Chair              Mary McGee
Vice Chair       Carol Porch

ADAAG Check List

Help the party better serve the disabled community by taking the

DISABLED VOTERS’ SURVEY. 

 

 

The Iowa Democratic Party is a strong organization, but we all want to make it stronger!  The Disabled Voters' Committee, working with the Chair of the Disability Caucus of the State Central Committee, wishes to offer you a resource which can help make your County Party stronger by raising your awareness regarding the needs of disabled voters who participate in your events.  Since one-fifth of Iowa's voting-age population has some form of disability, and they tend to vote Democratic on the issues, it's important for the Democratic Party to fully include them.

We have an interactive Disability Simulation Show, which we will voluntarily present in your county upon request.  The presentation simulates the experiences of various disabilities while doing things that participants are likely to do at Democratic activities.  It is an educational program and is anything but boring!  It will help you to realize why accessibility issues are so important at precinct caucuses, rallies, conventions, and other events.  Remember, happy participants will be repeat participants!  

This program is staffed entirely by volunteers from the Disabled Voters’ Committee.  While the program itself is free, the committee does ask that your county organization reimburse the trainers for mileage at the state rate of 34 cents per mile, round trip from Des Moines.

If you wish to have this presentation in your county, please contact Lia Brown or Jesus Estrada at the Iowa Democratic Party Headquarters, 515-244-7292.

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THE EPIDEMIC

 

By Deborah A. Caldbeck

 

As disabled people, there is something we are either afraid or ashamed to admit to others, ourselves and politicians.  Over the past decade, unemployment among us has grown to epidemic proportions.  We are summarily dismissed from our employment, or not even hired, by veiled discrimination due to no fault of our own.  Many times, before and during the dismissal process, the agencies created by law to assist us are nowhere around to help us plead our case.  After dismissal we turn to these agencies to assist us in seeking new employment.  In rare instances, we get satisfaction from these agencies. However, it is more likely we find people who are not qualified to assist us in our job search; lacking knowledge as to what accommodations, if any, are necessary; or, for various reasons, refusal of these agencies to provide these accommodations. 

 

One of two things can happen next:  we either settle for a job we don’t like, or the agency plays a game called, “Blame the Victim”.  This game leads some of us to sever our relationship with the agency and we may never work again.  We should not be satisfied with either of these outcomes because we have as much right to work, earn money and pay taxes like everyone else.    

 

What can we do?  As law-abiding citizens, we should not be afraid or ashamed to speak about our broken rehabilitation system or employment discrimination.  As long as we speak out as law-abiding citizens, we cannot lose our disability benefits.  The laws providing us with equal employment opportunities and good rehabilitation services are on the books but are not being enforced.  Consumer organizations of people who have disabilities must be more than a coffee clutch!   They must represent the ideals and needs of all disabled people and they must ACT on those ideals. 

 

What can we do?  Join together!  I am a member of the Disabled Voters Committee, which is part of the Disability Caucus of the Iowa Democratic Party.  Let’s use this committee as a forum to propose to Iowa’s Congressional Delegation, and local officials how the rehabilitation system and employment discrimination laws need to be modified and enforced.   I hope is to start a grassroots movement with the Iowa Disability Caucus and keep it going nationwide, so that someday we can proudly support ourselves and there will be no need for the agencies or disability benefits.