This week's featured blog post covers how climate disasters exacerbate inequities faced by disabled people and rural communities. Given the topic, and current events, we wanted to highlight it in today’s newsletter, but also want to acknowledge that climate emergencies like the ones caused by Hurricane Helene affect a multitude of communities and require many different recovery strategies.
Rural communities are home to a disproportionate number of people with disabilities. Making up roughly one-third of these communities, they can be particularly vulnerable during climate emergencies, when unreliable communication systems can be life-threatening.
To ensure everyone—regardless of their location or abilities—has access to the information and resources they need to stay safe during emergencies, policymakers and emergency planners need to address the connectivity challenges faced by people with disabilities in rural areas.
Investing in broadband infrastructure for rural communities, creating more-accessible alert systems, and collaborating with community members to develop more-inclusive emergency response systems could help save lives and support more equitable outcomes.
Joel Fleishman, who formerly served on Urban’s board of trustees and played a critical role in the organization’s history, died on September 30. His legacy includes helping establish Urban’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and inspiring an award for Urban researchers that's named in his honor.
