Expert: Disabled Face Challenges When Voting

Disability Voting Rights Week focuses on advocacy, celebrating community, building empowerment

By Danielle M. Smith - Public News Service
The Tube City Almanac
September 10, 2024
Posted in: Politics & Elections

Sept. 8-13 is Disability Voting Rights Week. The event is a nonpartisan movement hosted by the American Association of People with Disabilities and REV UP. (Photo courtesy American Association of People with Disabilities)

Disability Voting Rights Week is an annual call to action that occurs during the second week of September. It focuses on advocacy, celebrating community and building empowerment.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of July 2024 more than 2.9 million adults in Pennsylvania are living with a disability.

Mallory Hudson, disability justice program director with the Keystone Progress Education Fund, said Pennsylvanians are encouraged to take time to host voter registration and education events, organize candidate forums on disability issues, and engage with elected officials.

“We at Keystone Progress Education Fund are using this week to kick off our first of many voter-registration drives, at skilled nursing facilities and personal care homes across Allegheny County,” Hudson said. “More than 125,000 people live in all the skilled nursing facilities and personal care homes across Pennsylvania.”

Hudson added that if people with disabilities voted at the same rate as those without, 1.75 million more votes could have been cast in the 2020 general election.

This November, Pennsylvania’s 19 Electoral College votes make it influential in presidential races, and the state’s voters will also elect members of congress, state senators and representatives, as well as other state-level officials.

Hudson said improving election accessibility for individuals with disabilities is a positive approach to shaping inclusive futures for Pennsylvanians.

She also said that many barriers hinder people with disabilities from exercising their full voting rights.

Examples include inaccessible polling places, insufficient training for poll workers on accessible ballot-marking devices, and misconceptions about the capacity of disabled voters, and more.

“Pennsylvania does not allow curbside voting at any polling places, whether or not they are Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible,” said Hudson. “If you arrive at your polling place on Election Day and you are still unable to get inside, you can go to your county election office to apply for an Emergency Alternative Ballot. But then this accessibility issue may become a transportation issue.”

Hudson explained that for a polling place to be considered ADA accessible, it must meet certain standards — for parking, passenger drop-off areas, entrances, interior and exterior routes, ramps, lifts and elevators — to be considered accessible for people who use mobility aids and those who are blind or have low vision.

Hudson added that ADA standards are the bare minimum and they do not guarantee accessibility for people with disabilities.

Danielle M. Smith is a producer for Public News Service, where this story first appeared. An award-winning radio journalist/personality with more than a decade of experience in broadcast media, she is a former audio journalist with American Urban Radio Networks and Sheridan Broadcasting Networks who also hosts a weekly community affairs show “Good News” on WGBN (1360 AM/98.9 FM).

Originally published September 10, 2024.

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