Apart from the recognized challenges to voting – especially during the COVID-19 pandemic which requires extra health and safety precautions – our voices and opinions should and must be heard. People with disabilities have a lifetimes’ worth of experience navigating the systems of health care, education, employment, transportation, and housing.
We not only have valuable insight to significant social issues, but we have strength in numbers. The intellectual/developmentally disabled community consists of approximately 4,000 Rhode Islanders, a number worthy of recognition by national and state legislators. Our strength increases with the voices of our siblings, parents, employers, and friends. Nationally, one in four people is recognized to have a disability further emphasizing the potential voting influence the intellectual/developmentally disabled community, and the overall disability community, possesses.
National and statewide legislation is developed and coaxed along to enactment by our representatives, the people we elect to serve us. This is why we should vote.
Nationally, our successes may be seen in the impact of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the American with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act, ABLE Act, and the National Voter Registration Act.
We can see our impact in recent statewide legislation as well. The passage of the Senior Savings Protection Act, the Supported Decision-Making Act, and the continued funding of the RIPTA No-Fare Bus Pass for low-income elderly and disabled were all advanced to enactment by our elected officials.
Rhode Island’s special election on March 2 is another way for our voices to be heard. Rhode Island residents are going to be voting on seven bond referendums which deal with housing, recreation, transportation, industrial infrastructure, the arts, early childhood education and expenditures for higher education infrastructure. Each of us must study and determine how the referendum bonds will impact the state and our diverse community, then vote accordingly.
Why does voting matter to people with disabilities? Not only is it our civic duty and responsibility that we fought for and won, but to be an integral part of the conversation to affect policy from our point of view.