Thinking About Disability and Climate Change
A workshop for Everyone
Disability must be addressed as an important part of climate policy because it is present in every race, sex, class, sexual preference, age, and everything else. Disability is the part of an identity that gets left out because no one wants to think it matters and everyone is afraid a disability could happen to them. Inclusion of people with disabilities is a key issue in climate policy.
Having a disability is part of the human condition and disabled people form a subset of every community. Many of us lead interesting, productive, and fulfilling lives. We are problem solvers and have figured out creative ways using technology and other assistive accommodations to manage and sustain our bodies and our minds.
People with disabilities are uniquely impacted by climate change due to a lack of resources and because policy makers don’t understand what we need to survive in environmentally compromised circumstances.
In this workshop participants will:
• Recognize the contributions by people with disabilities who have led the fight and advocated for laws, such as 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, that have led to greater accessibility and inclusion throughout society
• Learn about disability oppression and how it plays out in unintended ways.
• Examine the manifestations of disability oppression in the environmental movement and the impact of climate change on this population.
• Learn about issues such as extreme heat, lack of effective communication, decrease in clean water, and loss of electricity, that have disastrous effects on the well-being of people with disabilities.
• Learn about the theory and practice the tools of Sustaining All Life as strategies to overcome the effects of disability oppression in our individual lives and societies.
In Sustaining All Life we work to (1) create awareness of the emotional feelings that interfere with fresh thinking about and acting to environmental degradation and (2) undo this damage on an individual basis.
We offer mutual support, engaged listening, and a process to help people work against the effects oppression and other hurts. Using this process allows us to think more clearly about the environmental crisis, build and strengthen alliances, and enjoy working together to set the world right. Together, we can create a just, sustainable future for Everyone.