Why Vote

REV UP’s core campaign issues show why our votes are so important.

Check out REV UP’s new nonpartisan Voting Issues Guide.

As a diverse disabled community, different issues will impact each of us differently and our policy priorities will vary. Below, we have listed some REV UP Core Campaign Issues, and you may have additional priorities that you will advocate for as a part of REV UP.

• Access to Voting
• Affordable and Accessible Housing
• Community Living
• Criminal Justice Reform
• Economic Justice
• Education
• Emergency Preparedness and Climate Change
• Equitable and Accessible Technology
• Healthcare & Reproductive Justice
• Intersectionality and Civil Rights
• Transportation

Access to Voting

We vote because Access to Voting matters to people with disabilities. Americans with disabilities face many obstacles and barriers to voting, including inaccessible polling places and voting equipment, difficulty getting to the polling place, lack of access to vote by mail efforts, and poorly informed election officials and poll workers about access issues. Additionally, tens of thousands of people with mental health conditions and intellectual disabilities have been disenfranchised in 39 states due to laws that strip them of their right to vote. REV UP is committed to fighting against voter suppression and advocating for voter rights and accessibility.

Affordable and Accessible Housing

We vote because Affordable and Accessible Housing matters to people with disabilities. Housing can provide safety, independence, and so much more, however barriers in housing from cost to inaccessibility, as well as the lack of availability of support programs and services available in the community lead to a disproportionate number of disabled people living in homelessness. REV UP supports greater availability of accessible, affordable, integrated, and self-determined housing and rigorous implementation of all Fair Housing laws. 

Community Living

We vote because Community Living matters to people with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act’s integration mandate and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision provide people with disabilities with critically important rights — to live, work, and receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate. REV UP fully affirms community living as a right of all people with disabilities, regardless of the type of disability. REV UP supports programs and services that help people live in the community, preventing them from being forced into institutions, detention centers, jails/prisons, and nursing homes. We believe programs that help people move back to the community from institutional settings must be supported, funded, and expanded.

Criminal Justice Reform

We vote because Criminal Justice Reform matters to people with disabilities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that an estimated 32 percent of state and federal prisoners and 40 percent of local jail inmates have a disability, and that this population is three to four times more likely than the general population to report having at least one disability. Furthermore, there are significant racial disparities in incarceration rates, with African Americans incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites. REV UP supports a transformation of the US criminal legal system in ways such as dismantling police discrimination, increasing accommodations in the court system, and eliminating jails functioning as hospitals.

Economic Justice

We vote because Economic Justice matters to people with disabilities.  People with disabilities experience one of the highest rates of unemployment of any marginalized group, and these rates are highest for multiply-marginalized people with disabilities. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is often more than two times higher than the unemployment rate of people without disabilities. REV UP advocates for a range of economic justice issues including livable wages, job discrimination, pay equity, social security, and more.

Education

We vote because Education matters to people with disabilities. All students have the right to a public education, including students with disabilities. REV UP advocates for students to receive appropriate support such as assistive technology, and we declare that students with disabilities must be offered the same opportunities to succeed and pursue higher education alongside their non-disabled peers.

Emergency Preparedness and Climate Change

We vote because Emergency Preparedness and Climate Change matter to people with disabilities. Climate change is intensifying the frequency and duration of disasters around the world, including in the United States. People with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by disasters, during which they are two to four times more likely to die or be injured. Yet, disability communities are often excluded from disaster preparedness, planning, response, and recovery. REV UP is committed to amplifying the need for emergency preparedness resources for people with disabilities, which includes enforcing the equal access requirements of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. 

Equitable and Accessible Technology

We vote because Equitable and Accessible Technology matters to people with disabilities. The 21st century has been marked by technological advances and the integration of technology into nearly every aspect of life from hiring and transportation to our social lives and healthcare systems. REV UP supports programs and regulations that ensure people with disabilities have equal access to broadband internet and assistive technologies that provide access to the digital world. REV UP also values the regulation of the discriminatory use of artificial intelligence technology that discriminates against people with disabilities and people of color.

Healthcare & Reproductive Justice

We vote because Healthcare and Reproductive Justice matter to people with disabilities. People with disabilities rely on both public (Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Medicare) and private insurance options to obtain coverage to meet their health care needs. Access to affordable comprehensive health care coverage is essential for people with disabilities to live independently and maximize the quality of their lives. Unfortunately, many people with disabilities continue to lack access to the services and support they need, including reproductive health care. People with disabilities, like all Americans, deserve unrestricted access to a comprehensive range of reproductive health care options, ranging from birth control and abortion to prenatal care and delivery. Restricting access to abortion harms disabled people and undermines the ideal of full participation enumerated in the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition, despite existing legal protections, people with disabilities are subject to discrimination in both the financing and provision of health care services. REV UP advocates for people with disabilities, and all Americans, to have access to affordable comprehensive health care coverage.

Intersectionality and Civil Rights

We vote because Intersectionality and Civil Rights matter to people with disabilities. REV UP is committed to an intersectional and racial justice-minded approach to disability rights, which are civil rights. This means we will fight for the inclusion of people of color, women, immigrants, LGBTQIA+ folks in all REV UP core campaign areas. REV UP supports education, programs, and policies that combat the fatal consequences of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and all ism/phobias. Further, the REV UP network works to ensure all people, particularly those that are multiply marginalized, have access to their human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. REV UP also aims to protect and advance Civil Rights legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Voting Rights Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and much more.

Transportation

We vote because Transportation matters to people with disabilities. Access to affordable and reliable transportation allows people with disabilities important opportunities to go to school, work, take care of their health, live where they desire, and participate in all aspects of community life. Because our nation’s investments in transportation infrastructure have disproportionately favored vehicles and highways, those who cannot afford vehicles or do not operate vehicles often lack viable transportation options. REV UP supports people with disabilities’ right to access to accessible mass transportation facilities and services, including across rural communities. REV UP also supports accessible innovations in technology to create accessible autonomous vehicles as the transportation industry evolves.