Disabled Americans

Persons with disabilities need help so that they won’t need help. That one’s a little tricky and chances are, if you’re not a person with a disability, it will take you a moment to understand. There is a question of equality here, that, like the civil rights movement, begs the question of why we actually need to legislate for equality when it is something that we should be doing by habit already. Easy access, proper facilities and equality in the workplace are just a tiny portion of the challenges faced the disabled everyday in America. If we’re truly like Reagan’s “shining city on the hill”, there shouldn’t be an issue of “when” we’ll have equality, but why we don’t have it already. With the example of groups like the AAPD, I will support the full implementation and enforcement of disability nondiscrimination laws, particularly the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. I will help find ways to fund programs that will help to enhance ”the lives of people with disabilities, including programs to reduce poverty and unemployment, to assure that every disabled person has the right to his or her own living arrangement, and to assure that every child or adult with a disability has access to and funding for assistive technology.” I will help to “educate the public and government policy makers regarding issues affecting people with disabilities”