3:00
- ABC News
- Climate Change
- November 24, 2021
Disabled climate activists fight for inclusion
Climate activists with disabilities decry a lack of representation and burnout.
3:00
Some of the activists said that simply attending COP26 or other such congregations is a non-option due to their disability and financial limitations.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/elleonora-uddman-01-ht-jef-211118_1637272051450_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Elleonora Ali Uddman, a 17-year-old Swedish student and disability rights and climate activist with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder, said she was among those who couldn't attend.
Uddman, who began striking in support of climate change action in 2019, said, however, that she has noticed that environmental activism has started to become more inclusive since the COVID-19 pandemic.
\"Things became a lot more easier online. I didn't have to worry about traveling, I didn't have to worry about whether or not I would be in pain because I would be in the comfort of my own home where I had all of my stuff,\" Uddman told ABC News.
She also said that the growing normalization of tone indicators has made online communication easier. Tone indicators are symbols that are often used online as shorthand after sentences to better communicate the intention of non-verbal messages, such as conveying sarcasm.
Wolbring, a wheelchair user, said he was \"privileged\" as the pandemic-induced push to remote operations has worked in his favor and reduced his travel to academic conferences, which he found \"aggravating\" and a \"waste of energy.\"
Twenty-year-old Benny Frohna from Los Angeles, who is neurodivergent, spoke about feeling burned-out and unheard in the climate action space.
\"I do what I do. And then I sort of look across the aisle, and I see able-bodied and able-minded, neurotypical people getting much more out of what we both do, what we share than I ever could,\" Frohna told ABC News.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/friday-firedrill-climate-protest-file-zp-jef-211118_1637263639823_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
Frohna's activism now takes the form of writing; more “powerful” and “healthier” than protesting in-person, Frohna said.
\"That is sort of the way that I am an advocate these days. And I don't know, like, how accessible it is. But I do know that that is more accessible for me than being out in a crowd of people on a 90-degree day,\" Frohna said.
How to bring about change
In order to make space for disabled climate activists who face the brunt of climate change's negative consequences, Wolbring said that change must begin with improving literacy about the experiences of disabled people.
Wolbring said that most people, including his own students, don't see disabled people in their everyday lives.
“You do not know what you don’t know, right?\" he said.
The activists who spoke to ABC News highlighted the significance of representation and being provided a platform to voice their concerns.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/elleonora-uddman-02-ht-jef-211118_1637272095912_hpEmbed_15x14_384.jpg\")
\"You don't really hear about disabilities and the climate crisis being connected at all,\" Uddman told ABC News. \"We are usually not even included in statistics as disabled people.\"
Mya Pol, a 20-year-old content creator and student from Amherst, Massachusetts, runs a TikTok account where she advocates for disability rights and uses her platform to educate people about environmentalism.
\"With awareness and understanding come inclusion and acceptance,\" Pol told ABC News. \"You can't make change, you can't make improvements if you don't know that there's something to work on.\"
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