For Immediate Release
07/14/2020
Contact: David Card
202.408.9514 x122
[email protected]
The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) is proud to announce its voter engagement page, VotersWithDisabilities.org. This new webpage will showcase the stories of activists and everyday voters with disabilities.
It also includes important statistics. Including one particularly alarming one, 56% of people with disabilities believe their rights are under attack. Therefore it is no surprise that over 60% of people with disabilities are very concerned about Social Security and Medicare and a massive 78% would be more likely to back a pro-disability rights candidate.
VotersWithDisabilities.org includes videos from Disability Rights Pennsylvania and Disability Rights New York staff members Imani Barbarin and Zach Borodkin respectively. Barbarin highlights the importance of ways campaigns could do inclusive outreach to people with disabilities and how the issue of police brutality disproportionately impacts those with disabilities. Borodkin discusses the importance of policymakers talking with people with disabilities who will be impacted by the laws they are passing.
Over time, the webpage will become a repository of stories from individuals with disabilities. Slated for release are videos featuring: a Blind coder who helped develop the early standards of web accessibility, a Deaf mathematics Ph.D. student who is on track to become a professor, and a disability justice protestor who proudly recounts the time he got arrested at the U.S. Senate office buildings.
Telling the stories of voters with disabilities is important for two reasons. First, individuals with disabilities are rarely included in campaign ads or get out the vote materials. Second, voters with disabilities face unique challenges that are too often ignored by politicians and elected officials.
“People with disabilities are a large, diverse community with the power to influence the outcome of our elections,” said Curt Decker, executive director of NDRN. “The launch of VotersWithDisabilities.org is an important step in our fight to ensure the voices of people with disabilities are heard on Election Day.”
NDRN encourages all of its followers, especially voters with disabilities, to check out VotersWithDisabilities.org for featured stories and to register to vote.
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The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) is the nonprofit membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems and the Client Assistance Programs (CAP) for individuals with disabilities. Collectively, the P&A/CAP Network is the largest provider of legally based advocacy services to people with disabilities in the United States.
