Exploring and Exchanging (Dis)ability and (Dis)aster

Abstract

Among other individual and collective characteristics, disaster vulnerability is gendered (e.g., Enarson and Chakrabarti, 2009), racialized (e.g., Bullard and Wright, 2009), and age-related (e.g., Bourque et al., 2006; Peek and Stough, 2010; Norris et al., 2002), with each characteristic’s level of influence being contextual (see also “layered vulnerabilities” from Phillips and Morrow, 2007). Little research, however, documents the experiences of people with disabilities (Stough and Mayhorn, 2013). Additionally, the existing literature principally consists of statistical surveys (e.g., McGuire et al., 2007; Metz et al., 2002), responses collected on undifferentiated groups of people with disabilities (Stough et al., 2010), or is authored by people without disabilities. These chapters differ not only in being written by and with people with disabilities, but also in that these voices are unfiltered and individual, rather than combined in a manner that obscures the contextual nature of how disaster affects people with disabilities. As such, these narratives allow for deep examination of how each person’s individual experience has been affected by, and has had an impact upon, social and environmental factors. Collectively, these narratives combine to paint a picture of what it is like for people with disabilities and their families to encounter, consider, respond to, and prepare for disaster.