For Immediate Release: September 19, 2023
Contact: Jess Davidson, jdavidson@aapd.com
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) released an electoral candidate survey ahead of the second Republican debate.
Voters with disabilities deserve to make informed decisions on the issues that matter to them, and through the 2024 Disability Presidential Candidate Survey, AAPD will gather candidates’ positions and priorities on issues important to the disability community. The candidate questionnaire is non-partisan, and was sent today to Republican, Democrat, and third-party candidates. Unedited candidate responses will be made public as they are received and shared with AAPD’s network and the broader disability community.
The survey was written with the help of AAPD’s REV UP Presidential Engagement Committee, which is comprised of disability advocates from across the country. REV UP stands for Register, Educate, Vote, Use your Power and is a coalition of national, state, and local disabled leaders working together to build the power of the disability vote.
With the candidate survey, AAPD hopes to increase the visibility and importance of disability issues within candidate platforms. Voter turnout has been surging among citizens with disabilities, with a 5.9% point increase in 2020 in comparison to the 2016 elections, and as accessible forms of voting are stripped back, the disabled community is more tuned in than ever before.
According to Maria Town, President & CEO:
“AAPD is proud to engage both Presidential candidates to build a democratic process that is inclusive and accessible for everyone. From advocating for captioning at Presidential debates, to ensuring our community understands the positions of our Presidential candidates, we will continue to work for equal opportunities to engage in a system that has purposefully left out far too many people. We look forward to this process and engaging with those who are ready to make meaningful change.”
The full Candidate Survey is available HERE.
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