http://goo.gl/hLlqGu
Yet with election day dawning, access to that very right will be denied at polling places across the nation. Many disabled people are still disenfranchised by default, many polling places remain inaccessible despite the Americans with Disabilities Act, and turnout for disabled people generally trails the general population by around 20 percentage points.
Though people with different disabilities face different problems, they tend to all come together around this issue. "I have seen my blind friends saying, 'If this law affects people with wheelchairs, I won't vote for the person supporting that,'" says Stephanie Woodward, Director of Advocacy at the Center for Disability Rights. "I see people with disabilities who aren't affected by an issue who still vote in support of others." That bloc-like thinking is, disability advocates argue, the only way to fight for access at the polls.
"When you take away our access to vote, it's a bigger slap in the face than anything else," Woodward says. "The only population that can genuinely be denied access to vote is the disabled population."