By Maddie Kerr
Climate change and autism are often treated as separate policy areas. However, climate change poses a serious threat to the wellbeing of autistic people and the broader disability community. Upcoming elections will likely shape climate policies across the United States. So, it is especially important now to understand why climate change matters for autism advocacy.
Extreme heat can harm autistic people’s health and quality of life.
Rising temperatures affect everyone. However, autistic people with sensory processing differences may face additional challenges. For example, some autistic people describe how hot, humid weather can trigger “sensory overload.” Such overwhelming sensory experiences can cause emotional distress and make it harder to engage in daily activities, including self-care. Others may struggle to recognize sensations like thirst, fatigue, or being too hot. This can be dangerous, especially given that many autistic people take medications that increase the risk of heat-related illnesses.
Climate change can worsen health inequalities among autistic people.
In addition to increasing the temperature, climate change decreases the quality of air and access to clean water and nutritious food. These environmental factors can make a wide range of health concerns more common and more severe. Stressful events caused by climate change can also have direct negative consequences for mental health, including increased anxiety around potential weather-related disasters.
Autistic people are already more likely to experience many digestive, nutritional, immune, and mental health conditions. Given that climate-related hazards especially impact people with pre-existing conditions, climate change should be treated as a risk to autistic people’s health.
Climate disasters pose unequal risks for people with disabilities.
Climate change is making disasters like fires, tornadoes, floods, and droughts more frequent. These disasters impact people with disabilities in multiple ways. First, people with disabilities face greater exposure to disasters due to economic inequalities and housing barriers. Affordable housing, for example, is often built in less desirable locations like flood zones. Disabled people with limited incomes may be forced to live in these high-risk areas due to a lack of options. Considering that over half of autistic children live in low-income households, the relationship between economic inequality and disaster risk is relevant for the autistic community.
Additionally, systems for managing disasters are not always accessible. For example, local agencies sometimes fail to deliver emergency-related messages in plain language and multiple formats, limiting access to important safety information. Federal guidelines attempt to address these barriers by outlining best practices. Autism-specific toolkits also exist to help individuals, families, and service providers prepare for disasters, but people may be unaware of this information. There is still a need to address the causes of rising disasters, as well as the inequalities that put people with disabilities at greater risk.
Climate change disrupts essential services for autistic people.
Climate change disrupts essential services for autistic people and their families. For example, autistic people generally have greater healthcare needs than non-autistic people. Extreme weather events can force facilities to close, prevent people from traveling, cause medical supply shortages, and create strains that reduce service quality.
Extreme weather can also create barriers to education for autistic students, especially the considerable proportion receiving special education and related services. When natural disasters force students to transfer schools, families must complete a long, complicated process to regain access to disability-related services. Limited resources can also make it difficult for schools to deliver services as they reopen. These factors leave autistic students without the support they need to learn.
Autism advocacy and climate justice are connected.
Despite these consequences, climate change is rarely discussed within autism research and policy. One way to move forward is through a climate justice approach. Climate justice recognizes how climate change worsens existing social and economic inequalities, causing greater harm to certain groups. This includes low-income, racially and ethnically marginalized, and disabled communities, which often overlap. From this perspective, efforts to promote the rights and wellbeing of people with disabilities and to address the unequal impacts of climate change are connected.
There are several ways that we can bring together climate justice and autism advocacy. First, researchers and policymakers can work with autistic people to learn more about their specific climate-related concerns and priorities. Second, autism advocates can encourage policy actions that address the root causes of climate change, as well as the disruptive impacts on autistic people’s access to essential resources. Finally, we must ensure that autistic people are included in shaping relevant policies, from disaster response plans to long-term sustainability strategies.
Now, more than ever, is the time to act on climate change, and we all have important roles to play.
About the author
Maddie Kerr (they/them) is a senior studying sociology at Northwestern University. As a summer intern, they enjoyed supporting a variety of projects related to the community participation and mental health of autistic adults. Maddie is especially interested in promoting the wellbeing of intersecting LGBTQ+ and autistic communities through research. They hope to attend graduate school for either sociology or public health to further pursue these interests.