Is there Room on the Broom for a Crip? Disabled Women as Experts in Disaster Planning

Climate change-related extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe, requiring urgent action to effectively plan for them. While disabled women are one group likely to be disproportionately and negatively affected by disasters, they are often not included in disaster planning. This commentary paper utilizes McRuer’s Crip Theory as a lens to explore this topic, where the strength of disabled women’s capacity to positively contribute to effective disaster planning becomes evident. Their lived understandings of negotiating often unacknowledged barriers can act as useful tools to assuage the impacts of disasters. Their experiences are recognized under the rubric of crip theory as neither deviant nor “other”, but as capabilities worthy of mainstreaming. Disaster situations that may be seen as chaotic to those accustomed to services and environments that closely match their requirements, could be perceived as both familiar and resolvable to a disabled woman. In this way, disabled women can utilize their everyday problem-solving skills to help tackle these impacts, viewing them as circumstances to be methodically navigated and overcome. Enabling disabled women room at the planning table is neither luxury nor bonus, but essential. Participatory inclusion and successful planning for disabled individuals benefits a much larger swathe of society than initially anticipated, as illustrated in this paper by international examples of best practice. We all profit from more inclusive planning to create more accessible and inclusive communities.