Longmore: Palin talks about ’special needs children,’ but …
October 5th, 2008… Obama has substantive plans for all people with disabilities
Writing in huffingtonpost.com, Paul K. Longmore says presidential campaign coverage has included a lot of talk about “special needs” children, thanks to Sarah Palin, but little about the issues that concern the 54 million Americans with disabilities of all ages.
Longmore compares the stances of the McCain-Palin ticket and the Obama-Biden ticket on healthcare, health insurance and social services for people with disabilities. An excerpt:
Even though 90 percent of the 54 million Americans with disabilities are adults, Palin, John McCain, and the news media have talked almost exclusively about children. And that talk has been mostly about “compassion” not “issues.” The McCain-Palin campaign website has a single page on “Americans with Disabilities for McCain,” but it says nothing about policy positions. Other pages mention autism and disabled veterans but no other issues.
In contrast, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have said little on the campaign trail about disability issues but their campaign website provides detailed policy proposals in a comprehensive “Plan to Empower Americans with Disabilities.”
Paul K. Longmore is a professor of history and director, Institute on Disability, at San Francisco State University. His “Open letter to the disability rights constituency” appeared exclusively on this site last month.
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October 8th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I am fortunate to be one of the disabled adults with a job. A job made possible by the use of adaptive equipment. In reviewing both candidate’s websites regarding disabilities and work I find that the Obama/Biden platform is supportive of providing what I need to keep working while if I understand the McCain/Palin position I am at risk of losing support for the necessary adaptive equipment and once I lose my job because of lack of equipment my ability to receive disability payments will also be reduced. As a tax paying, voting employed citizen I plan to vote for the ticket that will keep me employed and paying taxes.