Journalist – Historian – Speaker
Rutgers professors Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse have a new fact sheet on turnout from people with disabilities. Their “key points:” 6.0 million people with disabilities reported voting in the November 2016 elections. The voter turnout rate of people with disabilities was 6 percentage points lower than that of people without disabilities. Employed people with …
I find the New York Times “disability” column on lives and identities, all written by disabled people, important and fascinating. It’s created a silo for disability on the page, which is better than no place at all, but still shows a lack of more systematic engagement with disability rights. But the NYT byline is a …
There’s been a lot of talk about the way ongoing disasters in Kansas presage comparable disasters for the United States under un-checked GOP rule. That’s certainly my fear when it comes to disability. Many conservatives talk eloquently about serving people with disabilities (on a language basis PWDs become objectified, it’s a charity-based model, but that’s …
Earlier today I wrote about a 12 year old boy with Cerebral Palsy (he uses a wheelchair and a communication device) who was 1) expelled from a Trump rally for holding up a Hillary sign and 2) got to meet President Obama. The moral: Trump supporters cannot tolerate any dissent, even from a disabled child. …
[Story updated 9:06 CST 11/6] White House Press Pool reports that President Obama met a disabled child who had been kicked out of Trump rally. Background: JJ Holmes, a 12 year old boy with Cerebral Palsy told his mother he wanted to go to a Trump rally to protest. He held up a Hillary Clinton sign. …
UPDATE: Go to “Access the Vote NC” to protect your right to vote. Here’s a story from the “Voter Integrity Project” out of North Carolina. The image shows a screenshot from MSNBC (Maddow) with an article called, “Raping the ‘Retard’ Vote” and a picture of Kim Kardashian (for no coherent reason). You can read the …
In Colorado, a woman and her disabled daughter were escorted from a Trump rally for their own safety. The story is not written well in terms of explaining what actually happened, but if you watch the video (there’s adequate captioning), the story is clear. Basically, an “undecided” Colorado voter – Jennifer Mau – went with …
.@timkaine met campaign volunteer Mike Phillips today in FL. He has spinal muscular atrophy. Kaine choked up reading the letter he wrote him pic.twitter.com/vWKtHn0a9g — Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) September 26, 2016 As folks know, I’ve been writing a lot about the Clinton campaign’s robust engagement with disability rights. Hillary Clinton has run the most progressive, …
Yesterday, NBC News profiled Alice Wong and the Disability Visibility Project. Go read it! I am genuinely inspired by Alice Wong. With neither budget nor celebrity, she’s created an vibrant, accessible, community of people with disabilities, family members, and allies. She’s told stories and made it possible for others to tell their stories. She works constantly …
This is the new Priorities USA ad – Dante. It features a young disabled African-American boy speaking directly to the camera about Donald Trump. A few weeks ago, Priorities USA released the ad Grace, which features who nice white parents of a disabled child criticizing Donald Trump for making fun of people with disabilities. I …