An Empirical Exploration of the Capabilities of People with Disabilities in Coping with Disasters

Abstract

While the capability approach is increasingly being adopted for evaluating well-being and social justice in the field of human development, this approach in disaster research has remained scarce. This research thus seeks to address the disaster risk that humans face through a lens of capabilities, with a focus on the lives of people with disabilities. A multi-case study approach was adopted and two rural communes in Vietnam were selected as study contexts. Data were collected using focus group discussions and interviews that involved people with disabilities, parents/caregivers of people with intellectual/psychosocial disabilities, and representatives from related organizations. It was found that people with disabilities are affected by disasters due to the lack of capabilities that they value in coping with disasters. A range of capabilities that people with disabilities value was revealed in the study sites, with many being valued not only in times of disasters but also in daily life. The findings also highlight that, to actualize their valued capabilities, people with disabilities need access not only to resources but also to the factors that enable them to convert the resources to their valued capabilities. In most cases, the limitations to the achievement of capabilities are related to the external environment.

Implicit Sustainable Development Theories Obscure Disproportionate Impacts from Climate-related Extreme Events: Example from Hurricane Michael and Housing Losses on Florida’s Forgotten Coast

“…The question of adequate and affordable housing is widely viewed as central to managing future climate risks, recognizing that the housing question, particularly in developing countries, will interact with and be exacerbated by increasing climate hazards (e.g., heat waves, tropical cyclones), generally impacting the least-well-off most severely (IPCC, 2018). Of course, a focus on housing certainly does not capture all significant impacts, including those that may affect the most vulnerable residents, such as elderly, people with disabilities, and low-income renters (Ton et al, 2020). Because of this, we are not claiming to reveal all the important differences between Capital Theory and Human Development approaches when it comes to impact of climate-related extreme events.…”

“…Broadly speaking, economicbased approaches have dominated scholarship on the assessment of loss and damage from climate change (McNamara and Jackson, 2019;Boda et al, 2021). However, recent developments in the area of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) have argued for impact assessment approaches that disaggregate impacts and highlight the most vulnerable, with some explicitly championing a capabilities approach to impact assessment (Ton et al, 2020;Gardoni and Murphy, 2008;. Still, use of the capabilities-based Human Development approach even within DRR studies remains scarce (Ton et al, 2020).…”

“…However, recent developments in the area of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) have argued for impact assessment approaches that disaggregate impacts and highlight the most vulnerable, with some explicitly championing a capabilities approach to impact assessment (Ton et al, 2020;Gardoni and Murphy, 2008;. Still, use of the capabilities-based Human Development approach even within DRR studies remains scarce (Ton et al, 2020). In the context of climate-related impacts relevant for the Paris Agreement and loss and damage research, the explicit implications of adopting such varying approaches in interpreting disproportionality and differences in severity have not been empirically researched.…”

Disaster justice for people with disabilities

“…However, it argues that this redistribution of societal resources may address only physical barriers, but not cultural and attitudinal barriers (Terzi, 2010). For example, stigma and discrimination, rather than inaccessibility of infrastructures and services or lack of resources, can be the main causes for the exclusion of PWD in everyday life as well as in DRR processes (Ton et al , 2020). This factor obviously cannot be resolved by redistribution of resources or, more broadly, by resource-based approaches.…”

“…Here, the redistribution of resources is absolutely a fundamental principle in justice. Ton et al (2020), however, contend that it is just part of the path to the equality of capabilities to cope with disasters. Environmental factors need to be taken into account to ensure that PWD can utilise and convert their own resources, as well as public goods and services, to what they value doing and being in times of disasters.…”