Climate Change Through Our Lens
Stories of Climate Exclusion and Resilience from Women with Disabilities in Nepal
This project shares the voices and stories of twelve women with disabilities in Nepal as they navigate the realities of climate change. The experiences of women with disabilities in Nepal—particularly in relation to climate change—remain largely overlooked, under-documented, and undervalued. Yet their perspectives hold essential knowledge for shaping more inclusive and resilient communities. These portraits reveal how patriarchal norms, ableism, inaccessible infrastructure, and charity-based approaches to disability exclude women with disabilities from disaster preparedness, response, and climate policy. At the same time, the stories show their strength, resilience, and the power of community, solidarity, and self-advocacy.
About this Photovoice study
Twelve women with disabilities from Nepal tell their stories through photographs they took themselves, using the Photovoice method—a participatory approach that puts the camera in the hands of the participants, allowing them to decide what matters most and how they want to tell their story.
Through their images and testimonies, these women highlight the complex barriers they face—not only as women and as persons with disabilities, but also due to poverty, ethnicity, geography and lack of access to education. In the face of worsening climate impacts, the resulting intersecting inequalities put them at even greater risk, while their perspectives continue to be left out of climate action efforts.
Learn more about the women and their stories below.
Hear the stories from women with disabilities on climate change
"One time, there was a severe drought. It was scorching hot, and there was no water. At that time, we had to go from one place to another in search of water."
"Persons with disabilities face risks due to floods, landslides, and earthquakes […]. Additionally, there is the risk of violence against women."
"There are many mental impacts caused by climate change. The more I think about it, the more it affects me."
"I usually visit my village during festival time, but I couldn’t meet my family this time. There were no vehicles available. Many people walked, but I couldn’t do that."
"My mother takes the additional work of collecting water to drink. As a woman with a disability, I wish I could help her, if only the public taps were accessible for me too."
"During heavy rainfall, people can assess the risk of the situation by listening to the intensity of the sound of the rain, which helps them move to safer places. We cannot hear the sound of rain when we are sleeping."
"I only studied up to the third grade. I stopped due to my vision loss […]. My teachers didn’t understand my situation. They used to beat me for not studying properly."
"When it rains, the place gets wet and becomes very cold […]. Since it is not suitable to live there, we are forced to move wherever it is warm, using other people’s land."
"Climate change has affected us everywhere […]. In the rainy season, it rains heavily when it rains. Due to climate change, there is also a dry spell and the land dries out."
"The heavy rain and long dry periods both disrupt regular water supply […]. Women with disabilities find it hard to walk to local taps, affecting their daily routines."
"I was traveling to take my public service examination, and there was a landslide right in front of us […]. As a woman with low vision, I could not dare to navigate such unexpected disruptions."
"When there is no water, we can’t even bathe. Those with low vision, who can walk, go to the easy areas where water is available, and for some those options don’t exist."
Read the recommendations made by our partners
The following recommendations emerged from joint reflections with Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) and are directed to government, civil society, OPDs, climate actors, and international development partners.
- Run rights‑based awareness campaigns to counter stigma and show how discriminatory attitudes increase risks for people with disabilities during climate disasters.
- Create community programs to challenge patriarchal norms and expand women with disabilities’ participation in climate action, prioritizing rural areas.
- Adopt and operationalize rights‑based disability inclusion across all climate adaptation and planning processes.
- Train local officials and community leaders in intersectional approaches to address the layered discrimination faced by diverse women with disabilities in climate crises.
- Mainstream violence prevention and response into adaptation planning to protect women with disabilities during resource shortages and displacement.
- Establish dedicated emergency funds for climate adaptation tailored to diverse women with disabilities to address documented economic vulnerabilities.
- Prioritize households with women with disabilities in water‑security interventions and service delivery during shortages.
- Promote community‑solidarity initiatives that institutionalize collective support systems for resilience.
- Subsidize climate‑adaptive housing modifications for women with disabilities to improve safety during extreme weather.
- Develop climate‑resilient livelihood programs specifically designed to increase economic empowerment for women with disabilities.
- Require universal design for all climate‑related infrastructure, including evacuation centers, water points, and community facilities.
- Develop multi‑format early‑warning systems (visual, audio, plain‑language) to reach diverse women with disabilities promptly.
- Establish accessible evacuation routes and protocols tailored to varied mobility needs.
- Produce climate information in multiple accessible formats for sensory and intellectual disabilities.
- Invest in accessible transport solutions that operate during and after climate events to remove mobility barriers.
- Support organizations of persons with disabilities, including women’ organizations of persons with disabilities, to integrate climate change-related issues into their advocacy and programming, and to promote women's leadership on those issues.
- Establish representation quotas for women with disabilities in climate decision-making bodies at all government levels.
- Conduct accessible climate education programs designed for diverse women with different types of disabilities.
- Create peer support networks for diverse women with disabilities to share adaptation strategies and advocate collectively.
- Train emergency responders on appropriate support methods for people with different disabilities during climate emergencies.
- Establish and promote connections between OPDs and women's and youth networks that are actively involved in climate action.
- Expand participatory research that includes diverse women with disabilities to document and analyze their climate experiences.
- Strengthen disability‑disaggregated data collection in climate‑affected areas, capturing disability type, gender, age, ethnicity, and location.
- Adopt the Washington Group functional approach (WG questions) for disability data collection.
- Document and share Indigenous traditional knowledge and adaptive strategies, including those of Indigenous women and girls with disabilities, for mitigation and resilience.
- Research best practices in inclusive resilience (e.g., Majhi community approaches to water, forest, and biodiversity management) for replication.
- Investigate how climate‑driven resource scarcity—especially water—affects the health, hygiene, safety, and livelihoods of diverse women with disabilities.
Behind this project
This online exhibition is a collaborative project based on a study carried out by Diverse Patterns, a Nepali research company. It has been coordinated by the Swiss Disability and Development Consortium (SDDC) with the support of a number of Nepali organizations of persons with disabilities, among which a few have to be highlighted: the Blind Youth Association Nepal (BYAN), the Nepal Disabled Women Association (NDWA), the umbrella organization National Federation of the Disabled (NFDN), and the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association (NIDWAN).
Previous Photovoice study "My Lens My Reality"
This report is a follow-up of the first Photovoice study "मेरो लेन्स मेरो यथार्थ" conducted by the Swiss Disability and Development Consortium (SDDC) with women with disabilities in Nepal. See the first study here.
About the SDDC
Established in 2016, the Swiss Disability and Development Consortium (SDDC) is a Swiss network that advocates for the rights and inclusion of persons with disabilities in international cooperation. Its members include CBM Switzerland, FAIRMED, Humanity & Inclusion Switzerland, and the International Disability Alliance.
