Syracuse, N.Y. -- Voter turnout among people with disabilities remains low 22 years after the passage of federal legislation designed to put them into the mainstream of U.S. society, according to a study co-authored by a Syracuse University researcher.
The study by Meera Adya, director of research at SU's Burton Blatt Institute, and Lisa Schur, a professor at Rutgers University, found voter turnout for people with disabilities is about 11 percent lower than it is for people without disabilities.
“Fully closing the disability gap would have led to 3 million more voters in 2008 and 3.2 million more voters in 2010, potentially affecting many races and subsequent public policies,” the study says.
The study also found political views of people with disabilities are similar to other voters and they are no more likely to be Democrats than Republicans.
The study is based on U.S. Census data, the 2006 General Social Survey and the 2007 Maxwell Poll on Citizenship and Inequality. The study was published in Social Science Quarterly.
The American with Disabilities Act of 1990 was designed in part to remove barriers that prevent the disabled from participating in society. That has not happened at the voting booth, according to the study.
“... they are not yet equal participants in the American political system, raising concerns that they remain marginalized and their interest are often neglected by politicians and elected officials,” the study says.
Barriers getting to or using polling places is one of several factors that contribute to low voter turnout among the disabled, according to the study. A 2009 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found 73 percent of polling places had potential impediments affecting access by the disabled.
“Such lack of accessibility directly hinders voting and also sends a negative message that people with disabilities are not expected to participate,” the Adya and Schur wrote in their study.
Barriers for people with disabilities also exist in the absentee voting process that often use complicated ballots difficult for people with visual or cognitive impairments to read and understand, and ballots difficult for people with fine motor impairments to fill out.
Improvements in education, employment and social inclusion will increase voter turnout, according to the study. “Continued efforts to increase social inclusion of people with disabilities in their communities, such as through more accessible public transportation and support for independent living, will expand their social networks and increase their information and recruitment for political activities,” the study says.
People who are deaf or have hearing impediments are the only disability group that did not have lower voter turnout than the rest of the population in 2008 or 2010, the study found. The authors said this may be because people with hearing problems do not face as much social discomfort, stigma and marginalization as people with other disabilities.
While people with disabilities don’t disproportionately support either of the major political parties, they do tend to have a different view of the role of government than most other voters, according to the study.
The study found they are less likely to support decreased government regulation of business and more likely to favor increased spending on health care.