McCAIN SPEAKS LIVE

Campaigners Participate in Nat’l Forum

Espa6nol

Login to AbleNews
Online Edition

To Advertise
Call Us At
516-939-2253

By Josette Coppola

The 2008 National Forum on Disability Issues in Columbus, Ohio showcased an exchange of ideas among disability advocates, media notables, and political leaders that included Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Thomas Harkin (D-Iowa).

Held on July 26 to coincide with the 18th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, the event drew a large crowd to the First Church of God and reached audiences virtually via live webcast.

As the forum’s hosts, the Ohio Disability Vote Coalition and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) joined Ohio House of Representatives Speaker Jon Husted and 70 sponsors in promoting the theme, “Feel the Power of the Disability Vote.”

Timothy Harrington, executive director of the Ability Center of Greater Toledo, and Andrew Imparato, president and CEO of AAPD, urged the 35 million potential voters with disabilities to become more involved in the legislative process.

The political system has historically ignored people with disabilities, and actor Robert David Hall spoke about a similar lack of representation within the entertainment world. Hall is an amputee who incorporates his real-life disability into his TV-screen role as Dr. Al Robbins on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” but such realism is rare. The performer reported that although people with disabilities constitute 20 percent of the population, a recent UCLA/Screen Actors Guild study found that characters with disabilities spoke only 0.5 percent of all words heard on television.

Hall cited the “invisibility of people with disabilities in the arts and media” as a major factor in the limited progress of the disability rights movement.

Judy Woodruff, anchor of PBS’ “News Hour with Jim Lehrer,” moderated a panel discussion among John Hanna, vice president of the Arc of Ohio; Rebecca Hare, project coordinator for the National Consortium on Leadership and Disability for Youth; Paul Tobin, president and CEO of the United Spinal Association; and Cynthia Owens of the Oregon Council on Developmental Disabilities.

Panelists recognized how far people with disabilities have come but emphasized that there was still much farther to go. “I think now, because of the ADA and the IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act], that the American Dream is available. It’s just not ADA-compliant yet,” said Hare.

Issues cited as crucial to realizing that dream, included improved services for veterans, many of whom suffer from polytrauma (multiple traumatic injuries or disorders), and the Community Choice Act (CCA), aimed at eliminating the institutional bias that forces people out of their homes for long-term care.

Harkin spoke on behalf of the Obama presidential campaign and pledged his party’s support for these measures, declaring, “Barack Obama sees this as a bedrock matter of human rights.”

He acknowledged that implementing the CCA would cost $3.5-4 billion a year, but reminded his audience that the United States now spends $10 billion a month on the Iraq War.

Harkin outlined other strategies for empowering people with disabilities, who currently have a 60 percent unemployment rate and a system that discourages independence by imposing financial and healthcare limitations on those who secure employment. He maintained that by incentivizing employment efforts, providing universal healthcare coverage, enforcing visitability standards and increasing treatment options, the government would encourage economic self-sufficiency and independent living. “We have opened the doors of opportunity, but now we have to go through them,” he advised.

The senator presented a long list of conditions once considered as disabilities but no longer protected by the ADA because of judicial rulings that have eroded the legislation’s original intent. Attributing these exclusionary decisions to the activist conservative majority on the Supreme Court, he explained that the upcoming election affected, not only a president, but also a Supreme Court, as his party would appoint pro-disability justices.

Addressing the forum remotely from Cottonwood, Arizona, McCain rejected Harkin’s criticism, insisting that the Supreme Court was not to blame for the steady weakening of ADA protections. He said that the legislation itself was at fault, as it was not strong enough or specific enough.

“Let’s go back and see how we wrote the law and see if we can fix it,” he said, “but let’s not blame the courts for our work not being what it should be.”

McCain disclosed his stance on future legislation, including his support of the Money Follows the Person initiative. He emphasized that people with disabilities deserve to shape their own lives but withheld support for the CCA because its high cost was more than an overburdened budget could bear.

To remedy huge deficits, McCain proposed, the government must eliminate wasteful spending for unnecessary research studies or pork-barrel interests and instead put people’s needs first. He underscored the urgency of addressing fiscal woes such as the Social Security situation and recommended, “We must sit down together and admit Social Security is going broke and benefits won’t be there.”

Darren Jernigan of the Tennessee Disability Coalition echoed the event’s theme by calling for a greater personal investment in the election process.

After sharing what he learned as a councilmember about the power of every vote, he stressed the need for a united effort and summarized the message of the day with, “It’s time for us to flex our muscle.”