barriers to societal participation to be removed, and for systemic changes to the ways in which disabled people are treated. In the UK, identity-first language is used to emphasise that people are primarily disabled by society and exclusionary environments, policies and norms, rather than by individual impairments.
However, we also respect the preferences of many people worldwide for person-first language (‘people/person(s) with disabilities’), which is used in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Reflecting a human rights model of disability, the UNCRPD seeks to progress disability policy and law in ways that align with key human rights principles.
The guidance series is called ‘Crip Up Climate Conversations’. The term ‘crip’ has been reclaimed within disability activist communities in recent years to signal political resistance and community affiliation. It is used to affirm disability as a desirable part of the world and to recognise that more inclusive, accessible worlds are possible. However, we recognise that its use is not universal and that not all disabled people will be comfortable with its origins. By ‘Crip Up’ we are talking about disabled community reclaiming space within climate conversations, amplifying and having disabled leadership taken seriously.
Guidance translations
We have written several versions of each guidance note, each of which can be downloaded below:
Standard pdf
Standard word document in large print
Plain language pdf
Plain language word document in large print
Easy Read pdf
If none of these formats are accessible to you, please do get in touch and we will work with you to find a version that we hope you can use.
We also encourage people to adapt this guidance to other contexts. It is based on our experiences of working primarily in the UK and we recognise that every country has different laws, policies, structures, movements and opportunities, such that one size will not fit all. But we hope that elements of the guidance will still be useful and could be used by people in other contexts developing their own guidance to initiate discussions around disability and climate worldwide.
The guidance
In conversation with disabled people and DPOs
• Standard large print word document
• Plain English large print word
In conversation with people in climate/environmental movements
• Standard large print word document
• Plain English large print word
In conversation with policy and decision-makers
• Standard large print word document
• Plain English large print word
In conversation with people who would like to co-produce a disability-led community climate action plan
• Standard large print word document
• Plain English large print word
We have also written a Plain English glossary of terms, which is available to download as a pdf document or a large print word document. We are very happy to add to this glossary so do get in touch with suggestions.
Acknowledgements
We would like to say a big thank you to everyone that has worked with us on the guidance. We had really helpful input from Sensing Climate project researcher, Andy Shipley; collaborator Áine Kelly-Costello; project advisor Shivali Fifield; Alex Cameron-Smith of Verture; Francesca di Giorgio of Friends of the Earth; and invaluable support with the Easy Read versions from the wonderful Beth Richards. So a big thank you to you all, and to our funders; UK Research and Innovation, the Leverhulme Trust and the National Lottery.
Get in touch
If you would like to find out more or chat about the guide, we would love to hear from you:
Emma - futuremancy@gmail.com
Sarah - Sarah.Bell@exeter.ac.uk