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Live when I'm gone. Bye. Only be 10 more seconds. That's a cool painting behind you. Oh okay. So this is a local artist and I'm gonna recommend to you who's amazing. He paints koi fish but like artsy. so this is all that's cool. This one. it was just hanging in his House. He's a personal friend and so I was there for something and it's like swimming out from the DC and I was like we are live. On What's up everybody is Tuesday, so you know what time it is. It's time to turn up turn up Tuesday. I am so excited to be joined with our guest today. we are talking about voting rights of course with a focus on disability rights. We have been talking about disability rights to this whole series, but we really want to shine a light on it because it's an important issue that the entire country needs to pay attention. So let's turn up. I got a great group of folks with me today First Amani Barber, who is a disability rights with disability rights, PA and crutches and spice Blog. Michelle BS. The National Disability Rights Network and Rebecca Coakley, disability rights activists welcome to the turn up ladies. Thank you for having us. Thank you. yes, so people were like what's the turn of like when you go to zero to 100 real quick cuz you don't like what's happening? Alright let's jump in right to this conversation. I wanna start with you. Rebecca can you give us kind of the state of play of voting rights for people with disabilities? definitely well not much has really changed over the last four presidential cycles the Government Accountability Office continually reports to us that between 60 and 80. In a polling places in this country are still inaccessible and we're at 30 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and so even the basic fundamental rights of our democracy are still found to be inaccessible for our community. unacceptable. Michelle Do you wanna add anything to the the state of disability rights? Yeah. absolutely. and not everyone wants to hear this. I'm gonna be honest. Not everyone wants to hear this, but it's it's kinda getting worse. We've made progress and. Ways right when people think about voting being inaccessible for people with disabilities, they think about polling places right? Oh, what if I went to my polling place and there were stairs, there was no ramp. I used a wheelchair now. that's a real problem that we haven't solved and that day that Rebecca talks about it indicates that, but it's that at least moving in the right direction. The majority of polling places are still inaccessible in that way, but they're getting better. What we're failing to do is make the actual voting booth itself accessible to people with disability. And this is the part people don't wanna hear is that the more we start running back to using paper ballots for everything, but it's papers just not accessible for a lot of people with disabilities. A lot of people Cannot take a paper ballot and read it and hand market. so we're making a lot of changes right now that are not benefiting voters with disabilities and to be honest it kinda leaving us in the dust. We've got to find solutions that work for everybody. Yeah. I mean we talk about that all the time on the turn up that you know you can't. It's not a one solution fits all type of scenario when it's voting and voting is so important that we. Make sure it's accessible for everyone. Amani you are working in PA. you've been working on this work. What are you seeing in the state? We aren't turning up on PA. We're gonna come for you soon and don't worry but what are you seeing in the state in terms of challenges that people with disabilities are facing around voting so right now Pennsylvania move towards the mailing ballot more and they've actually closed around 77 percent of polling places because of the Cove 19 pandemic. So we're we're really battling against. mail-in ballots not necessarily because they're not good. We want as many options as possible for people with disabilities to vote. But I think what the issue is that people's too often confuse accessibility with Proximity that because you're close to what you need means it's more accessible to you, but that more accessible to people who are blind low vision who have trouble reading English or have issues of Clean Language. so a lot of times those ballots are still not accessible. People that need them so you know my father is blind. I talk about him a lot in the work that we do. He lost his vision as an adult and so Michelle when when I'm thinking he has my mom who like gets his absentee ballot, you know have some complete it. but when we think about like what in a world where boating would be accessible for everyone, we say at the leadership conference, it requires safe and in-person early voting, particularly in this crisis around covid- 19. Male is an option. What are the things that the National Disability Rights Network is advocating for and they wanna see happen in November So in this counts for Covid- 19, but also all the time we always believe the best solution is to have as many options as possible for voters. Every voter is different. Every person with disability is different, even to people who have the same disability have different access needs and the experience it differently, But all types of odors are just different in different solutions work for them. So the more options we have for voters the more there will be an. That makes it work for every voter, so we still wanna see in person voting to the greatest extent possible as many polling locations that we have to the extent that we can make them safe. We wanna see that there cuz vote by mail is just tricky for certain types of people. We also we're not opposed to vote by mail. We're believers and vote by mail. It comes with a lot of benefits. We just wanna see it as accessible as possible. things like allowing someone your father. for instance, it's amazing that your mom is there and she's able to help him to get that ballot to go through it to market. But technically under federal law, he has the right to do that completely privately. Independently and that's how he like other voters would have a secret ballot so if he could receive that ballot electronically and Mark it on a tablet or computer or smartphone, whatever it has at home that would make it much more accessible to him. So we wanna see options like that. Yeah. I mean, I think he would like my mom and her business too, and I'm just going to. I'm just messed up. Don't let me get my family started. They're all good. There's around the country are now having this conversation. So it's just like some some family drama just creeped out there. I go. Yeah. No. no. no. It's all good in the Allison House. let's. Back on track to turn up my mama's coming to turn up on me, Okay. Alright. So Rebecca, you know people we just had a conversation with Beyonce's mom, a matter of fact on Friday night and I know we were I was like but so she you know it was like what can people do right? So if you whether you're a person with disability or disability or you're an ally to the community in this moment of covid- 19, when we're all sheltering in place, what can someone do if they actually want to support and make sure that this Lola? Is more accessible actively advocate with your local elections officials to make sure that they do have extensive early voting so much of elections is done at the state and local level, and so making sure that you have at least two weeks of early voting at accessible locations when I was growing up the the onsite location for my family to go vote at was inaccessible. My dad used to power wheelchair and the church itself was accessible, but the machine was so high. He couldn't access it and so. Used to take advantage of early voting and so we would instead go to the YMCA, which was a little bit further away but was fully accessible and you could go in and there was a machine that he could use without eating to involve anybody else. and so I think that's that's a key thing is advocate for the things that make voting better for everyone advocate for the things that make voting better for people with disabilities and you actually are going to make it better for everyone. Yeah. it's like and asking someone who might know more than you So if you are an election administrator and you are not engaging with the disability rights community, you should start because. You don't wanna create solutions that are not going to actually be helpful for a community. you know saying, go vote by mail and not talking to the indigenous community. It's problematic or the disability community or the black community because you're you're going to leave people behind Amani. I'm interested you know this election is important. It's a lot on the line and you're in the state. you're hearing what people are saying. What's the word in the streets like are people excited to vote in this election? Do they know how they can get their ballots? yeah I. We just worked on a video for for disability Transylvania about the differences between male and absentee ballots. we're trying to get as much information to people as possible. I think that people feel that now is the time to vote like if you've never voted in any election. people are like I wanna vote right now. right this second. I wanna make sure my vote is counted. I wanna make sure my vote is insured. My parents called me over the weekend just to tell me that they've that they've completed their mail-in ballots and they put them in the mailbox. so people are very excited and I think. It for a lot of communities and I wanna talk a little bit about voting in person because we can't discount it for many people for many groups of people in this country. Voting was not a given voting has never been insured to every single citizen in this country. so when you physically show up to a polling place and say, I'm here my vote matters and I will count today that's important to people. So when people say you know, you really shouldn't be in person voting and making sure that you know you're safe and stuff that's an important moment. A lot of people who do not get that right I hosted a little while back actually it's been really now called vote for Ais. Michelle is in it her lovely face. And one man Eric Patrick, Thomas said he tried to vote for 20 years and could not vote like I would have given up after five. I've been like you know what but have it. I don't care. I'm not no, but he kept at it for 20 years and for 20 years, his ballot was inaccessible to him so this every election means something to somebody. so I don't think that this election is more I don't think that this election is mess. Showing that people want to show up more in person, I think that they just feel that they want to be heard finally, regardless of what the time say absolutely so you know Michelle when we when we talk about who we are, we have multiple parts of our identity and voting directly impacts people like the way leaders Leadership is handling the pandemic is the outcome of whether or not you voted in 2016 and who you voted for So when you think about other. Issues that are at stake for the disability community this election. What are some of the issues that you are really pressing friend of mine that you want people to consider that everything is in play everything is in play and it is every election. it always matters and I think if anything I hope that the current situation that we're in as much as I wish we weren't here right, I wish I wasn't coming to you live from my dining room right now, but here we are in the Middle of pandemic and I think I hope it makes it clear that who is. Office really matters, We're gonna be living in the consequences of Kogan in for a very long time. I hope there's a vaccine tomorrow and I'll you can give me a shot right here but I don't know that that's gonna happen and either way the economy is gonna need time to recover. one of the things that we're really starting to learn right now is that people with disabilities are being some of the people who are being hit the hardest in terms of unemployment in this pandemic, we're losing our jobs people who are already. unemployed underemployed and an alarming rate, three quarters of people with disabilities were on or underemployed before the pandemic and where it's who are losing our jobs, the most right now, so really no matter who you go and vote for what you should be thinking about is what type of economic security do I wanna have in the future and how do I think these candidates can help provide that for me cuz it's gonna take a long time to get back to where were. Yeah, I mean, wow. Three quarters of people with disabilities were unemployed or underemployed or underemployed numbers. We would not let slide for any other community, but we have always for people with disabilities. We give awards to companies that underemployed disabled people do we do we give awards to companies that pay less than minimum wage to you just for being a person with a disability? This is what the turn up is we can awards to people who destroyed 3000 wheelchairs a year Yup and not only that but. People always give the rationale that oh they just want something to do with their lives. I had a lot of goals and a lot of dreams that do not include you getting padd on the back for employing me. Okay. Yeah. No the last thing I wanted to say was building on Michelle's point is we need to vote because we're dying like we die 10000 people a year waiting to get on social security benefits. we've died by the hands of support staff by caregivers by the. We have a National disability day of morning, just to recognize that we die in your institutions we dye in your jails. we die in your gated gated communities for special people like 50 percent of the folks killed by law enforcement are people Yeah, you know we're dying at by the tens of thousands now, with the largest outbreaks of the Corona virus being in places that non-disabled people have shut us away for decades. Yeah, like we have to vote. Our life depends on it because we're already And it feels like we're looking for treatments. We're looking for careers well, what happens to people who need a ventilator When we don't have enough ventilators right, so who needs one regularly whether without the pandemic what happens to people who are living with lupus when we start experimenting with the drugs that they need, Yes, help control their lupus on a regular basis. What type of impact is that having on our people and I wanna be clear too about you know, health care rationing and some of these proposals that have been cropping up from States and different health care organizations they disproportionately. Black and Brown people who are already suffering from medical racism from environmental racism and structural racism These guidelines are discriminatory, and that's the one of the reason that we're seeing the high rates of death among black and Brown people. We we should not be losing black and Brown people in droves like this at all, you know it's and Aman building on it like the labeling of these underlying condition. Like there's something they're putting the onus on the person like you're being sneaky. You have this underlying condition for White folks during the ACA fight, It was pretty existing conditions, which sounds a lot nicer and a lot more pleasant when at the end of the day, All of Y'all are just disabled welcome. We've been waiting for you exactly we we call underlying conditions getting a little off topic. We call underlying conditions specifically in the black and Brown community because it's been so hard to accept disability as another veteran with which people can. Discriminate against you and so I try not to pass judgment on black people who choose not to call themselves disabled, but we are all part of the same community. We need to be working together on this and that's part of one of the reasons why you need to vote this election because we want to bring us back, go ahead. Amani We want we want politicians that are in our court and listening to us and care about our communities. We don't want anybody to throw us to the Wolves again. Yeah. So if you're watching and you have a question right now for any of our guests, you can go ahead and put it in the comments and we will try and get it to get to it before we come to the end of our conversation. Okay my I'm gonna go back to you because let's say they you know the the people listening have heard Rebecca Michelle you me and they are ready for the turn up. They're like count me in coach right. what what would you say they could do to get involved? The first thing you need to do is start listening to the disabled people. so congratulations you've you've got to step one. there's so many others. There's so many diverse communities in the disability community that are just waiting to be heard waiting to have their perspectives because not every single disabled person keeps me with the experience of disability and the exact same way there are different vectors as it relates to race gender National origin all these different. The next thing you need to do is brush up on your election laws where you live up on who is your election officials where you live think about who you wanna be contacting get their names phone numbers put them in your phone. You should be texting them too. annoy them like you annoy anybody else stay in contact with them start listening to different organizations who are putting out alerts on different issues as a respects to the disability community and see what the community thinks about them not everything that is said for the disability community. Is good for us. Yeah and a lot of things we do not like so listen to our perspectives first and then make make your own judgment based on that. the next thing you should do is vote vote. educate yourself on the issues educate yourself on where disabled people need to be cared for and needs to be listened to and then listen to it and then vote on those issues vote for candidates that will reflect our needs or reflect our desires and reflect our goals because the one thing. I want disabled people not to no longer think about it's just struggle. Yeah. it's we also have goals. We also make goals. We also have employment goals. We also have dreams for the future and we want those to be the Legislature as well. Okay, real quick Please talk about the barriers a lot and there are a lot of barriers to voting for people with disabilities. We haven't solved those problems, but people with disabilities out there listening like I need you to seriously hashtag crip the vote. I need you out there. Yes, I don't care how inaccessible it is. There are people who fought and died and were beaten in jail for the right to vote. I need you to be that person on election day and I don't care what that barrier is I need. To roll your wheelchair through it and make it happen cuz the only way any of this is gonna change is if we take that power. so you said cry the vote hashtag Crypt the vote are there other organizations that people can get connected with if they're interested, you know, sometimes people don't know where to go, but it like it is your Organization. Can they go on your website and sign up where where can they find more information about this National Disability Rights Network is a great example where at. A National membership Association, so there are disability rights organizations. We have 57 members, they're in each of the 50 States. Disability rights, Pennsylvania might be one of them. They're the 50 States each of the five territories one in the District of Columbia and one in the Southwest that actually works with Native Americans with disabilities. So wherever you are, we have a member Organization. that's doing this work that wants you to vote that can help you to break down those barriers to get registered and to cast. If you go to N D R N dot Org, you can actually find a listing of them And D R N dot Org. Rebecca Do you have other organizations that you wanna guide people to definitely I would strongly suggest connect with the American Association of people with disabilities with their rev up campaign. They're having a network summit, June 20, -second and 20 -third Shout out to Maria Town, who's there amazing CEO and one of my White House sisters. the thing I would add which we haven't said anything yet is the manager candidates. Address disability and disability voting in their platforms. We had 12 candidates this year in the presidential race, create and submit disability policy platforms. Joe Biden, we're still waiting on you by the way any day now and you know, but we're but because of that demand one of the things that we've seen over the Center for American Progress is an increase in Senate and House members reaching out saying. Hey, I don't have a disability. What should my platform be around people with disabilities and can you look at my overall platform and tell me where I need to be making sure folks are plugging in so it's also not just about the process, but it's about the demand for attention. Alright, so we are like actually coming really close to time. this conversation went so fast cuz we turned up real real high. this was a great conversation. I like to end every talk because we talk about a lot of challenges we talk about you know the struggle and and they are real, but there are things I'm seeing. That inspire me and so I would love to hear from each of you and I'll start with you. What is giving you hope despite everything and all the challenges that we just discussed and we're we're seeing around the world. I love the disability community with all my heart Like I genuinely do and whenever we're in difficult times like this we rally together to really support one another. So that's one of the things that I am very, you know I feel very. From the disability community and I I just wanna love them back. another thing I do have to do a plug because I will be Emailed some people. email me if I don't I if you wanna learn more information about disability and voting, I did a five -part series on the intersection of disability and voting, and we addressed five different issues and five different barriers to voting and so I must plug that in order with dozens of disability advocates including Michelle to to kind of discuss the ways in which we can come together and kind of address these issues and give them a name cuz it's really it's a really. We name this issue and kinda call it out wherever we see it. absolutely Michelle what's giving you hope these days. I think it's the same thing that always does. I talk with a lot of voters with disabilities and hear their stories and they're amazing. I know people personally who started voting when they turn 18. Who for the first time they voted privately and independently they were in their sixties or seventies the first time they had a truly secret ballot and to see someone talk about that and cry because it meant that much to them is very powerful to work with people with disability. Who had a guardian who wouldn't let them vote and help them advocate and get their right to vote back because you can you can and our network will help you go before a judge and do it so that they can cast their ballots for the first time to see what that means to people. how powerful that is a group of people who don't want to go back to being institutionalized. Our vote is everything so to see how much it means to some of those individual voters who have fought for it. That just gets you out of bed in the morning. Yeah Rebeca I'm. You the last word, what is giving you hope these days, Legos and wine now totally kidding so I'm the kind of but not really. yeah. I'm not next time. We're doing this with wine. I'm just like. Oh what gives me hope is I've been doing this. I mean I'm 42 and I've been doing this since I was 18. I grew up doing this work. My parents worked as disability rights activists and to see us go from candidates that never talked to us to. Candidates that would come out with a disability plan just a couple of months from the convention to 12 candidates this year, dropping disability platforms and engaging directly with the community even counting, Marion Williamson and Andrew Yay. God bless them both but to actually see candidates change and so we saw candidates we saw numerous candidates screw things up. We saw candidates not include us in a platform We saw candidates use BS terminology for us and we pushed. And they changed they changed instantly they change and ask for help And while a lot of other civil rights communities might be used to that level of engagement, we never have been and so to actually see people in positions of assumed power check themselves and understand that our votes have power our voices have value and that we not just deserve but we demand a seat at their table is a game changer. Yeah, well, 25 weeks until the election, we had a lot of work to do. we gotta make sure voting is safe, fair and accessible for all people and we need you so you can go to nella Vote dot org. Sign up. Join us in our efforts I wanna thank Rebecca Michelle and Amani for turning up with me this Tuesday proud to be with you in this this effort. Thank you everyone and have a good night night. Good morning.