Author: disabledvoter1974
People with disabilities worry Florida’s cost-cutting will reduce essential services
By ELIZABETH KOH, BRADENTON HERALD (July 17, 2019) TALLAHASSEE, Florida–Lawmakers ordered Florida disability administrators this year to restructure its community-based Medicaid program that delivers healthcare to tens of thousands of people with disabilities. But as two state agencies begin to devise the new structure of the program, clients, caregivers and service providers are worrying that […]
Not one 2020 candidate has a website that is accessible to the blind By S.E. SMITH, VOX The first stop to reaching disabled voters is making sure they can access your policy proposals. The growing list of presidential candidates has something in common beyond their Oval Office aspirations: None of them think disabled people should […]
The Candidates’ Silence on Disability Rights During the Debates Is Nothing New
It is just one of many ways 2020 Democratic candidates have disregarded disability issues. By ROBYN POWELL REWIRE.NEWS Over two nights of debates, not a single Democratic presidential hopeful explicitly mentioned a traditionally overlooked voting bloc: people with disabilities. This failure to recognize disabled people is just one of the many ways 2020 candidates have […]
People With Disabilities Face Challenges Campaigning for Office. This Group Wants to Change That
The American political class has become increasingly diverse in recent years, but people with disabilities remain extremely underrepresented — apart from a few notable politicians, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a paraplegic, and Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who lost both of her legs in a grenade attack while serving in Iraq. By ABIGAIL ABRAMS, TIME […]
Virtual Reality Helps Police in Dealing with Autistic People
ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — An autistic man walks out of a store without paying for a toy he picked up. He’s followed by a storekeeper demanding he come back inside. The situation quickly escalates, and police are called. Officers arrive, their patrol car’s lights flashing and sirens blaring, to find the man in the […]
Pride Month Too Often Overlooks LGBTQ Members With Disabilities
By SARA KIM, FORBES This month marks the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Inn riots. Since then, June has been recognized as Pride Month, dedicated to celebrating the resilience, perseverance and unity of the LGBTQ community. During a time when diversity and inclusion are the main pillars of Pride, people with disabilities are still […]
Walmart’s new corporate policy may cost man with cerebral palsy his job
WNEP/CNN REPORTS MONROE TOWNSHIP, PA – Adam Catlin has been a greeter at the Walmart store near Selinsgrove for about 10 years. “When the customers come in, I greet the customers,’ Catlin explained, “and then if they have a return, I scan it and put a sticker on it.” He loves his job and doesn’t […]
Will Presidential Candidates Remember the Voting Power of People With Disabilities?
By ROBYN POWELL, REWIRE NEWS Candidates must make disability rights a priority in their platform, but they must also hire disabled campaign staff and ensure accessibility at campaign events and on social media. Although the 2020 general election is more than 600 days away, campaign season is undoubtedly upon us. Just this week, Sen. Bernie […]
First Openly Autistic Florida Attorney, Haley Moss, Honored at Charity Gala: ‘The Hopes of so Many Rest on Her’
By KATHERINE HIGNETT, NEWSWEEK When she hadn’t spoken by the age of three, doctors told Haley Moss’s parents she had autism. In January, twenty-one years after her 1997 diagnosis, she was sworn into the Florida Bar as its first openly autistic member. On Saturday, local autism charity Unicorn Children’s Foundation declared her a Youth Ambassador in recognition of […]