Diversifying the Discussion of ‘Disabled Bodies’ and Disturbing Narratives of ‘Double Disaster’

Citation

Connon I (2023) Diversifying the Discussion of ‘Disabled Bodies’ and Disturbing Narratives of ‘Double Disaster’. Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting 2023, Cincinnatti, Ohio, USA., 28.03.2023-01.04.2023.

Abstract
Criticism of emergency storm response protocols based on simplistic classifications of vulnerability from people with disabilities in Scotland intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper explores how the views of people with disabilities on the official pandemic response and experiences of responding to flooding amidst the pandemic have prompted important discussions about ‘disabled bodies’, identities, rights, agency and interdependencies in ways that challenge conceptualisations of climate change and the pandemic as representing a ‘double disaster’, helped facilitate discussion for improving official emergency responses, and catalysed a wider cultural shift towards reconceptualising ‘disability’ to embrace agency, body diversity and body complexity.