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Disability and politics raise questions that aren’t so easy to answer.
How does having a disability influence how disabled people vote? How big is the “disability vote?” Do disabled voters, as a group, have the potential to influence elections and politics? How should voters with disabilities think about their role as disabled voters?
It’s only a few days until November 3, the final day for voting in the 2020 General Election. But it’s not too late for Americans with disabilities to try answering some of these questions, and ask a few others as well.
What we know about disabled people voting
There isn’t nearly as much research on the voting habits and preferences of disabled Americans as there is for other groups, such as voting blocs defined by race, ethnicity, gender, income, education, and region. We have instincts and assumptions, but relatively little hard data. However, thanks to a handful of dedicated researchers, we can sketch a basic outline of disabled people in American politics.
According to researchers Douglas Kruse and Lisa Schur of the Program for Disability Research at Rutgers University, by the 2018 midterm election, the disability vote had grown by 38.3 million people since 2008. Comparisons of the last two elections by Kruse and Schur provide more details:
In 2016, 16.0 million people with disabilities reported voting in the General Election, although disabled voter turnout was 6 points lower than turnout for non disabled voters. That means that if people with disabilities had voted at the same rate as people without disabilities who have the same demographic characteristics, there would have been about 2.2 million more disabled voters.
In 2018, 14.3 million people with disabilities said they voted in the November midterms, and disabled voter turnout was just 4.7 points lower than the turnout for non-disabled voters. So the participation gap narrowed a bit between 2016 and 2018. Still, if people with disabilities had voted at the same rate as people without disabilities in 2018, there would have been about 2.35 million more voters.
The overall picture seems to be that disabled Americans vote in quite significant numbers overall, but on average they vote less than non-disabled voters, with a pretty persistent group of a little over 2 million “missing” disabled voters — disabled people who are eligible to vote but for a variety of reasons aren’t voting.
Just before the 2016 elections, the Pew Research group surveyed disabled voters, asking who they planned to vote for. They found that:
“Americans with disabilities reported vote preferences that were similar to those of voters overall: 46% said they voted for Hillary Clinton and 45% said they voted for Donald Trump.“
This seems to defy any assumption that having a disability naturally or automatically pushes voters in any particular direction politically or ideologically. At least in recent years, disabled people are about as politically polarized as America at large, showing perhaps a slight tilt towards Democrats. It’s hard to be sure whether this reflects disabled people’s views on the quality of each party and candidates’ disability policies and outreach, or just their background political beliefs. It will probably take many more years of dogged, honest research to get a clearer picture of how disability actually influences disabled people’s politics.
Finally, just this week, the disability organization Easter Seals reported survey results conducted for this year’s elections, reporting that:
“To date, 89% of people with disabilities are registered, with some 47% (or 15.9 million people) already voted, and another 49% noting they “definitely” or “probably” will vote in this election (or 16.5 million people) ... with more than half saying they are “extremely enthusiastic” about voting, and 65% noting they’re more enthusiastic about voting in this election, as compared to previous elections.”
This reported higher engagement and enthusiasm will be significant if it actually turns into action. It certainly fits a common-sense view of the 2020 Elections in general. It may also reflect the particularly high impact of Covid-19 and the accompanying economic crises on disabled people. Or, it may be related to all the work done earlier in the year by Primary candidates on developing detailed and groundbreaking disability policies. We won’t really know until well after November 3. And if the past is any indicator, the results and their meanings may remain somewhat blurry well after.
Disabled voters are an extremely diverse group. While we share important experiences and concerns, our disabilities really don’t seem to dictate our votes as much as some might anticipate.
Who are disabled voters?
This can be a surprisingly difficult question to answer, because conventionally narrow and more accurately broad definitions of disability both compete in conventional wisdom.
The Americans with Disabilities Act defines disability as “ ... a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.”
A more practical, everyday definition might be that if you have a physical or mental condition that you have to think about or plan around every day or close to it, then you probably have a disability, whether you identify yourself that way or not.
In practice, there tend to a lot more people who fit reasonable definitions of disability than who actually think of themselves as disabled, or who think about disability matters when they vote. When we talk about disabled people, we should be careful not to forget people who fit the functional definition but are often left, either by others or by their own self-definition. Disabled people affected by disability policy includes:
- Wheelchair users, blind people, Deaf people, and others with physical or sensory disabilities.
- Intellectually and developmentally disabled people, autistic people, and others with a range of cognitive or learning disabilities.
- People with mental illnesses.
- People with chronic illnesses or chronic pain.
- Children and youth who are growing up with disabilities, and adults who have grown up and lived with disabilities all of their lives.
- People with disabilities that came later in life, through disease, illness, or accident.
- Older people with age-related disabilities.
It’s also essential to remember, precisely because it is so often forgotten or ignored, that disability crosses all other social categories, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, income, and social status.
Identifying who disabled voters are and whether you might be one of them is one thing. But how do disability experiences and problems realistically relate to the work of politicians? What are “disability issues?” Here are just a few of the most urgent policy issues that affect disabled people’s everyday lives and are worth considering at the polls.
Disability issues
- Health Care — affordability of coverage; ease and stability of eligibility for Medicaid and Medicare; secure coverage for pre-existing conditions; equitable treatment by medical professionals.
- Covid-19 — the virus’ impact on disabled people, especially the heightened threat of illness or death from having disabilities that put people at higher risk; policies that have largely failed to prevent huge infection rates and death tolls at congregate care facilities like nursing homes; the impact of prevention measures and lack of practical and financial support for disabled people to keep themselves safe and independent.
- Employment — historically consistent high unemployment rates for disabled people; sub-minimum wages; sheltered workshops; ongoing workplace disability discrimination.
- Benefits — slow processing and long waiting lists for benefits approval; chronically inadequate allowances from Social Security; disincentives that hold disabled people back from working, earning, saving, and even getting married.
- Long Term Care — access to support services so people with disabilities can live independently in their own homes, rather than nursing homes and institutions.
- Accessibility — continuing the job of making businesses, public buildings, downtowns, and neighborhoods accessible to wheelchair users and people with other disabilities.
- Education — funding for Special Education and enforcement of disabled student’s right to a free, appropriate public education.
- Fundamental rights and safety — assisted sucicide; deadly police encounters; discriminatory medical policies on treatment for Covid-19.
- Local disability issues — sidewalk, downtown business district, and public park accessibility; accessibility in local economic development projects; interactions with local law enforcement.
Of course, there is also some truth to the saying that “all issues are disability issues,” since disabled people are citizens and issues that affect all citizens affect us, too. Being an active disabled voter doesn’t mean focusing only on highly specific disability matters. At the same time, “our” issues affect everyone else as well, and shouldn’t be viewed simply as another flavor of “identity politics.” Disability issues matter to the whole country, whether or not we or our non-disabled neighbors always recognize it.
Hard realities of disability in politics
Raising policy alarm bells and vague cheerleading alone may not be enough to truly mobilize disabled voters. Before the majority of disabled people can feel genuinely empowered, we need to acknowledge and process some difficult truths.
Disabled voters have the numbers to be influential in politics. But for a variety of reasons, we still aren’t. There is no convincing evidence yet of disabled voters ever having decided a race, or significantly influencing a particular candidate’s policies in ways that enhanced their election chances.
Disability issues may never be a top priority for any party or political movement. Covid-19 has brought us pretty close, but the focus on disabled people during the pandemic has been intermittent at best. And in ordinary years, disabled people and disability advocacy groups still struggle to raise our issues enough to appear on candidate websites, or get a single question in an entire year of Presidential debates. The true goal of disability activism is to make disability issues a recognized policy category that all candidates and elected officials in every party, and at all levels simply have to address. That’s probably a realistic goal, but we aren’t quite there yet.
This is partially due to entrenched ableism — the general tendency in society to underestimate disabled people’s capabilities and importance, and to maintain barriers to our participation. But our lack of influence may also persist because many disabled voters don’t regularly team up or even think about their disability-related needs and priorities when they vote. For the disability community to wield meaningful political power, disabled people have to think of themselves, at least in some ways, as disabled voters. For a wide variety of personal, cultural, and philosophical reasons, people with disabilities are often reluctant — and discouraged — from developing anything like a disability consciousness, or viewing disability through a political lens.
Even if we do factor in our disabilities, who should we vote for? While it would be naive to think that the major parties are equally good or bad on disability issues, it is fair to say to say that neither party entirely understands yet how to relate to the broad spectrum of voters voters who share the experience of disability. Some clearly try harder and more carefully than others, and it’s worth noting the striking contrast between the two top Presidential this year. But there is still a fair amount of confusion and disagreement over what exactly a “good” approach to disabled voters looks like. Statements and actions that endear some disabled voters often offend others. And while detailed disability policies impress and encourage some disabled people, others may respond with doubt, cynicism, or outright disagreement.
Plus, it’s relatively easy for candidates to adopt impressive disability policies. That’s not necessarily the same as committing to enacting them. But that’s true of almost every voting constituency with a policy agenda. It’s sad. Candidates should be more committed, honest, and resolute than they are. But it’s a reality that can usually be worked with. Weeping about it or opting out completely are valid emotional reactions to understandable distrust and disappointment, but they aren’t productive political strategies, or morally pure stances.
And even in this most chaotic year in living memory, there are reasons for disabled voters to hope.
Reasons for optimism
First of all, there are many capable disabled activists and policy advocates, as well as increasingly effective and influential disability organizations working on policy and politics for disabled people. They continue to build on an impressive history of real advancement and change not just for, but brought about by disabled people. Disability policy can no longer be considered a fringe, neglected field. There is a lot happening and a lot of it is good.
In fact, we appear to be in the middle of a revolution in disability politics. We are no longer completely forgotten or ignored, and we are getting close to being considered a large, diverse, and important voting constituency rather than just a narrow “special interest group” or as props for sympathetic photo ops.
For the first time this year, several candidates for President, including one of the nominees, have ambitious, comprehensive, and detailed disability policy plans. There were encouraging choices for disabled voters in the Primaries, and some fairly clear choices now in the General, at least for President. For state and local candidates, check their campaign websites and ask them what they would do to address your disability concerns. You might be surprised at how they respond.
If you have any kind of disability, or are close to someone who is disabled in some way, but aren’t sure how that might affect your vote, here are some questions to ask yourself, and decide for yourself how your answers might help you decide.
Questions for voters with disabilities and their families
1. How have the candidates responded and behaved personally when given an opportunity to interact with or talk about disabled people and disability issues?
2. What have the candidates proposed for changes or initiatives in disability-related policy? If enacted, how would their proposals affect the lives of disabled people, including for you personally, or someone you care about?
3. If candidates’ proposals are broad, detailed, and ambitious, do they seem likely to be fought for and enacted? If not, are they worth fighting for anyway over a longer-term battle?
4. If the proposals are few, vague, and more modest, does that signal neglect of disabled people’s concerns, or an admirable realism?
5. What does it mean when a candidate doesn’t publish any disability policy positions or engage in disability any direct disability outreach?
6. What does your instinct tell you about how much time and commitment the candidates would devote to disability issues if elected?
7. What about state and local candidates? What do your potential members of Congress, state governors and legislators, mayors, and local officials say about issues disabled people care about?
8. What do the candidates’ attitudes and policies towards other “minorities” or “marginalized peoples” suggest about how they regard disabled people, including disabled people who also have other intersecting identities, like disabled Black, indigenous, and people of color, disabled women, and disabled LGBTQ people?
9. What do the candidates words, behaviors, actions, and political strategies suggest about how they view people with disabilities, as well as the elderly, poor, and physically or mentally vulnerable? Do they view us as fellow Americans to be protected and empowered, or as expendable members of society whose needs should be subordinated to more “productive” citizens?
10. How do the candidates seem to understand the ideas of “strength” and “weakness?” How have they used arguments about “fitness,” “stamina,” and “mental stability” in their campaigns?
However you and other disabled and disability-adjacent people vote, in a week or two we will hopefully be able to think about where the disability will go next.
