#CripTheVote: Twitter Chats on Disability Policy 3/9 & 3/10

#CripTheVote: Our Voices, Our Vote

Americans with Disabilities and Political Participation

Hosted by Andrew Pulrang, Gregg Beratan, and Alice Wong, the two chats this March will focus on the preliminary results from our online disability policy survey from 268 participants.  

Democratic Debate         March 9, 2016, 8 pm Eastern

Republican Debate         March 10, 2016, 8 pm Eastern

On March 9th, we will discuss the top 5 disability policy areas ranked by participants. On March 10th, we will discuss the top 5 disability policy ideas that participants care about most. These preliminary results are from 268 participants who completed the survey from February until March 6, 2016. For more detailed results from the survey, go to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-VYKHSXWW/

Based on user feedback, we will be posting the questions for both chats in advance so people can have time to prepare.

March 9: Twitter Chat Questions

Q1 Top policy area is Health Care. Why? What specific health care issues should candidates know about PWDs? #CripTheVote #DemDebate

Q2  Policy area #2 is Civil Rights/Discrimination. What are most urgent examples of this that debates have ignored? #CripTheVote #DemDebate

Q3 Policy area #3 is Employment. How should candidates address employment issues & PWDs? #CripTheVote #deadbeat

Q4 Policy area #4 is Accessibility. Why is it important to you? What changes would you like to see? #CripTheVote #DemDebate

Q5 Policy area #5 is Housing. How does housing affordability & availability impact PWDs differently? #CripTheVote #deadbeat

Q6 What are your thoughts about the top 5 policy areas selected by 268 participants? What’s missing? #CripTheVote #DemDebate

Q7 Do you have any ideas on ways to convey the importance of these disability policy areas to all the candidates? #CripTheVote #DemDebate

Q8 How do these disability issues impact disabled ppl from diverse communities (ex: women, ppl of color, LGBTQ)? #CripTheVote #deadbeat

Q9 When looking at candidates, are you focused on 1 issue or a several? What’s the danger of single-issue voting? #CripTheVote #DemDebate

Q10 Our survey attempts prioritize the issues, is this useful or do we need to push on all the issues equally? #CripTheVote #DemDebate

Q11 When a candidate says something ableist, how can we respond as a community saying it’s unacceptable? #CripTheVote

March 10: Twitter Chat Questions

Q1 Top idea: Hire and appoint more disabled people to government and policy-making positions (55%) Thoughts? #CripTheVote #GOPdebate

Q2 Idea #2: Ban or phase out payment of sub-minimum wage (49%). Thoughts? #CripTheVote #GOP debate

Q3 Idea #3: Require disability awareness training for law enforcement (48%). Thoughts? #CripTheVote #GOPdebate

Q4 Idea #4: Pass the Disability Integration Act, independent living instead of nursing homes (47%). Thoughts? #CripTheVote #GOPdebate

Q5 Idea #5: Change Social Security to reduce or eliminate work disincentives (43%). Thoughts? #CripTheVote #GOP debate

Q6 Which of the top 5 proposals “seem easiest to get done” by the govt? #CripTheVote #GOPdebate

Q7 Do you have any ideas on ways to convey the importance of these disability policy areas to all the candidates? #CripTheVote #GOPdebate

Q8 How do these disability issues impact disabled ppl from diverse communities (ex: women, ppl of color, LGBTQ)? #CripTheVote #GOPdebate

Q9 When looking at candidates, are you focused on 1 issue or a several? What’s the danger of single-issue voting? #CripTheVote #GOPdebate

Q10 As a voter, what can you do if the candidates aren’t speaking your issues and interests? #CripTheVote #GOPdebate

Q11 When a candidate says something ableist, how can we respond as a community saying it’s unacceptable? #CripTheVote #GOPdebate

How to Participate

When the debate begins, check out the live-stream: http://twubs.com/CripTheVote or search #CripTheVote on Twitter for the series live tweets.

Follow @AndrewPulrang @DisVisibility @GreggBeratan on Twitter

Use the hashtags #CripTheVote and #DemDebate or #GOPdebate when you tweet

Check out this explanation of how to participate in a chat by Ruti Regan: https://storify.com/RutiRegan/examplechat

Additional information on voting and people with disabilities:

http://disabilitythinking.com/election-2016-cripthevote

#CripTheVote Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/CripTheVote/

A note on language and why we use the term ‘crip’

https://www.wright.edu/event/sex-disability-conference/crip-theory

#CripTheVote Disability Issues Survey

It’s not too late! Please participate and tell us what issues and ideas you care about most. We will discuss the results of the survey during our two March Twitter chats. Deadline: April 30, 2016.

Click here to complete the online survey. If you are unable to complete the online version of the survey, you can follow this link to a text-only version, or request a Word document by email from apulrang@icloud.com. Using this method, results won’t be anonymous, but we won’t be reporting or discussing individual responses, only aggregate results.

About

#CripTheVote is a nonpartisan campaign to engage both voters and politicians in a productive discussion about disability issues in the United States, with the hope that Disability takes on greater prominence within the American political landscape.

While #CripTheVote is a nonpartisan project, we understand that many people have already developed preferences for particular candidates. This is great–we only ask that everyone is respectful in their interactions with each other. Our primary focus here is on increasing engagement with disability issues as a part of American politics and on the need for that we are all in agreement!
Please note we do not represent the entire disability community nor would we ever claim to do so. There are many ways to create social change and engaging in conversation is one approach.