A new report from Rutgers University estimates that about 40.2 million eligible voters in the quickly approaching U.S. presidential election are disabled. Add those who cohabitate with , and you鈥檙e looking at close to one-third of the voting population for an election in which health care is among the key campaign issues.
The disabled voting bloc is growing as the U.S. population ages, but voters and advocates say the hurdles that make people feel excluded from the electoral process aren鈥檛 being addressed. That ranges from inaccessible campaign materials to former and seldomly mentioning how issues like COVID-19 impact the disability community, as well as that advocacy groups considered discriminatory.
鈥淭hey should be treating us like we鈥檙e their path to victory because we are, frankly,鈥� said Dom Kelly, the founder and CEO of New Disabled South, an advocacy group that focuses on disability rights in the South. 鈥淵ou win or lose because of disabled people, and if you don鈥檛 take our community seriously, that will reflect on the outcome of your campaign.鈥�
Lisa Schur and her husband Doug Kruse lead the Program for Disabilities Research at Rutgers and co-wrote , which also shows there are 7.1 million disabled voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Schur said that disabled people are less likely to receive information about politics and can face numerous difficulties when voting in-person and by mail. All of it can lead to less participation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of like death by a thousand cuts," Schur said.
Matt Mills is a former Trump supporter and avid voter. The 41-year-old from Brown County in southern Ohio has lupus, polyneuropathy and received two kidney transplants since 2017.
This year, he鈥檒l be voting for Harris because of her 鈥減roven track record鈥� of advocating for health care policies he likes. Even so, he believes voters with disabilities are taken for granted.
鈥淲hen we don鈥檛 see ourselves represented,鈥� he said, 鈥渢hen we continue to get beat down and we get tired and we get discouraged.鈥�
Jim Piet and Patricia Vincent-Piet of Concord, New Hampshire, both have cerebral palsy. The married couple say they鈥檝e been dismissed by political candidates over the years when they try to talk with them 鈥� but also have had candidates be welcoming.
What concerns them most, though, are policies that impact their day-to-day lives.
鈥淛ust because I鈥檓 going to talk or be kind to people with disabilities does not mean that their policies are helpful,鈥� said Vincent-Piet, 53.
Her 63-year-old husband gets assistance through Medicaid鈥檚 long-term care program, which helps provide medical and personal care to people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Vincent-Piet is worried that Republicans will make cuts to Medicaid. They both plan to vote for Harris.
Trump, Harris disability outreach
In 2015, when Trump first ran for office, he flailed his arms in an apparent attempt to mock a disabled journalist. At a September rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, the former president falsely claimed Harris was 鈥渕entally impaired.鈥� The American Association of People with Disabilities as ableist and 鈥渉armful to people with disabilities.鈥�
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Trump is 鈥渃ommitted to making sure every voter, including voters with disabilities, can exercise their right to vote in the most important election of our lifetime.鈥�
There鈥檚 more to engaging disabled voters, said Meighan Stone, who uses a wheelchair due to symptoms of long COVID.
鈥淭he focus on ableist jokes or whether or not disabled people are visibly at campaign events reduces disabled people to one thing,鈥� Stone said, adding, 鈥�... That鈥檚 a level of discrimination we live with every day.鈥�
Stone would like to see both candidates focus on solving how long it takes to get disability benefits 鈥� about 6-8 months, according to the federal government 鈥� and getting the Food and Drug Administration to approve , saying, 鈥淚 think both campaigns want to act as if they solved a pandemic and it鈥檚 over.鈥�
The Harris campaign recently hired Anastasia Somoza as its disability engagement director. Somoza, who has cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair, said the Harris campaign will host an event with disabled entrepreneurs in Pittsburgh on Monday. Somoza also said she tries to make sure there's a virtual option for all campaign events.
In 2023, the vice president met with leaders in the disability space about transportation issues, and she has proposed paying for and for disabled workers.
But the two presidential campaigns could do more, said Holly Latham at #MEAction, which advocates for people with chronic fatigue syndrome. She said ads, fliers and events need to be accessible to all disabled people.
鈥淎re they doing the basics? Are they providing alt-text (a written description of an image)?鈥� Latham said. 鈥淎re they making sure they have interpreters for sign language and stuff like that?鈥�
Disabled Folks for Kamala, a coalition of advocates, said a virtual Harris campaign event for disabled voters on Oct. 8 鈥渄id not meet the basic access requirements.鈥� Marissa Ditkowsky, who has a form of muscular dystrophy, watched the event and said she was frustrated by the issues.
The Harris campaign said it 鈥渄eeply regrets鈥� the technical difficulties. A human wasn't transcribing the closed captioning, and a sign language interpreter wasn't visible at the beginning of the event.
鈥淲e want people to be thinking about us while they鈥檙e creating these spaces instead of coming around after the fact,鈥� said Ditkowsky, who calls Harris the 鈥渃lear choice鈥� in the presidential race.
Training poll workers
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission is currently working with election officials to ensure that every American that鈥檚 eligible to vote can do so independently, privately and without restrictions, Commissioner Benjamin Hovland said.
He acknowledged the increasing need for more focused and adequate training on disabilities for election officials and poll workers 鈥� especially for things like anxiety or different ways of processing information 鈥� in hopes of setting up more accommodating polling places.
鈥淣o matter what it is or who someone is voting for, If somebody needs assistance, as a poll worker 鈥� which I say is the customer service face of our democracy 鈥� it鈥檚 your job to make sure that they can get through the process privately and independently and feel great about that,鈥� Hovland said. 鈥淕ive them the 鈥業 voted鈥� sticker and thank them. Just think about how that interaction matters.鈥�
Patti Chang, 61, is blind and lives in Chicago. She said this feeling of exclusion that she and other people who live with disabilities encounter isn鈥檛 just found in politics.
鈥淯ntil the society has higher expectations for people with disabilities and until society itself is more inclusive,鈥� she said, 鈥測ou鈥檙e going to see this not just in voting, but in almost everything you encounter.鈥�
___
Associated Press data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Associated Press鈥� coverage of race and voting receives support from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. See more about AP鈥檚 democracy initiative . The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Kenya Hunter And Ayanna Alexander, The Associated Press
