Reflecting on eco-ableism

By Sarah Bell and Emma Geen

Eco-ableism is a term that is increasingly used in discussions around disability, climate action and the environmental movement. In this piece, we reflect on what eco-ableism is – and examples of how it can happen – for anyone who is unfamiliar with the term.

What is eco-ableism?

Eco-ableism refers to the failure to include Disabled people in climate action, to value or respect the knowledge and expertise that Disabled people bring to this work, or to recognise that some of the actions promoted to address the climate emergency are creating new challenges for Disabled people.

It stems from the broader concept of ableism; that is, the tendency to view non-disabled ways of being in the world as the way of being or the most desirable way of being. This, in turn, de-values and marginalises many other ways of living in and making sense of the world.

Eco-ableism and single use plastics

Perhaps the most widely recognised example of eco-ableism is the debate around single use plastics, including the plastic straw ban. The ban impacted the access of many Disabled people to an important assistive tool with little meaningful impact on the reduction of plastic pollution. Alternatives are rarely appropriate; paper and biodegradable straws tend to fall apart, especially when used for hot liquids; metal straws do not flex and pose a choking hazard; glass or bamboo straws can be dangerous when used for hot liquids; and compostable straws often contain allergens e.g. gluten or starch.

To have to bring straws adds to what can already be a lot of equipment, devices or medications for some. To have to ask and justify the need for a plastic straw instils guilt and creates unnecessary angst. Naomi Ortiz, a Disabled Mestize writer and visual artist living in the Arizona US/Mexico borderlands, asks ‘Where is my place in zero waste?’ in a poignant ‘Ode to Plastic Cups’.

Eco-ableism and emergency preparedness

Disabled people – including 16% of the global population and 24% of the UK population – are at particular risk of harm in the face of climate change. Indeed, Disabled people are 2-4 times more likely to die or be injured in heatwaves, hurricanes and floods, for example.

The role of inaccessible emergency preparedness planning in shaping these risks is made very clear in a short documentary, called ‘The Right to be Rescued’. This documentary was developed by Rooted in Rights to share the stories of Disabled people affected by Hurricane Katrina in the US.

Eco-ableism occurs when Disabled people are not included in emergency preparedness planning. Disabled people and Disabled People’s Organisations must be involved in co-producing emergency plans and responses, ‘real time’ planning exercises, community risk registers and risk communications. Particular care is needed to:

• Develop accessible evacuation plans, which contain clear information about individuals’ particular access requirements and the specific nature of support/assistance required. Evacuation should be a managed and inclusive process, in which Disabled people make a safe and dignified evacuation.

• Provide Disabled people with access to a generator, clean water supplies, respiratory masks, key medications and food supplies if needed, ensuring the costs of doing so are not incurred by Disabled people themselves. Care is needed to sustain access to medication and health care, not just in the immediate emergency context but in long-term follow up (especially if people are displaced from their homes and familiar health care and support networks).

• Ensuring emergency shelters and ‘safe’ spaces are accessible (including the spaces themselves, the facilities and the access routes). This is needed, not just in the context of flooding or storms etc., but also when Disabled people have to rely on emergency support such as community ‘warm’ or ‘cool’ spaces or fuel and food banks.

Care is also needed to avoid eco-ableism as homes and communities are adapted to help people cope with the increased frequency of extreme weather events. For example, changes made to decarbonise housing, improve ventilation and reduce flood risk must not compromise key accessibility features in the homes of Disabled people.

Similarly, when parks and other nature-based settings are adapted to provide nearby ‘cool’ spaces in urban centres in the context of heat waves, it is important that Disabled people can access the shade of trees safely, as well as key facilities, bathrooms, water fountains etc.

Eco-ableism and environmental activism

Concerns have been raised about barriers to taking part in climate activism, including inaccessible climate and environmental protests. The Disabled people’s movement has many years of experience in coming together to resist exclusionary, oppressive systems. This expertise could enhance collective efforts to resist and push for changes to the key drivers of climate and environmental injustice, and to do so in ways that are inclusive and empowering. But this expertise is often overlooked.

In ‘It’s Our Planet Too’, Inclusion Scotland discusses the risks of protest tactics that block roads and disrupt public transport for Disabled people when access to health care centres is needed. They also discuss adverse responses to Disabled people who do join protests, for example, with wheelchairs and noise cancelling headphones confiscated by the police, and access to adapted toilets deliberately blocked.

Recognising such barriers, Emma and key collaborators developed ‘Protest for All’, a guide for climate and environmental activists to understand how to make their protests and meetings better for Disabled people. The guide can be downloaded as a PDF or word document, and in Easy Read, from our project Resources page. More information about the guide is also available via our news pages.

Eco-ableism and ‘pro-environmental behaviour’

People often suggest that we need to respond to climate disruption as individuals – to use the car less, to cycle more, or eat less meat. These actions can be important, but can also cause guilt when people cannot make such changes.

Climate ‘solutions’ that prioritise individual ‘pro-environmental behaviour’ largely fail to distinguish between optional and essential resource consumption. For example, some Disabled people rely on energy-intensive equipment to survive (e.g. power chairs, ventilators, dialysis machines); essential energy costs that are rarely considered in the ongoing challenges posed by the cost-of-living crisis.

Without including Disabled people at the design stage, climate strategies can create new disabling barriers or make existing barriers worse. Many measures introduced to reduce carbon emissions have negative impacts on Disabled people.

Examples include:

• The creation of car-free zones and the removal of dedicated accessible parking bays, for example to make space for cycleways in support of active travel.

• Introducing cycle hire schemes and narrow cycleways that do not accommodate the hire and use of adapted cycles and e-trikes. When cycle lanes come with new continuous curbs, they also create barriers for navigation amongst wheelchair users.

• Cycle to work schemes that offer monetary incentives to staff to cycle rather than drive to work, without recognising the barriers to doing so for some Disabled employees, or the extra costs of using, for example, adaptive cycles.

• Introducing dockless bike/scooter schemes without regulating the speed at which they are used in pedestrian areas or where they are discarded when no longer needed; left undocked in the middle of paths and pavements, they create new barriers amongst wheelchair users or long cane users, for example.

• Ultra-low emissions/clean air zones pose challenges to Disabled people who cannot access public transport or afford the cost of low emission vehicles. To benefit from clean air without the creation of new barriers, Disabled people have requested appropriate exemptions (e.g. for blue badge holders), affordable scrappage schemes and genuine improvements to community and public transport provision in affected areas.

By failing to recognise or avoid eco-ableism, such environmental measures can deepen the exclusion of Disabled people from climate decision-making and debate.

Eco-ableism and the expertise of Disabled people

The climate crisis is asking many of us to cope with and adapt to increasingly unpredictable, harmful everyday environments. Disabled people are often experts at navigating such uncertainty, drawing on creativity and adaptive thinking to get by in ways that few non-disabled people can match. This expertise is desperately needed in response to the climate crisis.

Yet this expertise is often overlooked or even undermined. For example, despite the pioneering work of autistic activist, Greta Thunberg – who explicitly describes autism as a strength in her approach to the climate crisis – Disabled people are rarely viewed as knowledgeable climate or environmental leaders. An analysis of user comments on YouTube videos linked to Thunberg’s climate activism identifies the use of ableism (as well as sexism and ageism) to discredit her. These reactions are both a form of eco-ableism and a form of injustice; when a listener actively disregards the knowledge and contributions of someone because of their own prejudices.

Climate change is itself creating new mental and physical health challenges. Many impairments are gained over people’s lifetimes, be it through age, injury or other forms of harm. Whether a person is Disabled now or becomes Disabled later, they will need society to be accessible. Creating inclusive and enabling environments for climate action, and embedding Disabled people into climate decision-making, is essential for ensuring the success of climate action.

In this news piece, we have covered just a few examples of eco-ableism based on our experiences to date. We hope we can find ways to address these – and others that we come across – through the Sensing Climate project as it develops.