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Independent Living News & Policy from the National Council on Independent Living

Organizers Forum: Disability and Running for Office

Although one in six voters has a disability, we are underrepresented and under-recognized as political candidates and public servants. This call will talk about the importance of running for and serving in public office as a person with a disability, the challenges and opportunities that people with disabilities (especially those who are multiply marginalized) face in campaigns, and the work being done to increase resources to train disabled leaders to run for office. 

Speakers: 

  • Congressman James Langevin (tentative) represents Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District.
  • Thida Cornes was the first openly disabled candidate to run for Mountain View, California City Council and serves on the Mountain View Environmental Sustainability Task Force.
  • Reyma McDeid is currently running for Iowa House District 38 and is the Executive Director of Central Iowa Center for Independent Living.
  • Sarah Blahovec is the Disability Vote Organizer for the National Council on Independent Living.

Accommodations & CART:

  • The call will have real-time captioning (CART) at: https://2020archive.1capapp.com/event/forum/.
  • No username and password needed, when you log on at the time of the call.
  • To ask questions via CART: Sign-in to the chat function on the right side of the transcript and type your question. One of the call facilitators will read questions posted there.
  • Because we want to maximize the generously donated CART services, we will begin the call promptly at 1:00 p.m. and end the call promptly at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
  • Thank you to the National Disability Leadership Alliance for sponsoring the captioning of this call.
  • If you need additional accommodations to participate in the call, please let us know as soon as possible.

Mark your calendars! The Organizer’s Forum has a call on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, 1:00-2:00 p.m. Eastern.

Background:

The Organizing Workgroup of the National Disability Leadership Alliance hosts these calls the third Tuesday of every month as a resource for disability organizers, in an effort toward building the organizing capacity of the disability community across the country. They generally follow the format of a Welcome followed by 2-3 experts in a given area speaking for a few minutes on their experiences, advice and challenges. The calls include a 20-30 minute question and answer period.