U. professors report on barriers voters with disabilities face
The directors of the Program for Disability Research in the School of Management and Labor Relations issued a study about the projected number of eligible voters with disabilities in the 2024 election, as previously reported by The Daily Targum.
Published by Lisa Schur, a professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, and Douglas Kruse, a distinguished professor in the Departments of Human Resource Management and Labor Studies and Employment Relations, the report is about the 40.2 million disabled voters eligible to participate in the 2024 election and the significance of the high rates of these voters in the South and the battleground states.
Kruse told the Targum that the significant growth of eligible disabled voters for this election could be attributed to the aging of the population, especially with those who have Long COVID — a chronic and long-lasting condition resulting from the same virus that causes COVID-19.
Schur said that historically, people with disabilities have been less likely to vote due to the lack of accessibility regarding polling systems, with barriers arising from filling out a mail-in ballot or getting past the stairs to enter the polling location.
"That's something that we've been working on to try and improve for many, many years, and we're glad to see some progress in that area," she said.
Kruse said that people with disabilities face three times as much struggle in voting than people without disabilities due to factors such as social isolation and transportation.
"Some people might argue, 'well, maybe people with disabilities are less interested in the issues and they're less engaged,' and studies have found that's not true," she said. "People with disabilities are at least as interested in elections and political issues as people without disabilities … but they face a variety of barriers."
Kruse also said that he and Schur used national surveys and data collection from the U.S. Census Bureau for their research. He said that he analyzed the data with Schur in order to understand the voting gap between those with disabilities and those without.
Schur said that they also created focus groups to evaluate the intersectional experiences of people with disabilities who have voted, those who have not voted and more.
Kruse said that there is evidence that people with disabilities have similar partisan preferences to those without disabilities and suggested that both Republicans and Democrats should try to make voting more accessible.
Schur said that people with disabilities are paying attention to discussions surrounding health care and social security ahead of the election.
"So these are issues that may very well motivate more people with disabilities to get out there despite the barriers and cast their votes this election," she said.
Looking at the past two presidential elections, Kruse said that in 2016, the gap between the voting turnout between people with disabilities and those without disabilities was 6.3 percent. In 2020, it was 5.7 percent.
"I would expect that the gap would narrow a bit this year as well, especially because we’ve seen continued progress in building accessibility," he said.
Schur said that it is essential for campaigns to be accessible, incorporating interpreters for the deaf, closed captioning in their advertisements and plain language. She added that politicians should listen to disability organizations and disabled voters' opinions about American policies.
Kruse said that he would like the Rutgers community to have the same expectations and rhetoric for those who have disabilities compared to those without disabilities. Schur said that she wants Rutgers students to continue to lower the stigma around disabilities and continue to support the disabled community.
"I find that a very, very encouraging sign that there's more inclusivity about disabilities on campus," she said. "We have a ways to go … but I feel like there has been progress at Rutgers, and I hope to see that continue."
