Month: August 2016

Washington, Aug. 30 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization working to empower people with disabilities to achieve the American dream, has asked Senate candidates on both sides of the aisle to fill out a questionnaire on disability issues. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat seeking the open U.S. Senate seat representing Maryland, has completed the #PwDsVote Disability Campaign Questionnaire for Senate and Gubernatorial Candidates for people with disabilities.

RespectAbility is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates. The questionnaire is purely for educational purposes.

There are 321,409 Marylanders with disabilities who are between the ages of 18-64. Additionally, there are 22,000 Marylanders ages 16-20 with disabilities. More than 90,000 Maryland students have individual education plans (IEPs). However, many Marylanders with disabilities have not yet received a disability diagnosis they need, and thus are not yet receiving the school accommodations and supports that they need to succeed. Many students who might need support to succeed academically instead find themselves trapped into a lifetime of poverty or flowing down the school to prison pipeline.

Washington, Aug. 30 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization working to empower people with disabilities to achieve the American dream, has asked Senate candidates on both sides of the aisle to fill out a questionnaire on disability issues. Democratic hopeful Foster Campbell is one of three candidates for U.S. Senate in Louisiana to have completed the #PwDsVote Disability Campaign Questionnaire for Senate and Gubernatorial Candidates for people with disabilities so far.

RespectAbility is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates. The questionnaire is purely for educational purposes.

Campbell, who lost the sight in one of his eyes many years ago, says he “faces challenges and opportunities based on my own disabilities.”

Washington, Aug. 30 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization working to empower people with disabilities to achieve the American dream, has asked Senate candidates on both sides of the aisle to fill out a questionnaire on disability issues. Democratic hopeful Caroline Fayard is one of three candidates for U.S. Senate in Louisiana to have completed the #PwDsVote Disability Campaign Questionnaire for Senate and Gubernatorial Candidates for people with disabilities so far.

RespectAbility is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates. The questionnaire is purely for educational purposes.

Only 31 percent of Louisiana’s 366,000 working-age people with disabilities are employed. This lack of opportunity creates poverty, powerlessness and even can increase the likelihood of developing a mental health condition.

Washington, Aug. 30 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization working to empower people with disabilities to achieve the American dream, has asked Senate candidates on both sides of the aisle to fill out a questionnaire on disability issues. Republican hopeful Abhay Patel is one of three candidates for U.S. Senate in Louisiana to have completed the #PwDsVote Disability Campaign Questionnaire for Senate and Gubernatorial Candidates for people with disabilities so far.

RespectAbility is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates. The questionnaire is purely for educational purposes.

Patel is an individual with a disability.

“Having lived and succeeded with a disability since my teens, I filter every issue through the framework of living with a disability,” Patel responded in his answer to the first question.

Washington, Aug. 30 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization working to empower people with disabilities to achieve the American dream, has asked Senate candidates on both sides of the aisle to fill out a questionnaire on disability issues. Democratic Senate hopeful Katie McGinty of Pennsylvania has completed the #PwDsVote Disability Campaign Questionnaire for Senate and Gubernatorial Candidates for people with disabilities.

RespectAbility is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates. The questionnaire is purely for educational purposes.

There are 1,689,123 Pennsylvanians with disabilities, 831,700 of whom are between the ages of 21-64. There are an additional 59,000 people with disabilities between the ages of 16-20, many of whom are looking to enter the workforce. Pennsylvania’s Governor, Tom Wolf, recently issued an extremely positive executive order to expand job opportunities for people with disabilities.

But Pennsylvania ranks just 31st in the percent of people with disabilities employed (34.5 percent). Furthermore, these statistics include those employed in sheltered workshops and/or only working part time. View the rankings of all 50 states and compare.

Washington, Aug. 30 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization working to empower people with disabilities to achieve the American dream, has asked Senate candidates on both sides of the aisle to fill out a questionnaire on disability issues. Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat who is running for his old Senate seat, has completed the #PwDsVote Disability Campaign Questionnaire for Senate and Gubernatorial Candidates for people with disabilities.

RespectAbility is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates. The questionnaire is purely for educational purposes.

These issues are important for the fully one-out-of-five voters who have a disability, and 52 percent of likely voters have a loved one with a disability.  Only 34 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities have jobs, despite the fact that the vast majority want to work. More than 11 million working age people with disabilities are now living on government benefits in our country.

Wisconsin’s 39.8 percent labor force participation rate (LFPR) for people with disabilities is well above the national average of 30 percent. However, states like North and South Dakota have both achieved a 50 percent LFPR level for people with disabilities. View the rankings of all 50 states and compare.

Washington, Aug. 29 – As voters in Florida head to the polls for their state’s primary day for U.S. Senate tomorrow, RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization working to empower people with disabilities to achieve the American dream, asked all candidates for Florida’s senate seat on both sides of the aisle to complete questionnaire on disability issues. While none of the primary candidates submitted answers to the questions, Republican hopeful Dwight Young shared a letter about his personal experience in connection to disability.

RespectAbility is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates. The questionnaire is purely for educational purposes.

Following the conclusion of the primaries, RespectAbility will continue to seek responses from the victorious candidates and publish those responses when they are received.

We are presenting Young’s response in full below.