Climate change threatens to widen the myriad inequities people with disabilities already experience. Policymakers, emergency managers, and local leaders need more evidence and robust strategies for disability-forward climate and disaster resilience planning and investments designed with equity in mind. To support these goals, we scanned programs, resources, and organizations addressing intersecting vulnerabilities related to disability, rural disasters, and climate change and reviewed disability and rural eligibility criteria in key federal climate and disaster programs. We also held conversations with disabled people with lived expertise, national experts and local practitioners in disability health and disaster equity, climate change and disaster researchers, emergency managers, and rural community development experts about how to address planning and policy gaps. This brief reviews the evidence on climate- and disaster-related challenges affecting people with disabilities in rural communities and presents five corresponding opportunities to address them.
Authors
Anne N. Junod, Corianne Payton Scally, Anna Morgan, Nina Russell
- Pages
- 24
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- Intersecting Vulnerabilities: Disability and Climate Disasters in Rural America 1
- Challenges to Disability-Forward Climate and Disaster Planning, Response, and Recovery in Rural Areas 2
- Rural Communities Are Home to Many People with Disabilities but Often Have Limited Capacity to Support Them 2
- Rural Climate Change and Disaster Vulnerabilities Present Unique Challenges for People with Disabilities 3
- Rural Infrastructure Is a Barrier to Disability Equity in Response and Recovery 5
- Climate and Disaster Governance and Policy Often Leave Rural Disabled People Out 6
- Opportunities to Strengthen Disability-Forward Climate Disaster Planning, Response, and Recovery 7
- Prioritize and Partner with Disabled People in Climate and Disaster Planning 7
- Implement asset-based and participatory planning 8
- prioritize disability when hiring for emergency Planning and response 8
- Tailor Planning, Response, and Recovery to Rural Contexts and Needs 8
- Coordinate partnerships to address vulnerability gaps 9
- Identify planning and recovery resources for low-attention disasters 9
- Design interventions to address rural-specific climate vulnerabilities 10
- Strengthen Disability-Forward Rural Critical Infrastructure 10
- Coordinate human services and public transportation services 10
- Improve emergency planning for rural utilities 10
- Specialize plans for mobile and manufactured housing 11
- Improve Government Agency Coordination and Increase Investments in Climate and Disaster Planning 11
- Invest in disability and unconscious bias training 11
- Strengthen and expand the National Incident Management System 11
- Permanently authorize Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery and mitigation programs 12
- Increase AND EXpand state-level FEMA emergency management funding 12
- Expand state and regionAL coordination to improve preparedness 13
- Embed Access and Functional Needs Coordinators in emergency management 14
- Improve Rural, Disability, and Disaster Data and Build Evidence about What Works 14
- Improve data and analyses on climate, disaster, and rural disability vulnerabilities 14
- Build on data successes 15
- Conclusion 16
- Appendix A. Rural and Disability Priorities in Federal Climate Programs 17
- Notes 19
- References 22
- About the Authors 23
- Acknowledgments 24
