Disability Organizations Outraged by McCain-Palin Rally Attacks on
“the Disabled.”
ADAWatch.org
National Coalition for Disability Rights
1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006
202-448-9928 – [email protected]
NEWS RELEASE
October 31, 2008
Disability Rights Organizations Express Outrage Over Attacks at
McCain-Palin Rally
Contacts:
Jim Ward, Founder and President
202-415-4753 or [email protected]
Marcie Roth, Executive Director
301-717-7447 or [email protected]
(Washington, DC) The National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR)
pushed back today against the McCain-Palin campaign for ridiculing the
legal rights of people with disabilities. News reports describe
McCain-Palin campaign representative Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo), joining
Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin at a rally in Rush Limbaugh’s
hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, mocking Presidential candidate
Senator Barak Obama for stating that he’s looking to nominate judges
who empathize with “the disabled.”
“It’s Halloween and it seems that Sarah Palin’s mask of support for
people with “special needs” is slipping. Despite past pandering to
people with disabilities, McCain-Palin are actually opposed to vital
disability legislation like the Community Choice Act and they want to
appoint judges who will further roll back the civil rights protections
of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” declared NCDR’s founder and
president, Jim Ward.
NPR’s Nina Totenberg has reported that McCain-Palin’s and
conservatives’ “most oft-mentioned prospects” for nomination to the
Supreme Court include Ohio Judge Jeffrey Sutton. Sutton was opposed by
hundreds of disability organizations when he was nominated by
President Bush after successfully weakening the ADA with states’
rights arguments. As a sitting judge, he has recently supported the
execution of criminals with developmental disabilities and has
undermined the Help America Vote Act(HAVA).
Disability rights advocates are further incensed that the
McCain-Palin campaign has reframed this civil rights struggle, one
founded in concepts of equality, dignity and self-respect, as an issue
of “special needs.”
Disability rights advocate, Steve Gold states, “Yes we need support
services. Yes we need inclusive education. Yes we need integrated
employment. Yes we need equal rights. This not “special”. These needs
are based on us, people with disabilities, equal members of our
communities. We are not inspirational nor are we “special”. We are
PROUD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES who should push back when anyone
describes us as anything but equal members of our communities.”
The National Coalition for Disability Rights is a nonpartisan
nonprofit that does not endorse political candidates. We are a
coalition of national, state and local disability, civil rights and
social justice organizations united to protect and promote the human
rights of children and adults with physical and mental disabilities.
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