Crip News v.154: The Voting Issue

News analysis about next week's general election in the U.S., calls, and events.

U.S. Elections

About 40.2 million disabled people, almost one sixth of the American electorate, are eligible to vote in next week’s general elections. In 2020, about 17.7 million did. In the 2022 midterm elections, 14% of disabled voters reported difficulties casting their ballots.

In a late-stage PSA campaign, a coalition of disability nonprofits is rallying voters with a defiant message (“Fight with us or get out of our way”) and accompanying list of disability policy priorities.

This messaging, though, imagines a more unified group of the 61 million disabled people it speaks for. Data suggest voters with disabilities favored Trump in 2020. And voting is simply impossible for huge numbers of disabled people, including many under guardianship agreements, with felony convictions, in prisons, or held in jails but legally innocent.

Some attempts to organize liberal disabled voters, like the strange Disabled Voters for Harris Zoom call in August, have had trouble during an election year marked ableist campaign rhetoric. Trump’s vile name-calling made a lot of headlines, but came as no surprise to those who saw his disregard for disabled life up close, including towards his own family.

Cartoon by R.J. Matson/CQ Roll Call.

The broader political commentary on candidates’ age and mental fitness reveals how the deeply internalized ableism of professional politics alienates elected officials from the ways their own lives intersect with what disabled people need. As one activist in Chicago framed it, Biden got put aside like disabled people get put in nursing homes.

Harris’s plans for disabled Americans have received little attention, except for one question she received at her Univision Town Hall earlier this month. Other plans, like the way she will end subminimum wages for some disabled workers, are nested within topics not seemingly related to disability. Still, disabled voters might look to her Medicare expansion for home health care or Tim Walz’s leadership on Long Covid funding.

There’s been no reporting about the possible alignment between anti-zionist disabled voters and the Uncommitted Movement that some see as a threat to Harris’s bid in Michigan. The only Presidential candidates to call for an end to the genocide in Gaza are Jill Stein (who also has a “Disability Rights” platform), Cornel West (who also has a “Disability Justice” platform), and Claudia de la Cruz.

A Guide to the Guides

How to Vote

• The REV UP Voting Campaign at the American Association of People with Disabilities has state-specific guides.

• The Autistic Self Advocacy Network has a guide for self-advocates, with Easy Read and Plain Language editions.

Voting Issues

• Northwestern’s Center for Racial and Disability Justice issued a thoroughly-researched open letter to the Presidential campaigns with analysis and action items on many intersectional disability policy issues.

• New Disabled South and Disability Culture Lab have a Plain Language Ballot Measure Tool with information about “25 statewide ballot measures across 11 states in the South that impact disabled voters.”

• REV UP has an issues guide and, if you happen to be able to talk with your candidates in the next week, a candidate survey for disability issues.

Election Day Access

• The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice has guidance and resources about how the ADA and other federal laws are meant to protect voting access.

• The National Polling Access Audit Coalition has a toolkit for conducting audits of the accessibility of polling sites.

If you have other resources to share, please drop them in the comments!

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CALLS

• Trans disabled artist organizer Seeley needs safer housing and moving help. Donate here.

• New Disabled South is hiring a Communications Director. Interviews start in November/December. More here.

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EVENTS

Disability Pop Movie Night

Tuesday, October 29, 9:30pm - 12:30am ET, in-person in Brooklyn

Come enjoy Disability Pop's first ever in-person screening, featuring the 2009 cinematic masterpiece Orphan. This movie's antagonist (or hero?) truly has it all: a dark backstory involving an "insane" asylum, a vaguely Eastern European accent, and the worst skincare routine of any 30 yr old. This is a FREE event with RSVP, so grab your popcorn and join us for the most unnecessary plot twist since Don't Look Now. While Halloween costumes are encouraged, the only masks required are N95! Disability Pop was born on TikTok as a way to host conversations around disability representation in TV, movies, arts, and pop culture through videos, conversations, games, movie nights, and other very silly endeavors

In Person Vibrant Verbal Description Tour: Just Frame It

Tuesday, October 29, 3:30 - 5pm ET, in-person at Poster House (NYC)

Members of the low-vision and blind community are invited to an in-person Vibrant Verbal Description Tour at Poster House. This after-hours event will provide exclusive access to the museum’s exhibition, Just Frame It: How Nike Turned Sports Stars into Superheroes. The tour will be led by a Museum Educator. This intimate experience will allow guests to get up close with the posters described, as well as provide additional tactile objects to help illuminate the art. While everyone is welcome, Poster House offers Vibrant Verbal Description Tours specifically for community members who are blind, have low vision, or who benefit from verbal descriptions.