A full transcript of the video above is included at the end of this piece for those who may be hearing impaired.
People living with disabilities are typically left out of the political conversation during elections, but one social campaign is hoping to get candidates talking about disability issues in the U.S.
#CripTheVote is a nonpartisan campaign that was started on Twitter to both engage voters with disabilities and encourage politicians to have a national conversation about disability rights.
People with disabilities are the world’s largest minority. Steve Way, a comedian and motivational speaker says, “I think if they really want to win over all of America, they need to address all of America.”
Past elections engaged the disability community. President Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008 and former President George H.W. Bush’s campaign in 1988 actively engaged the disability community. Both men won their elections.
Watch the video above. Full transcript of the video can be found below.
TEXT: PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ARE THE WORLD’S LARGEST MINORITY
TEXT: AND THEY’RE RAISING THEIR VOICES ON TWITTER
Alice Wong, Co-Founder, #CripTheVote:
"#CripTheVote is a nonpartisan campaign to engage both voters with disabilities and politicians about disability issues in the United States."
TEXT: USING THE #CripTheVote HASHTAG, THEY’RE STARTING A MOVEMENT TO BRING DISABILITY RIGHTS INTO THE NATIONAL CONVERSATION
Gregg Baratan, Co-Founder, #CripTheVote:
"It came about because a lot of us within the disability community were seeing this election pass before our eyes and no one was mentioning us. Even in relation to issues that had a major impact on our lives."
Andrew Pulrang, Co-Founder, #CripTheVote:
"A few of them do a bit more on their own already, and some people don't even do that. We're hoping to get them to be more specific and take real stands on actual votable issues."
TEXT: ISSUES LIKE:
EDUCATION
HOUSING
UNEMPLOYMENT
Alice Wong, Co-Founder, #CripTheVote:
"As a group, people with disabilities aren’t exactly dripping in money and power and those are key ingredients to getting attention from candidates."
Steve Way, Comedian and Motivational Speaker:
"So I think if they really want to represent all of America I think they need to address all of America."
Gregg Baratan, Co-Founder, #CripTheVote:
"Other campaigns in the past have engaged the disability community. If you look at the Obama campaign in 2008, if you look at the Bush campaign in 1988, these were campaigns that actively sought out the disability community, and actively tried to engage them, and if you look, they both won."
TEXT: #CRIPTHEVOTE AIMS TO BROADEN THE PUBLIC’S UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE DISABLED
Alice Wong, Co-Founder, #CripTheVote:
"The majority of people with disabilities, have invisible disabilities. There are people with mental illness, people with learning disabilities."
Jason Harris, Founder, Jason’s Connection:
"People, they sort of medicalize and we forget that there’s people behind these and there’s wants and needs."
Emily Ladau, Disability Rights Activist:
"I'd like to see more initiatives focusing on complete integration and inclusion of disabled people in the community and I think that this election is a really great place to start."
Alice Wong, Co-Founder, #CripTheVote:
"For me, being a disabled person is a political identity. It’s more than just my diagnosis and what I can’t do."
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