Dear Colleagues,

People with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by disaster events. These impacts stem from a range of factors that increase the vulnerability of people with disabilities to disasters. Notwithstanding the interaction between individual and social barriers that increase disaster risk, a significant barrier to the safety and well-being of people with disabilities is their absence from emergency management practice and policy formulation. People with disabilities have been overlooked in research, practice, and policy development on disaster risk reduction (DRR). A growing body of literature has revealed the consequence that people with disabilities are among the most neglected population group during disaster events. People with disabilities have fewer choices and opportunities to access and use risk information and preparedness resources that have been designed without consideration of their access and support needs and risk situation. The lack of inclusion before a disaster (e.g., in preparedness campaigns and education) has a knock-on effect, with negative impacts for people with disabilities when it comes to emergency warnings, response efforts, and access to support during evacuation and disaster recovery.

Global Disability-Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DIDRR) initiatives and policy advocacy have helped to promote development and change toward inclusive emergency management, disaster response, and recovery planning. This is supported by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which recognize the rights of people with disabilities to protection and the critical role that they must play in reducing risk. Effective action on DIDRR requires the meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities and the shared responsibility of multiple stakeholders working together to identify and remove barriers that increase risk for people with disabilities before, during, and after disaster. Although DIDRR principles of accessibility, participation, collaboration, and non-discrimination can guide us in the right direction, they do not demonstrate how to realize the rights of people with disabilities. Thus, how is the work of DIDRR being undertaken? Importantly, we want to know how these initiatives are guided and how the outcomes are measured.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to share initiatives that will help us to progress DIDRR principles into action-oriented development and change. The research question behind this Special Issue queries: How are we keeping people with disabilities and their support needs at the centre of disaster risk reduction—before, during, and after disasters? We invite submissions that describe the efforts of multiple stakeholders working in partnership with people with disabilities and their representatives.

Dr. Michelle Villeneuve
Dr. Tonia Crawford
Guest Editors

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• disaster risk reduction (DRR)
• disaster justice
• human rights
• disability inclusion
• emergency management
• disability representation