Detroit Disability Power (DDP) is an organization committed to building the political power of the disability community.

As the general election nears, disability-led organizations like DDP are scaling up their efforts to combat common barriers to the ballot box for disabled voters. While one in four adults nationwide has a disability, there remain significant gaps in voting access for this demographic. Disabled organizers bring unique expertise rooted in lived experiences to the work of improving voting access and forging a more inclusive democracy. The landscape they are working in is a difficult one given the nation’s patchwork, state-led voting system that demands a unique strategy for countering voter suppression in each state.

Research has shown that the vast majority of polling locations nationwide are not fully accessible, meaning they each have potential impediments for people with disabilities to cast votes. Many states also have restrictive voting laws, such as those that limit absentee voting, eliminate Election Day registration, or make it more difficult to vote early in person. These rules are most burdensome to disabled voters and also voters of color. Over 11% of disabled voters reported facing difficulties voting in the last general election, despite the expansion of mail-in voting as a pandemic precaution.

“The disability community is often forgotten, even by progressive organizations or those that are working to contact voters,” says Lila Zucker, organizing director at New Disabled South (NDS), a disability rights and justice nonprofit organization working across 14 states in the U.S. South. Over 20% of the population in the South is disabled—the highest rate in the nation.

The region is also rife with disenfranchisement as Republican-led states concoct new election-related crimes and toughen punitive measures. Last year, Voting Rights Lab, an organization that tracks election-related legislation nationwide, identified a “siege on voting access” in North Carolina. Neighboring Georgia made national headlines in the run-up to the 2022 midterm election for a bill that criminalized passing out food or water within 25 feet of voters waiting in line at a polling location (a federal judge struck down that provision on First Amendment grounds last year, but it was upheld during the midterms).

Recently, lawmakers in Alabama passed Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), which criminalized the act of assisting disabled voters with filling out or delivering their absentee ballot applications.  A similar bill was enacted in Mississippi last year. While DDP’s Flores wanted to mark her ballot without support when voting absentee in college (and she should have had the option of an accessible ballot to do so), disabled voters in other states may depend on support that could result in criminal charges under these laws. These differences point to the fact that disabled voters are not a monolith and have different needs.

Fighting legal battles and passing new legislation could make a significant difference in reducing voting barriers for disabled Americans. The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging many discriminatory voting laws in court, including Alabama’s SB 1. One of the ACLU’s coalition partners in that lawsuit is the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (ADAP). “For many voters with disabilities, absentee voting may be the only practical option to be heard and have their voices counted, [and] SB 1 poses additional barriers to this critical right,” said William Van Der Pol Jr., senior trial counsel for ADAP in an April press release announcing the lawsuit.

Read the full article about disabled voters by Marianne Dhenin at YES!Magazine .