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Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 19:55:57 EST
Subject: Forward: Where Are Voters with Disabilities?
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----DisAbility Advocacy for the Commonwealth of Virginia----

                          Justice For All

                           [log in to unmask]

          John Williams: Where Are Voters with Disabilities?

John M. Williams, [log in to unmask], as reported in
http://www.halftheplanet.com/news26.cfm

There are all kinds of voter classifications. There is the Black vote:
Hispanic vote: Catholic vote: Women's vote: Religious right vote: Jewish
vote: Gay and Lesbian vote: Gun vote: Labor vote: Education vote: Soccer
mom's vote: Disability vote ... the Disability vote?

Nationwide there is a movement spearheaded by Jim Dickson at the National
Organization on Disability to register 750,000 voters with disabilities.
I do not know how successful it is being. I do know that I have been to a
dozen political rallies, and the number of people with physical
disabilities I have seen I can count on two hands. Except for a veteran
with a disability, not a single person with a physical disability asked
even one question. They stayed in the shadows, barely visibly and non-vocal.

I visited the campaign headquarters of former Senator Bill Bradley and
Senator John McCain, and I did not see a single person with a physical
disability working in them. Representatives in both offices could not
tell me what a TTD or TTY is. Both offices were not publishing information
in Braille, in large print or in alternative communication formats.

In contacting Governor W. Bush's office in Texas, I was told they did not
have a TDD or TTY. Vice President Al Gore's campaign headquarters has a
TDD, TTY and produces information in Braille, large print, on cassette
tape and in other alternative formats.

There are 54 million disabled people in the United States, and 11 million,
or roughly 1/5 of the adult working age population lack jobs. Why aren't
they vocalizing their unemployment concerns before the presidential
candidates?

Disabled students still have to fight for a free and first-rate education
in our nation's public schools because school officials still do not want to
educate them. The presidential candidates admit that more needs to be done
to improve the equality of education for students with disabilities. Why
aren't the parents of students with disabilities making their needs known
to the presidential candidates? The Work Incentives Improvement Act needs
political pressure on the presidential candidates to encourage states to
buy into it.

Where is this ground swell movement?

Where are the voters with disabilities who are insisting that the offices
of Governor George W. Bush and Al Gore be made barrier free and
communications accessible?

Where are the voters with disabilities who are working for these candidates?

Where are the voters with disabilities who are demanding answers from the
presidential candidates?

Where are the voters with disabilities who are presenting their petitions to
the
presidential candidates?

Over the next seven-to-eight months, the Democratic and Republican
presidential
candidates will appear before Black voters, Hispanic voters, Women voters,
Religious right voters, Jewish voters, Gay and Lesbian voters, etc.

Will they appear before Disability voters in the country? That's a question
voters with disabilities need to resolve.

Politicians in Washington, DC know that voters with disabilities can muster
political strength. Outside of Washington, DC, unfortunately, the political
agenda and clout of people with disabilities wanes pitifully.

For the political establishment to take voters with disabilities seriously,
voters with disabilities must become serious. They must become vocal and
visible
and relentless in their drive to be seen and heard. They must campaign for
the
candidates. They must work for them. Their voices must echo loudly,
confidently,
repeatedly and numerically, and then they must vote.

John Williams is a freelance writer who writes a weekly, Wednesday column for
Business Week online magazine on assistive technology issues on
BusinessWeek.Com
under Daily Briefing. He can be reached at [log in to unmask]
--
Fred Fay
Chair, Justice For All
[log in to unmask]
http://www.jfanow.org

Register to Vote Online at http://www.fec.gov/votregis/vr.htm

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