Exploring the nuances when telling stories on the impact of climate change on disabled people
Jason Strother's advice, media recommendations, resources and several opportunities (one with a special discount for subscribers)
Namaste, everyone! Welcome to another edition of this newsletter, created and authored by me. I’m Priti Salian, an independent journalist, editor, trainer and researcher based in Bengaluru in the south of India.
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Many of you must be aware of the catastrophic wildfires in California. But what many might not know is how they have impacted disabled people. This CNN piece highlights the access needs of disabled people and how they are disproportionately impacted during a climate crisis/disaster such as wildfires due to the lack of preparedness of systems.
In her recently launched newsletter, Anna Landre, a researcher and activist in the disability space wrote about disabled ingenuity as key to climate survival:
“..our community is key to finding solutions. As disabled people, we live “apocalypse” like no one else does. We breathe “crisis” every day.
We are typically the first to be impacted and to start finding solutions to what’s to come. We’re accustomed to working in and living in spaces that are at best not built for us, and at worst hostile. That resilience, creativity, and community care is exactly the type of perspective that will get us through the reality of our changing climate.”
But a lot of storytelling still doesn’t highlight this, instead focusing solely only on disabled people’s vulnerability.
I caught up with multimedia American journalist, Jason Strother, also an educator and founder of Lens15 Media, a disability-focused news platform and consultancy. He spoke to me about his reporting on climate change, which turned into this yet-to-release documentary that has built critical evidence about the state of disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction in South Asia.
A still from Jason’s documentary, Invisible Impact
How can journalists ensure that the reporting on climate change and disability reflects the lived experience and resilience of disabled communities rather than focusing solely on their vulnerabilities?
It's a difficult needle to thread. In a lot of the communities I visited throughout South Asia some people with disabilities I interviewed were unaware of the concept of climate change. There is an educational gap due —in part—to the marginalisation of disabled communities. They could easily talk about their experience facing increased storms, flooding, heat waves; they all had stories about that.
Then, despite disability inclusion being part of the disaster protocol in some of the countries I visited, the stakeholders aren't aware of their own rights.
Many of the first responders are also unaware of the need to make disaster planning more accessible and inclusive.
I did not want to paint these people as victims and being helpless. That’s the kind of characterisation that I try to avoid in any disability reporting. However, many of these people are vulnerable because they are so far on the margins of society that they don't know their own rights, and their community leaders also are unaware.
Though there were people with disabilities I met that are actively involved in disaster risk reduction, I didn't want to spend the entire film just talking to advocates. I have an advocate from each country that I visited - India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives. I have one person in there who is an English speaker who can talk more specifically about the risks faced by the disabled community in their own country. But they do not represent all the people in the far-flung places of their country. These people would be the first to acknowledge that they come from a privileged place, they’re educated, some have international experience. And they have the means to be in safer places and have more access to resources than many of their disabled stakeholders who live in vulnerable places or circumstances.
When covering stories of disability and climate change in India, what could journalists highlight?
While in Odisha, I found that they have some degree of disability inclusion in their disaster protocol, and people with disabilities are prioritised during evacuations on paper. It's very important in Eastern India because of the proximity to the Bay of Bengal and the way storms are increasing in severity in that region. But from what I observed and learned is that there's still a lack of training and a journalist who covers this intersection of disability and climate change, needs to go beyond what's written on paper and for example, check if first responders are adequately prepared to evacuate someone with a disability. From what I was able to gauge, it would seem that people with disabilities are prioritised to be brought out of their homes. But there's no nuance in disaster planning, no understanding that not every person with a disability has the same accessibility needs. For example, there's no consideration given if someone has a spinal cord injury - you can't just lift them up and carry them out of their house. You can actually cause more damage that way. Again, maybe you can help bring someone who is deaf to an evacuation shelter. But if there is no one who can use sign language to translate or use some other means to translate, that person will be completely left in the dark when vital information is shared. A journalist who covers these concerns should find out what the training has been like and the resources available, both human resources, assistive technology, and adaptive devices. What is actually available to people with disabilities who are facing disasters?
What are the challenges you faced while filming in India and what advice would you give to journalists tackling similar stories?
India is an incredibly diverse country. There are linguistic challenges that anyone in India, Indian or not, faces. India, I think it is also a very class-conscious society. You can speak with a lot of people who work in universities or advocacy organizations or government who might be real experts in their field but because of the stratification of classes in India, might be out of touch with what's happening in some of the far-flung places. While their input is very useful and helpful in getting the bigger picture, it is essential [to speak to people with lived experience]. And a problem in disability journalism in general is that journalists might be a little afraid to speak with someone who has a severe disability. They might feel uncomfortable speaking with someone who has a significant developmental or intellectual disability or someone who appears different because of their disability. I met many polio survivors while I was reporting in Eastern India in very poverty-stricken conditions. And I think a lot of journalists would have never seen something like that in the United States. So it can be a real culture shock for someone who is dropping into India into these regions for the first time. And that can be said for someone in India from a privileged class or who has been insulated from these conditions in their own country. So they have to go beyond the advocate or the academic in the big cities into the field to meet people who are living these conditions firsthand.
How did you bring your own disability to your reporting? Did it help open doors?
I'm pretty open about my low vision condition and I do think that helps open doors. Why should someone like me coming in as a foreign journalist who does not speak any local language in India be trusted? There are a lot of unfair and incorrect notions of India among people in American mass media. So when I was reaching out to advocates, cold calling or emailing advocacy organizations, I disclosed that I am a journalist who has a low vision disability, and I've been reporting on this intersection for some years now. It's something that I have also experienced firsthand or it's a concern to me as well. So I think that helped.
How do you approach storytelling to ensure that disability inclusive climate reporting resonates with both local and local audiences?
I think these are stories that transcend international boundaries. That’s why I did not want to only have English speaking people in my film. I wanted to have people speaking in their own languages and their own voices, tell their stories. The film is as much for Indian audiences or Sri Lankan audiences as it is for American or British audiences, because the concerns that someone living in a slum in Puri faces are largely the same that someone on a Barrier Island in New Jersey faces. It is a lack of accessible disaster planning, or inclusive disaster management policy, just the degrees are different. So, there's a common storyline in the film that anyone around the world can understand.
What are some of the story ideas journalists can pursue?
There are many different stories that could be followed about what Indigenous communities do for example when a storm strikes. They have their own practices that differ from the mainstream in many cases. Disability is a multiplier, so someone with a disability from an Indigenous community could also be marginalised due to economic reasons. All these factors increase vulnerability and that's an important storyline that does not get a lot of attention in the media. Also, another topic I think is really important is about the health concerns that climate change poses for people with a disability. How do heat waves impact people with psychosocial disabilities or spinal cord injuries? What are the challenges some people with mobility impairments face, whose bodies can't regulate heat, like people without a disability?
Resources
Harvard Law School’s Project on Disability has resources on climate change and so does McGill University. The World Institute on Disability’s emergency, disaster and climate resilience resources are widely used.
Read
For Mother Jones, Julia Metraux “wrote about how neighbours can play a role in helping disabled and aging people plan for and evacuate when wildfires hit.”
Listen
In this Hidden Brain podcast, researcher Sarah Jaquette Ray talks about how we can reclaim our sense of efficacy and purpose in the face of big, systemic problems like climate change. The piece is rounded off with an audio essay from writer Pico Iyer, where in the last 10 minutes he shares his thoughts on how we can regain our footing when life is overwhelming.
Watch
Sara Minkara offers valuable insights in this conversation on disability inclusion in foreign policy.
Attend
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Teach Access Student Academy is offering a free 2-day virtual workshop on accessibility on February 20 and 21. Sign up before the course starts!
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Application deadline: 7th March 2025
That’s all for today. Keep writing and don’t forget to fill out the 5-minute survey to help me serve you better. Connect with me on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Until next time.
Warmly,
Priti