Election 2008 and American Disability Policy
Commentators in the United States speculate that the 2008 presidential election will be a close one once again. With many states in play, candidates will turn to the some 54 million disabled to shore up their vote tallies in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
For example, in the 2000 presidential election, the reported voting age population (VAP) of people with disabilities in Pennsylvania was 837,397, of whom, an estimated 43.0% cast ballots, and in Ohio, the reported VAP of people with disabilities was 241,449, of whom 39.0% cast ballots.
It is probably in recognition of the increasing voting power of the disabled that, in November 2007, a national forum on the positions of the Presidential primary candidates took place, and that, on July 26, a second moderated forum with the Presidential candidates or their surrogates was hosted in Columbus, Ohio.
And as further evidence of the importance of the disabled to presidential politics, Kareem Dale, founder and CEO of The Dale Law Group of Chicago, Illinois, and an attorney with a vision disability, was recently appointed as Senator Barack Obama’s Disability Vote Director. The Obama campaign has an extensive plan and platform for disability issues that includes four elements:
- Provide Americans with disabilities with the educational opportunities they need to succeed, such as; fully funding what is called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA;
- End discrimination and promote equal opportunity, which would be accomplished through, among others, a national Presidential advisor on disability and support for passage of what is called the Americans with Disabilities Restoration Act that is presently working its way through Congress;
- Increase the employment rate of workers with disabilities, which would be accomplished through, among others, reconstituting an Executive order signed during the Clinton administration to actively hire federal employees with disabilities; and
- Support independent, community-based living for Americans with disabilities.
The campaign has also pledged that, if elected, Senator Obama would have his administration commit the United States as a signatory to and urge the ratification of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, thereby reclaiming the United States’ global leadership on disability policy issues. The United States did not sign the treaty under the Bush administration, which did not even send a diplomatic representative to the discussions.
Senator John McCain does not appear to have issued a formal statement on whether he would sign the United States on to the Convention, but he is likely to receive questions on this point from the disability community.
But to be fair to McCain, who does not seem to have as many formal policy positions or statements on disability related questions, he is the one of the two presidential candidates argued as actually living with disabilities. According to an article that appeared in the Los Angeles Times during the primaries, McCain retired from the military on a full disability discharge and with a 100% disability pension. During the Vietnam War, he suffered such injuries as a shattered knee and two broken arms, injuries that he still deals with today.
Commemorating the 18th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the American Association of People with Disabilities and the Ohio Disability Vote Coalition sponsored the National Forum on Disability Issues, a nonpartisan forum on national disability policy on July 26 in Columbus, Ohio. This was an historic dialogue, as it was the first–or one of the first–such forum between the two leading presidential candidates that Americans with disabilities from across the United States attended, either in person or via webcast, and it was moderated by a renowned journalist. McCain attended the forum via satellite video, and Obama, who was returning from his travel abroad, was represented by former Senator Tom Harkin, a national health and disability policy expert and sponsor of the ADA.
At the forum, Harkin stressed that electing the president plays a critical role in the long-term civil rights of people with disabilities, as any president, but especially, the next one, will have the opportunity to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court. Since the passage of the ADA, its original coverage has been narrowed by decisions of the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, which have been redefining people as non-disabled—and therefore not protected from discrimination—if they could function effectively with mitigating measures. Harkin’s remarks reflected that, should conservatives prevail, there is the chance that conservative activist judges and Justices would be appointed to the federal court system who will continue to narrow the coverage of disability civil rights related protections. He also emphasized the importance for a national disability policy advisor to the President.
This author speculates that, in an Obama administration, Senator Harkin would be considered a leading candidate for Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, a critical ministry of the United States on public health, health care reimbursement, and welfare benefits that directly impact the disabled, among others.
A priority of a McCain administration would be ensuring that the Veteran’s Administration focuses on providing specialized care for service-related conditions and that veterans receive improved health care.
A burgeoning disability civil rights movement and expanding set of legal obligations in Europe governs the rights of Europeans with disabilities. As many American disability advocates suggest, the United States has a critical role in sharing its experiences on the fuller inclusion of people with disabilities with the international community, and especially with its transatlantic partners. This author consequently hopes that a change in leadership by either of the candidates will alter the record of the Bush administration when it regards American support of the Convention and many other critical disability policy questions.
Gary C. Norman, Esq., is an American Marshall Memorial Fellow and an attorney partnered with a dog guide.