Action Alert: Ask Your Senators to Confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson!
April 04, 2022
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was just voted out of committee and is poised to become the first Black woman Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, pending a full vote by the Senate. Today, we are calling on our network to take action by reaching out to your Senators and pushing them to ensure the fair, swift, and bipartisan confirmation vote that Judge Jackson deserves.
Take action by contacting your Senator through phone, email, or social media and urging them to confirm Judge Jackson!
Dial 888-852-7561 and the #ConfirmJackson hotline will connect you to your local Senator or tag your Senator on Twitter and use the #ConfirmJackson hashtag.
I am contacting you today to urge you to support Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Jackson’s personal and professional experiences will increase public trust in our courts and improve judicial decision making on a number of issues, including disability rights.
In numerous decisions, from her time as a federal public defender to her service on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Judge Jackson has shown deep appreciation for our nation’s disability rights laws. She has represented defendants with mental health disabilities and ensured that they would receive a fair day in court. She has ruled on many cases that affirm people with disabilities deserve equal opportunities for participation in our workplaces, government programs, and places of public accommodation.
As a member of the disability community, my life has been directly impacted by the decisions of the Supreme Court. It is important to me that the Supreme Court understands the importance of disability rights and civil rights more broadly, and Judge Jackson has demonstrated that she does. All Americans will benefit from Judge Jackson’s presence on the Supreme Court!
Sample Tweets:
[@Your Senator] the #SCOTUS decisions impact people with disabilities & Judge Jackson has exhibited an exemplary track record on disability & civil rights along with a dedication to equity. We deserve a Justice like Judge Jackson. Vote yes to #ConfirmJackson #CripTheVote
[@Your Senator] I am calling on you to recognize Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s exceptional record and to deliver the fair and swift confirmation vote that she deserves. We need a Supreme Court that will represent all Americans. #ConfirmJackson #CripTheVote
We need [@Your Senator] to #ConfirmJackson, not only for a more reflective and equitable Supreme Court but also so that we can have a highly qualified Justice that is impartial and fully dedicated to disability and civil rights for all. America needs Judge Jackson. #CripTheVote
The Mouth Painter
By Morgan Dunn | November 08, 2021
Glenneisha Darkins, better known as Glenn, is a Black quadriplegic artist and mouth painter from Miami, Florida. She was involved in a fatal car accident in 2010 that caused her quadriplegia, and soon after she became determined to change how the world viewed her disability. Two years after her accident, she learned how to mouth paint from other young Black artists on Youtube. By operating breathing controls, navigating brush strokes, and mastering oil painting techniques, her efforts turned into a full-fledged business! She finds inspiration for her paintings from many sources: her childhood, difficulties she experiences, navigating life, and her surroundings. She later received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology with an emphasis on Women and Gender studies from the Florida Int’l University in 2018.
Glenn’s goal is to inspire and motivate others through her personal story and art. She hopes to educate the world on dismantling the misconceptions of individuals with disabilities and help others feel the courage and strength to discover their purpose and share their stories.
I met Glenn on the audio-based social app ClubHouse; while listening to her perspective on the lack of visibility on black disabled artists, I recognized how her story could positively impact others.
M: What advice would you give other disabled artists and creatives?
G: I would strongly advise other disabled artists and creatives to please keep going— keep creating and keep sharing your story. Throughout my journey as a disabled artist, I learned discipline and consistency is very much needed. When my purpose looked slow, bleak, I stretched whatever strength I had to find ways to stay creative. All sorts of challenges and obstacles definitely found its way to me, but I also found a way to make it work in my favor. I personally don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me or my situation so I strive to be better than I was yesterday. I look at myself as a source of motivation to keep creating what I want and what makes me happy. I found that those same challenges and obstacles makes for a beautiful story to share. You never know who’s watching!
M: What are you looking forward to in the future?
G: I want to continue to create so I’m able to be a household name in museums, in celebrity homes. I want to share my journey on a TedTalk. I honestly just look forward to expanding my art business and staying healthy!
M: What do you do to keep yourself motivated and interested in your work?
G: I schedule days to be in nature to see how colors complement each other. I listen to music and other creatives via podcasts or Youtube. I’m always looking at tutorials or documentaries on color mixing and oil painting portraits. I’m very motivated by other artists and when I see my earlier work, I challenge myself.
M: Thinking about the things you have created, is there something you hated but the public may have loved – and perhaps purchased?
G: Yes, all of my Nipsey portraits. As I’m painting, I see it one way but at a distance, I second guess everything. Instant cringe. I want to do better when I capture him. I’m working on doing practice pieces with only him.
M: Has rejection ever affected your creative process? Explain
G: No, but criticism has definitely fueled my motivation to prove others wrong. I’m very sensitive when it comes to my art. Sensitive in a way that I’m motivated and inspired to prove to myself I am a real artist. I’m working on being more confident in art that isn’t what people want, but what I like and see as a masterpiece. So critics and negative comments has definitely affected how I approach my work.
M: In your opinion, how can black disabled creatives stay connected to each other?What is missing? What’s already there?
G: As of now, I found social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Twitter are most effective in connecting to disabled artists. I utilized Clubhouse as well. I’m still learning myself but I know that browsing social media sites has connected me to some very dope disabled creatives. I also learned that getting into local events as a vendor helps as well. So, establishing yourself on social media and participating in local events, in my opinion, can help disabled creatives to stay connected.
M: Anything else you’d like to share?
G: Do things for the greater good. Your purpose is bigger than yourself. Stay creative and never give up!
A Milestone for the Disability Vote: Advocates Meet with the Vice President
By Lilian Aluri | September 20, 2021
As we close National Disability Voter Registration Week, we wanted to share a blog documenting a key moment for the disability vote this year. This blog shares highlights from a meeting that disability advocates had with Vice President Harris in July of this year to talk about gaps in voting accessfor voters with disabilities.
When I told my mom that I was going to meet with disability advocates after their meeting with the Vice President, she immediately thought I was going to meet with the Vice President myself. I had to temper her excitement slightly. But she was right to be excited, for the folks who actually got to meet Vice President Kamala Harris.
On Wednesday, July 14, seven disability advocates from across the country met with Vice President Kamala Harris for a roundtable discussion on access to voting at the White House. During this meeting, coordinated by Emily Voorde, Associate Director in the Office of Public Engagement at the White House, each advocate had a chance to share their personal experiences with the range of barriers that keep disabled voters from participating in democracy.
The organizers present included many from the REV UP network whom I had spoken with several times but never met in person, as well as other advocates who have been working outside REV UP in their communities advancing the rights of disabled and Black communities. The advocates included:
Olivia Babis | Senior Public Policy Analyst at Disability Rights Florida and Member of REV UP Florida
Anthony Bonnelli | Freelance Journalist and Advocate for People with Disabilities
Dessa Cosma | Executive Director at Detroit Disability Power and Partner of REV UP
Howard Porter, Jr. | Advocate in Alabama
Jalyn Radziminski | Communications Manager at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Founder and President of Count Us IN, and Fannie Lou Hamer Leadership Program Alumni
Dr. Ricky Stott | President at The Scott Institute and Former Board Member of the NC Council of the Blind, Raleigh Mayor’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities, Raleigh Human Relations Commission and the Governor Morehead School Human Rights Committee
Mathew Yanez | Legal Intern at United States Attorneys’ Offices and Partner of REV UP
Following their meeting with the Vice President, all of the advocates, except Mr. Bonelli and Ms. Cosma, joined myself and several of my colleagues for lunch at AAPD’s office. Over lunch, the advocates shared key moments and reflections on the meeting. It seemed that each of the advocates felt a mixture of hope and despair, a mix of emotions many feel when advocating for a more equitable world. This meeting felt like a new milestone in the ways that our political leaders are acknowledging both the existence of the disability vote and the access barriers disabled voters face. At the same time, as many of the attendees expressed, this was one, short meeting focused on a topic that needs more discussion and concrete action.
As Mr. Porter stated while we munched on sandwiches, he has been fighting to make a difference for so long with the hope of making a better world for his kids, and yet in many ways we are in the same place. You can read some of Mr. Porter’s testimony on page three of the NC District Court opinion. Statewide attacks on voting rights threaten to reverse the gains in voter turnout we saw during the 2020 elections, and the efforts to make voting more accessible, like the For the People Act, have failed so far to pass Congress and even fail to include people with disabilities from the start. Other efforts, like the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, have yet to even be introduced.
Despite the threats to our voting rights and access, disability advocates in each state continue to reach out to their communities, call on their elected leaders, keep their election officials accountable for holding accessible elections, and collaborate with one another to build the power of the disability vote. The work of the REV UP network and the many disability organizations advancing the disability vote has rarely felt more important. For me, and I hope for the advocates who spoke with Vice President Harris, this meeting felt like a sign of a shift that has been happening, and started well before I came to AAPD, towards meaningful recognition of the disability vote from the highest offices in the country.
Yes, it was just one meeting, and talk means little without actions. But this meeting between disability and voting advocates and the Vice President represents a significant moment for the disability vote nationally. And so yes, my mom was right to be excited.
Learn about National Disability Voter Registration Week that ends today at aapd.com/ndvrw and…
Action Alert: Ask your Senators to Protect Our Access to Voting!
September 17, 2021
Today, we are calling on our network to take action to protect access to the ballot. The U.S. Senate is considering a voting rights bill called the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Week. This bill would restore the power of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to protect our right to vote from restrictive laws that seem to limit voting access for people with disabilities, people of color, and disabled people of color.
*This is the first of a series of blogs based on the report “Increasing the Disability Vote” written by Rachita Singh for Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy
By Rachita Singh | September 16, 2021
The disability vote describes a powerful voting bloc consisting of over 38 million eligible voters and spanning all races, ethnicities, localities, sexual orientations, gender identities, religions, and ages. Historically, the disability vote has been lower than that of people without disabilities, with a gap of over 2 million votes in the most recent election. Despite the fact that 1 in 4 American adults has a disability, candidates rarely address the disability community and issues important to us, and campaign websites, town halls, and debates are frequently inaccessible and not inclusive. The disability vote is too often overlooked and forgotten.
In order to counter this, AAPD asked the following question: What are effective strategies organizations can implement in order to raise awareness and increase the disability vote?
And to answer this question, I carried out a series of interviews with people from various disability rights and voting advocacy organizations, such as Crip The Vote, Voto Latino, Human Rights Campaign, and more. I also conducted case studies on groups that have shown success in encouraging voter turnout within their communities.
During the interviews, I talked with a diverse set of advocates about the many barriers to voting and ways to overcome them. The four barriers most common to people with disabilities, people of color, disabled people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, and other marginalized groups were:
Discrimination. Interviewees from disability rights/justice organizations discussed implicit and explicit ableism, while those from other voting rights groups described experiences of marginalization at the polls based on race or gender identity. “Every marginalized group has experienced discrimination personally and that links them together…” – Leslie Adames, Voto Latino
Voter Suppression. Voter suppression is used to influence the outcome of elections by discouraging or preventing certain groups of people from voting. Interviewees detailed tactics such as voter I.D. laws, eliminating early voting or same-day registration, and unnecessarily shutting down polling places. “Disability laws are being used to target minority leaders, putting bogus charges on them such as ineligibly helping someone else to vote. This has a chilling effect on many communities.” – Michelle Bishop, National Disability Rights Network
Voter Apathy. People are not going to the polls simply because they do not care or do not see the point. This is especially true within the disability community, where politicians continually overlook them and do not bring their issues to the forefront. “For voters who argue their vote doesn’t matter or that nothing can ever change, engage in simple questions: If your vote doesn’t matter, why do we have gerrymandering or voter suppression? [These issues] are carefully orchestrated to limit voting power. ” – Halley Rogers, When We All Vote
Lack of Information. There is an information barrier when it comes to voting and many of the interviewees believed that if people understood what they were voting for, and how to do it, then they would take more of an interest and engage “Civics courses are not as fruitful as they should be…there are people my age, around 27, who do not know the three branches of government and don’t understand what they do or what impact citizens can have.” – Deandrea Newsome, Local Progress
In the next few months, we will be posting blogs that dive deeper into these four key barriers, as well as the case studies I conducted on a few key communities. The interviews and case studies are ways to gain insight into how organizations like AAPD can better build the disability vote and accurately amplify the already amazing work advocates are doing. In order to learn more about what gaps exist in the field and why some strategies have a better impact than others, I conducted a comparative case study, examining three underrepresented groups: the Latinx/Hispanic community, the LGBTQIA+ population, and the youth of America. Given the multitudes of backgrounds and identities that exist within the United States, these case studies are just a drop in the ocean. But they can give us a better understanding of how factors such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and age influence the way communities work together to address issues.
Stay tuned for the other blogs in this series that will delve deeper into the interviews with advocates, who they were, and what was discussed, along with the specific findings from the case studies that describe how each group increased voter turnout.
Check out all of the activities taking place this week at aapd.com/ndvrw and…
In Case You Missed It: Highlights from the 2021 Disability Vote Summit
By Alexa Berry | September 15, 2021
Yesterday, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) hosted the Disability Vote Summit. The goal of the virtual Summit was to provide advocates with information and strategies to further their advocacy as well as provide policymakers with information to better understand the disability community and their impact on elections. The Disability Vote Summit was part of National Disability Voter Registration Week, a larger effort by AAPD’s REV UP Campaign. In case you missed it, this blog shares some highlights from the event.
The summit opened yesterday with Curt Decker, President of NDRN, speaking about the power of the disability vote. There are over 38 million eligible voters with disabilities, but despite being the largest minority voting bloc, candidates for public office rarely speak about disability issues or speak directly to voters with disabilities.
Over 400 attendees—advocates, activists, and policymakers—tuned in to learn from experts about accessibility and the experiences of disabled voters during the 2020 election. Attendees also learned strategies to shape their advocacy to increase enfranchisement and combat voter suppression. Conversations during the 4-hour event on Tuesday focused on voter turnout, election accessibility with a particular focus on language and information access, and the importance of coalitions and working together in the fight for voting rights.
The data presented by Rutgers University, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE), and NDRN confirmed what the disability community already know: that voters with disabilities are engaged and motivated to vote, but face many more barriers to the ballot than voters without disabilities.
Dr. Douglas Kruse and Dr. Lisa Schur of Rutgers University presented data from their study, Disability and Voter Turnout in the 2020 Elections, an in-depth look at how voters with disabilities cast their ballots. Mirroring trends for all voting in 2020, voter turnout for people with disabilities surged in 2020; 17.7 million people with disabilities voted, accounting for 11% of all people who cast a ballot. Dr. Kruse and Dr. Schur attributed this record turnout to states’ shift to mail-in ballots and the urgency of the 2020 election. Dr. Kruse and Dr. Schur also found that people with disabilities are twice as likely to experience barriers to voting than people without disabilities. Among voters with disabilities, Black voters with disabilities experienced waiting times that were twice as long as non-Black voters with disabilities. Their data gave insight into the differences between voters without disabilities and voters with disabilities, and voting disparities within the disability community.
Additional data presentations from Jeff Kaloc and Lou Ann Blake from NFB and Essie Pederson and Diana Mairose, from the SABE Go Voter Project, showed how voters with certain disabilities were affected by barriers to vote. From the NFB 2020 Blind and Low-Vision Voter Survey, Jeff Kaloc and Lou Ann Blake shared that based on their data, they found poll worker training to be lacking. The NFB surveys found that federal election after federal election, one-third of respondents said that their polling place’s accessible voting machine was not running when they arrived to vote. Essie Pederson and Diana Mairose from SABE presented the findings of their GoVoter 2020 Voter Experience Survey, sharing how people with developmental disabilities (DD) voted or didn’t vote, and why. Their presentation focused on the disparities between Black voters with DD and all other survey respondents. A finding that garnered many reactions from the audience was that of the survey respondents, 7 out of 10 Black voters said the reason they did not vote was that they were told they could not vote, compared to 5 out of 10 of all voters were told they could not vote. In addition, the majority of first-time voters that filled out the survey identified as Black or Asian American. Jack Rosen from NDRN made the final data presentation, speaking about the Election Omnibus Findings from Lake Research Partners and The Tarrance Group that explored political preferences and issues that were important to voters. The survey found that disability issues affected more than just voters with disabilities; while 15% of survey respondents identified as having a disability, an additional 25% of survey respondents reported having a close family member with a disability. Despite this large swath of voters connected to disability issues, of all the voters surveyed, over two-thirds did not recall hearing any mention of disability issues by the candidates running in 2020. Disabled voters in swing states, which are often inundated with ads and candidate messaging, were least likely to hear candidates mention disability.
The two panels during the Summit included speakers from across the spectrum of the disability community. The first panel, moderated by Sarah Blahovec of the National Council on Independent Living with Kriston Pumphrey of Communication Service for the Deaf, Terry Ao Minnis of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and Ben Jackson of the Election Assistance Commission centered around access, particularly language access, for the deaf community, people with cognitive disabilities, and non-native English speakers. Speakers stressed how important it is for people with disabilities to be involved in all the aspects of elections, including becoming poll workers and working on the language for ballot initiatives, in order for voting to be more inclusive and accessible. Ben Jackson said, “…a lot of the decisions that are going to be impacting voters with disabilities, and voters generally, are going to be happening on a local level.” His point is particularly significant in 2021, as many states and local municipalities will be having elections this year that will decide governors, city council members, and ballot initiatives that affect the day-to-day lives of disabled people.
The second panel, moderated by Marlene Sallo of the Disability Law Center, with Cedric Lawson of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund, Teresa Moore of Self Advocates Becoming Empowered, and Gaylon Tootle of Walton Options, focused on the importance of coalition building, community, and relationships in the fight for accessibility ballot access and accessibility overall. Gaylon Tootle said it best: “What we need from everybody is to understand we’re in it together… So if one section of the community is being discriminated against, then all of us are. And if that is what we’re here to do, to improve the lives of folks with disabilities, then we implore you to get out there with us and make sure they enforce the ADA, Title II… It’s the law. And if we do it, as Cedric said, in mass as a group, we can get it done.” Both Cedric Lawson and Gaylon Tootle also encouraged attendees to contact decision-makers, whether it be in their community—faith leaders, youth and student groups, etc.—or at the national level and advocate for themselves and their rights.
Attendees also received video messages about the power and importance of the disability vote from Susan Diegelman, AAPD Board of Directors Chair, Rebecca Cokley, Program Officer for the U.S. Disability Rights Portfolio in the Office of the President at the Ford Foundation, Wade Henderson, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights interim president and CEO, Donald Palmer, United States Election Assistance Commission Chairman, Cedric Richmond, Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, and the Honorable Kim Wyman, Washington Secretary of State. In his video, Wade Henderson said “Disability rights are civil and human rights. We need the collective power of our coalition more than ever as state lawmakers turn their backs on voters and create egregious barriers to the ballot. This is our moment to act right now.”
Maria Town, President and CEO of AAPD, closed the Summit by driving home the importance of voting for the disability community as voting gives people with disabilities the opportunity to self-direct their own lives. As she stated in her closing, “Voting is a way that says we are here. We deserve to be here and we deserve to be in a world that works for us and with us.”
The recording and transcript for the Disability Vote Summit will be publicly available soon.
