Time and time again, we are reminded of how vulnerable Filipinos are to the adverse effects of climate change. In July alone, for example, more than six million Filipinos were affected by the combined effects of Super Typhoon Carina, the southwest monsoon or habagat, and tropical depression Butchoy, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). 

At the same time, persons with disabilities are affected by climate impacts“ in a distinct and more severe way compared to others,” as the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights says. 

Like the story of a Deaf mother who was taking care of her three children—one of whom had a hearing impairment—at home when Supertyphoon Yolanda hit Tacloban City in November 2013. Unaware of the howling winds and torrential rains outside, she went about her normal routine until someone called her attention and gestured that they needed to evacuate. She got their things ready and cleaned up a little before leaving with her family, not understanding what was going on or that urgency was key to surviving the storm. 

Following her neighbors to the evacuation center, she was unprepared for the sights that she encountered on the way: damaged property, injured people, and even dead bodies. Such was the severity of the storm that one of her children, as well as her sister, were killed.

This was one of the accounts Alfi Lorenz Cura, the knowledge production assistant manager at Oscar M. Lopez Center, gathered while doing research for a pioneering study titled The Deaf Amidst Climate Disasters: A Vulnerability Assessment Report of Deaf Communities in the Philippines. The report, which is being finalized for publication, reveals important insights about what makes Deaf Filipinos more vulnerable to climate hazards, and why existing interventions are inaccessible to the Deaf, exacerbating their vulnerability. 

According to the 2020 Census of Population and Housing, about 1,784,690 Filipinos aged five years and older have difficulty of hearing. Access to healthcare, education, and social services is a huge challenge for them, made worse by the communication and language barriers that prevent them from accessing important information about climate change and its impacts.  

OML Center knowledge production manager Ayn Torres also has stories that have stayed with her since doing fieldwork for the study in 2023. 

In Surigao City, she interviewed a Deaf senior citizen who had been living in Siargao island when Super Typhoon Odette struck in 2021. The winds were so strong, entire houses were blown away. It was total destruction. 

“Relief goods were being distributed at the time. The truck passed by his house, but of course, he didn’t understand their instructions… They just threw whatever that box or pack of things was. There were canned goods, noodles, the usual. But… was that really what he needed at the time? It wasn’t even handed out to them in a humane way. It was a bit painful for me to process that story,” Torres says. 

Indeed, they found through an online survey and in-person focus group discussions with 304 Deaf participants that there is a lack of formal institutional support for the Deaf. Unfortunate as this may seem, it has driven the Deaf to find ways to adapt and be more resilient, such as by increasing their informal social network. It is through social connections that they access information, disaster response, and other needs. 

For example, Torres recalls a Deaf beauty salon employee from Naga City who would usually go on Facebook Live to call for help in the wake of the frequent disasters the Bicol town faces. She doesn’t necessarily ask for money every time; she also asks for assistance in the cleanup, as well as house and furniture repairs. 

“They have come to accept that when it comes to the government, it’s a dead end. They can’t depend on the government. Or if they are able to depend on the government, it’s not a sure thing. So they resort to the social capital and the Deaf network that they have, wherein it’s really just them looking out for each other,” Torres explains.

She adds, “In a very social media age, we take for granted how we just scroll on reels or funny memes. But for a lot of people, it’s a lifeline. They rely on the only platforms that they have, because our institutions aren’t strong enough to support persons with disabilities. Especially when it comes to communicating with them, which we aren’t able to do well.”

Nevertheless, the study found that these informal social networks are not sufficient to truly respond to the needs of the Deaf, as identified by the Deaf themselves. Therefore, there’s a need for initiatives to improve access to public services during emergencies.

And the top recommendation from Torres and Cura is for service providers to hire interpreters to facilitate communication between the Deaf and the hearing who work in disaster risk reduction management and response, as well as the many other institutions that are involved, from social workers to healthcare workers, to people from the barangay who give trainings on climate change and preparing for emergencies. 

“Hearing people, we’re a bit intimidated to communicate with [the Deaf] because we don’t know how. Of course, I understand that learning [Filipino Sign Language] isn’t easy, especially if you won’t do it full-time or you don’t get exposed to Deaf every day whom you can talk to. So we [rely] on the interpreters. We should be able to provide a budget for that. Especially for the government. It sends a message that [they’re] taking the provision of services seriously,” Torres says.

Ultimately, hiring interpreters ensures that the Deaf are included in making decisions and developing solutions so that they are more prepared and able to adapt to climate-related risks and disasters. 

“A lot of adaptation practices will really root back into access to information,” Torres adds. “If they don’t even know what climate change impacts are, disaster impacts are, it doesn’t even make sense to encourage them to think of ways to adapt. It starts with how they are gonna learn more. So we must provide it by way of giving it in terms of where they access information. And most of them get it from TV and social media. If there is no interpreter’s inset, a very visible caption would be helpful, and in English please, not in Filipino.”

The Deaf Amidst Climate Disasters: A Vulnerability Assessment Report of Deaf Communities in the Philippines was undertaken by researchers from the Oscar M. Lopez Center, through its project “Climate Resilience of the Deaf: Signs for Inclusive Governance and Development” (Project SIGND). This was the first time a survey specifically for the Filipino Deaf on climate change vulnerability had been conducted. It will be available on the OML Center website soon.