doubly especially true during a presidential campaign in which every issue, of course, under the sun competing for attention. which ones get the most attention? those that are most controversial. people with disabilities, as an in this campaign, for example, when donald trump insulted a new york times reporter with disabilities. made fun of him, like a school yard bully. it was almost an editorial cartoon of this campaign. the media jumped on it, because it said so much issue, that you've got one candidate who makes fun of onele with disabilities and who does not. you could hardly be more clear. then you've got other issues where i wish people with disabilities as an issue came forth, like, for example, black biggesttter, one of the controversies going on these days. related to crime and law

and police behavior incarceration epidemic. how much of our incarcerated population has disabilities? we recently did a study on it. jail, 32% ofple in people in prison. we're talking 150,000 people who deaf or hard-of-hearing and we have 150,000 who are blind or vision-impaired, 500,000 with cognitive impairments that are incarcerated today. >> very good. and i thank my journalist for anythingause if i knew about numbers, i would have stayed in engineering school. it is true that t.v. in pictures, hates numbers. so this is one big impediment to intong serious issues debate, if they do involve a lot of numbers. but if you've got a lot of narratives, this is what makes news. this is what gets media attention and public attention, everybody loves stories. you know, not many of us can

10 commandments but everybody knows where the 10 commandments came from. knows that story of moses and the children of israel, et cetera. is,'s what the bible stories. that's what journalism, effective journalism is, it's stories. you have a race in we have well, wonderful -- well, one key i'verence this year that noticed, between the parties, look at the conventions. convention spotlighted people with disabilities? which had people with disabilities speaking out on stage and highlighting these issues? it was the democrats. so that was a defining issue, to me, in this election. wayt's like this is the disability issues come forth, are part is when they of a larger debate, either a just an conflict or human relations conflict. so i expect to see the issues

return. already donald trump is talking about deregulating government. sweepinge made a statement over the weekend about getting rid of all regulations, whatever. that would include a.d.a. regulations. behind every regulation, there's a story. just tell people, well, red tape, well, i hate that, bureaucrats, blah blah blah. about folkspeople who are being helped, people who are able to now make a living who had topendent, be dependent before, everybody loves that type of story. on all day,uld go but i'll give you a chance. >> thanks, jennifer. be onit's really great to a panel with three journalists and talk thewalk talk. having said that, claishes and i were talking about the media and is moreht, nobody critical about the media than the media but it's almost always we kill again. [laughter] >> a couple of things to say about the campaign. reiterate what clarence said, i haven't done it but my guess is if you google

campaign 2016, the first 100,000 items that would come up would be donald trump's ridicule of the new york times' journalist. what has brought the word disability on to the campaign stage, not policy very much. there may be another element, which is at one point trump bragged about all the things he'd done for the disabilitied community with his hotels and as if it were a great gesture of humanity, when, of course, he was simply a.d.a.ng with regulations. but that's about it. and a part of the problem we coverage is that media of the campaign is virtually policy-free. journalists mostly know nothing about policy. to ask one question in a debate, but a follow-up is simply not possible. and in many ways, for me, a campaign,oment in the it wasn't about the disability issue. donald trump was about to hold a

conference with north dakota delegates where he had gone over the top in terms of a majority. three cable news networks had pictures of the empty podiums an extraordinary, excruciating length of time. time, hillary clinton was unveiling a set of proposals for how to deal with class,ent in the middle not covered at all. it is horse race. it is controversy. is trump. and that means that the real we're gonna doat now to punctuate and make sure a.d.a. is workable and expanded, what we're gonna do about mental health policy, a particular interest of mine, are at all.red and here we also have another of the problems with false egive lentz. if you look -- equivalents. the hillaryon clinton, you will find thousands and thousands of page on policy, the disabledut

community and we're soon going to get an extraordinarily policy proposals on mental health policy. donald trump has none of that. but if they cover the one, they are they going to cover the other in an equivalent fashion? we get basically nothing. i want to make one other point is access of the disability community to the polls. there was a story just today. you know, we've had a whole voter suppression laws that have been struck down or sent back by the courts in recent days. one of them, in north carolina, an attempt todes restrict early voting days. away. been now taken we're gonna have a substantial number of early voting days. greensboro, north carolina, the republicans are trying to cut the number of polling places

in half, as aing response to that. the, take into account that money for voting, in most been cutions, has back. the machines are now extraordinarily controversy of russiana fear hacking, among other things. but also, every area has an adequateetting number of machines, the right people toachines, participate in polling places, and the disability community is have much greater difficulty voting. the rigging that's going to take place, may be rigging against the disability community. starting to do a little work with a wonderful foundation to problem. this but it's also something that otherwise is not going to come up. right we don't have the kinds of machines for people who are deaf or blind, if you don't access to polling places for people who can't get there, if you don't have early

need extrathose who time especially, we're gonna have a real problem. that themeans political leverage of the community will be reduced as well. >> thank you. eleanor? i certainly second just about everything that's been said. overly infatuated with the horse race and with controversy. but it has ever been thus. and so you have to deal with the reality that you find. actually didump the disability community a favor by doing that mocking which seared into everybody's brain. and the reporter that he made fun of, i was reading about him. he had a longstanding relationship with donald trump. i think he had interviewed him over the course of a number of years, like 20 times. this was not somebody who trumpandered into the

tower one time and caught trump offguard. election is going to be about issues to some extent. it's really -- it really is acharacter issue or presidential temperament issue and i think donald trump, almost examples of the kind of temperament that he has. the democratic convention, clinton actually had of people coming forward, basically attesting to her character. i thought the young man who dwarfism, who spoke on the stage, again drove commitment to these issues. and reporters kind of make fun of hillary clinton, because she's got a three-point plan or just aboutt plan for every issue you can imagine.

and she says that she's controversy when she runs for a but when she does the job, she's effective. i was especially struck by a long piece in the recent new yorker magazine about the close guantanamo. congress'sf it is fault, to come apart as an issue. but the white house kind of fell too.on that job but threaded throughout the piece is the work that hillary clinton did, trying to follow working her contacts, and so this is a woman -- if you can commitment out of her for just about anything, you can be to workure she's going very hard to get it done. i must say, i'm not really that cognizant of what the legislative goals are for the community. i think that's important to get the out front so that legislative goals can be out there. turn this want to

into a conversation, so i look forward to hearing your questions. eleanor.you, before we started, rich sent me me know that,ing who was aan closson, disability activist, particularly in the autism tragically died. he asked if we could have a of silence for him, which i thought was a good idea. but i would add that many in the community have died lately and we should think for moments about the many leaders community.t in our i especially would like to focus on the 19 people in japan, who slaughtered while they slept. watching on c-span probably don't know about this. japan, atecently, in a place where adults with disabilities, particularly disabilities, lived, somebody came into the home and

to eliminate people with disabilities because that thought it was more merciful that they should be slaughtered. recently, there was a movie in thatwood, "me before you," really glorifies encouraging people who have significant commit suicide, because it is a better, happier don'ton for people who have disabilities, if the, quote, unquote burden of having with disabilities around them did not exist. we're very deeply concerned messages that people get in the media, from movies like "me before you" that showcase, really glorify trying to get people with disabilities to commit suicide. thishen in japan, we had horrific assassination, which is what it was, of 19 innocent were sleeping, in a group home in japan, whose

were slit. the media almost didn't cover it at all. so i'd like to just, before we the next question, have a moment of silence before i ask abouturnalists to talk how we get the stories of people with disabilities out there. moments, please. >> i don't know where the feedback is coming from, if someone can assist us. oh, it stopped. it was perhaps the seagesearing of those lives thae lost. i turn to our panelists. each of you talked about the difficulty of getting the stories of people with

disabilities out in the media. wondered, eleanor, in campaign 2016 and beyond, how do we get so that peopleut with disabilities are seen for having equal value as everybody else? >> well, in the campaign said peoplerence love stories, and i thought, again, the young man who talked democratic convention, and hillary clinton, in her upeptance speech, followed on that and said -- i think he was like seven years old when she first met him. lifted him up and said he must have had a 40-pound brace on. these little touches stick in your memory. and they make the stories come alive. now is clinton right trying to promote her good character and so now is the time. i think they're very eager to showcase people who she has years, but...e

disabilities so it's not just one umbrella word and expanding it to disabilities that we can't necessarily see. i think people, you know, understand when someone is blind deaf.eone is we're familiar with that as a culture. word think the disabilities covers a lot more than that. and i think the public has to be educated. have seen so much progress in this country on, you and same-sexhts marriage and civil rights. we're talking about everything. a i think, you know, this is moment for this community. is there.ting power and so whenever you approach i would have those numbers there. and the fact that this community is well-knit together and getting more activist with each

passing election cycle, i think that's power, that's real power. >> thank you. norm? >> so i would say they're actually is a little better we've had in the past. in part, that's true if you look cases of people with autism or so many instances of mental illness being shot and police.y and in almost every case, not every one, but almost every family member calling for help. and what they get is a loved one who is shot. we know, as we get more of those stories out there, is that intervention training makes a dramatic difference, so many people with disdisabilities and it's particularly true of those with autism but true of so many others, the standard police procedure of giving an order and command and increasing the level

intensity has exactly the worst effect. you get people trained, there's a judge in florida who miraculous things, in miami-dade, who has managed to in all of the jurisdictions there -- and there are more than 20 of them, and it's hard to do, because you've go away for a week to get this training -- and a lot of police think they know what doing. but when they get the training, they now understand and they've violentnumber of incidents dramatically. if we could get a little bit it would help certainly. but i'm afraid it's going to that.ore than and i think the bigger problem we have is not even getting the coverage of these issues. larger reality that in congress now, even where you issues -- wesus on have them now on a whole series on mental illness policy that have passed through the house, in some cases through senate, heaven knows if

anything will make it through before they end in this dysfunction. but in every instance, when you talk to leaders, it's, oh, yes, want to do that but we need to pay for it. the pay for it means you can't can't take it out of defense, can't take it out of most of the entitlement programs. that means you have to take it or of food stamps or housing a handful of other programs. and as long as you have the on there that keep us from getting the money to do -- whether it's crisis intervention training or all of the things that need to be done to provide access for people, we're going our wheels.ng >> thank you. clarence? >> yes. one thing that is important to note these days is just what saying, that there's on much happening here capitol hill, except us right now. depending on how the selection

may have more gridlock in the future. absence amazing, in the of action in washington -- what's going on in the states. gotten as much attention as it should. the laboratory of the states out everything from, what, the marijuana legalization debate to the kind of issues about here today, various states are moving ahead. need to knowtes about what works, and those arees where great changes working. well, part of the main advice i would give to trying to get their message out is to remember, you are reporters too. increasingly you are reporters. gotuse today, everybody has a t.v. studio in their pockets called a smartphone. today everybody is on social media. we've seen numerous examples of where individuals,

nonjournals -- well, the whole isinition of journalist changing, as far as i'm concerned. that's significant, because me downtown, for example, i know that wonderful story that you are dealing with you take forat granted, because you see it so often. folks downtown need to know about it. it means a lot more to us to to go to a news conference and have actual people who are there, who are issue we're the talking about, rather than just to see the statistics on it. we were talking earlier about people with disabilities in prison. is a largely care of ourciated element prime problems in the country. and crisis intervention, that's part of it. we need more attention to these aspects than just to the violence that is occurring in streets.

that's with the follow-up. and a lot of places around the country, they make very good stories, once i convince my goodr, because it is a story. and it may even be a good news story. while, there's good news going on out there, but it doesn't get as much attention as news, and that's largely because the public doesn't have the appetite for it. says they want good news, but we know what sells. that's a tension that we're engaged in. but something to be aware of to get yourtrying message out. >> one of the problems with -- and that was a good point. up what clarence just said in terms of good news stories. maybe we should all be grateful for the fact that it used to be all about things like willowbrook that put disability on the map back in the 60's and 70's. we don't have those horrible stories, to that extent, to draw attention to what's wrong.

the problem with good news stories -- and i agree it would be nice to read a few more of is that by showing stories of people on the spectrum or people with disabilities who are succeeding, what are you saying? are you saying, well, we don't need any more services? or we don't really need a solution to housing or employment? issues these days are adult service needs because we've done a better job of to 21g with the zero population over the last several i.d.e.a.in terms of and other types of education laws. now what we really need -- obviously the cause that on iser works hard employment. we also need much better better community living, much better solutions for people, once they drop off school transition at age 22. but the stories that we would tell generally speaking, whether they be at a political convention or an capitol hill, tend to be people who are higher-functioning, people who succeeding, and that just

creates the problem of, what is sending,ge that we are if we take somebody like my son sort of a poster child for autism, not severe, not high down theng, just middle, limited language, he doesn't have, you know, severe needs. he has a loving family that takes care of him. lackis story is sort of a of. it's a lack of a housing solution for the future. a better job. he has a job. it's a good one. he could use a better job. so those stories are sort of -- they don't come with pictures. lacking.hat people are so the stories of the past were these horrible conditions at a willow brook that obviously led to improvements, vast improvements. thankfully, since we don't have those types of stories, we do have, you know, that happen. runners. leads to something like --

some of the things norm was with police not knowing how to handle people with disabilities. states now,ome including virginia, you know, there's something on your not driver's license but whatever it you have, a license instead of a driver's license that identifies you as a person with person with disability. those are little, minor solutions to -- i hate to call them minor problems but they're not the major problems of we don't have enough housing, we have enough employment, we don't have enough money, et cetera. and it's difficult to put a face to those problems, because it's a lack of rather than a you would expose, like institutions of the 1970's. take questions from the audience right after my final question that i'm gonna ask. question is, there are two issues that we are grappling at respectability that i'd like your advice on. one is that when we look at this

sort of poverty, civil rights silos, we see these where the african-american community or the immigrant or the hispanic community are in silos. and people with disabilities are within those organizations. i know that's starting to change what rodneyuse of hood and jpmorgan chase are doing to at least make some of the national meetings accessible, but also the disability organizations of more than a 100 national really good disability rights organizations or service organizations, largely around one particular single one ofery their c.e.o.'s and presidents is white. single one. so the first question is, how do we break down the barriers so people who are disenfranchised can work together towards making that greater success in the economy and in other places like

whereal justice reform, people thought, well, that's a black issue and they didn't realize, no, it's a disability issue also and here's how. and if you are a minority or amigrant and you have disability, all the more likelihood for the pipeline. how we break down those barriers. the second is that we have felt candidateess with our questionnaire to the presidential candidates. andary clinton, jeb bush others gave incredibly thorough answers. itald trump hasn't answered yet. but we would like to see senate races and governor races, for them to really seriously address issues in these candidate questionnaires. how do we get candidates to pay attention to our issues? out candidateill questionnaires on gun, on abortion, on so many issues. has nevernow, there been a candidate questionnaire on disability issues, on a ever.al level, so those are my two questions. you can choose how you want to answer them. we'll turn it over to

the microphone. there's now a microphone in the center of the room. say briefly,ted to congressman brad sherman said members ofrate congress, rate officials, that letter grade, you know. something people can relate to. it pops up. and people who are interested in the disability community, even those who aren't, are going to notice where somebody is. where you are on disabilities, i would call it kind of a marker issue. where a you a lot about candidate is or an official is well.er issues as so i would recommend -- i would take up the congressman's idea on that. >> many years ago, the environmental community had a dozen. it really had an impact. no member of congress wanted to be one of the dirty dozen. so i think taking eleanor's suggestion and brad's seriously a good one. on the first point, jennifer, this is a universal problem.

know, look at the medical research and the individual that all see the others as rivals for financing. joining together to try and enhance the overall medicalf money going to research, they see everybody on their turf.ng that's the problem here. somegoing to take creativity to get organizations to see that there's a synergy rather working together, than somebody trying to intrude on their own turf. somebody's gotta take the lead. maybe that's one of the areas that respectability could do. take eleanor's point one step further. it shouldn't just be about office holders. it should be about candidates. if candidates don't answer the questionnaire, put out something an f until they respond. then maybe you'll get a little sensibility.

it's been interesting, because legally our lawyers have told us can't give people a aorecard because we're nonprofit. what we've done is we've sent out the identical questionnaire candidates. so both the elected officials and their opponents, the candidates, all have them. report on whether or not they answer it. then we have to give verbatim exactly what they answered. but clearly, another entity a differentmed with agal status, because we as us to be that enable tax deductible. you can't do that and rate people in that way. it's a very interesting idea. >> you taught me something about that. not for profits. i'm on the board of the committee to protect journalists, which has had a lot work that you may have noticed around the world. list of -- like

the dirty dozen, the countries, as far as journalists are concerned. robert wants to be known as a respectable leader. list.es to be on the and we can get some leverage that way. throw's just something i out. but i think that when it comes getting attention on these issues, very often it gets -- persons with disabilities get overshadowed by more issues that appear pressing. i'm thinking about -- i was just reminded about -- recently, you videotapedone of the police confrontation episodes. psychological courtney counsels tending to a young man playing with a toy truck. but a report came in that a man at this location.

police arrived. and the council -- no. they told both of them, lay down. a mentalw who had disability did not lay down. the counselor did lay down and his hands up in the air, said don't shoot, i am a counselor, blah blah blah. was shot anyway. of course, an episode of that is going to naturally make people issue of police conduct. very little attention was given that this was a fellow with mental disabilities who needed attention and he's not alone. others like him. that's the occasion for know,sts to say, hey, you this is what is needed in this kind of situation. this is what's available. ought to be available. right.man is very often, like-minded organizations will feel competitive when they ought to coalescing.ke d

bring moreyou can attention to folks who -- well, issue of law enforcement and police conduct, there's so much tied into the problem we were before.about 40% of the incarcerated have some disability. and what are the repercussions of that? we need more attention to that to find out. >> right. it's interesting. you talk about the specifics, the statistics. we work very heavily on the issue of employment for people with disabilities and we're onetantly talking about how out of three people with a disability has a job. one of the things that we did find very helpful, and i think this goes to what eleanor and norm were saying, is that rather than talking about the elected officials, we just the stats in the different states, because what states, is that in some

50% of people with disabilities are employed. 25% ofother states, only people with disabilities are employed. massive difference between one out of every four and half having a job. was interesting to us at least was who is the had the worst gaps, in labor force -- some say, well, such and such state has a bad economy. was the gapooked at in the labor force participation rate, the percent in the workforce of people with a disability and without. and where were the gaps the and the smallest. and what was the worst? maine. was the worst. people consistently in america, they think, oh, if it's the worst, it's going to be mississippi and alabama, african-american states. they're going to be the worst. worst.as the vermont was catastrophic. and when we released those

numbers, we saw, i mean, first of all, everyone in maine who on these issues really hated us for putting this list out but it was absolutely factual. we've seen some dramatic new improvements in some of their wereies in maine and hopeful that it's going to make a difference. we had to sort of go about it a different way. on criminalone that justice yet, to look at the state by state. we've just looked at the national picture. made me think about that. >> jennifer, one of the things -- there's something called the stepping up initiative that has come from the council of state governments, the national association of counties, and the american psychiatric association foundation, where they've come realize that the jails have this extraordinarily large population of people with disabilities, mostly mental anabilityings and it's enormous train on them. now they're working to find best practices to try and reduce that. my guess is that, as you get back to looking at alliances, that groups like the national

association of counties and the council of state governments, when they come to understand that the problems of homelessness, for example, can reduced -- you know, al franken often says that the best to homelessness is to give people homes. it's also if you can find ways employment, then you reduce the economic burden on the counties and the states. and getting that message out through those organizations would help. >> rich? >> i want to make sure i understood the first issue that you raised which was the -- what say?ou 100 or 150 disability groups, all white? indicative of whether it's a hispanic organization or poverty, that in those populations, their first civil tends to be that and not disability, whereas particularly maybe well-to-do whites are coming to this without a poverty issue,

without a minority, ethnic racial issue, and so that might it.he reason for i don't know. >> right. so my sense is that if you look at the history of the disability rights movement, i think of justin dart. he was this extraordinary individual from a very wealthy family. father was very important in the reagan administration. because he was a wheelchair user, literally could not get into buildings. his horizons were really, that heurt by the fact literally could not get into buildings. was the independent living movement, the people who are wheelchair warriors. look at them and i see white wheelchair warriors. these are people who had a good education. they had a two-parent family. they had all the skills and the drive to make it at the top of the corporate ladder or wherever they wanted to go.

of their disability, limited.izons became and so the beginning of the disability rights community from thoses individuals who have those disabilities and the parents of with disabilities who were for that disability, that -- so you look at an organization like the autism aniety, which is extraordinary organization, largely made up of parents of disabilities, being like all the other parent largely driven by whites. but what you don't see is the fact that african-americans get autism or have cerebral palsy or issues, andh sometimes because of other barriers that they experience, poverty, lack of education, maybe they're not in a two-parent family, that they haven't gotten access. the very civil rights organizations that really enable

african-americans and hispanics brand-new, until this initiative by jpmorgan, which is brand-new and was just spoken panel, ther last first time ever that they had sign language interpreters, that had cart, which is the captioning that's instant, that they had made sure the panelists accessible.air meetings have been taking place throughout this nation, talking to basic dignity and rights, based on, you know, immigrants, and people with disabilities could not participate at all, so the impacted in a multiple of ways, because they minority, ethnic or sexual orientation or whatever and a disability found that they were unable to participate in their basic social justice movements. and in fact, we are working as

foundationsion with who fund on poverty. and there's billions of dollars going to enable people who are in poverty to achieve a better future and people with disabilities cannot even apply for funds. you have to enter a portal of race, gender -- people with disabilities cannot even apply the funding. that is across the board that we are seeing that. needed that explanation. the question of campaign questionnaires, i know that organizations like yours and candidates to pin down during the cycle of the election so that they can then say, you said you would do x, and, okay, now it's time to put up.r shut i would only say i understand that. but i think it's far more

get toot -- i wouldn't hung up on getting everybody to answer a disability questionnaire, whether it's getting trump to do it or getting governors and senators to do it. thinkimportant but i what's far more important is the three and a half years or maybe we're nottwo now that in an election cycle, presidential election cycle, where you're working with the legislative assistants, you're working with others, to enact policy. it matters if you're doing the right thing, if lobbyingfective in congress, lobbying at the state legislature level, that i don't think it's crucial that it was a top of the list campaign issue in order to get action on a those brief during periods of time when we're not running another campaign. would justhing i mention. when it comes to issues like s.s.d.i., it hasn't been brought up but it's always the case that there is a pushback

gets to the issue of inding from certain elements politics and in government who think that those programs are abused. abused not byare the types of people with hereilities that we're all talking about and we're trying to represent but by people who claim that their back got tweaked and now they want 30 s.s.d.i. payments. and i'm not trying to color that situation. of those are legitimate. but there are people in government who think that those by folksare overrun who are claiming physical disabilities from an accident is not severe enough, and their interest -- these officials' interest is in cutting back on those programs being abused. somethingk it's just that we need to be aware of. >> thank you. norm is going to make a comment. to go toe going questioning. >> my wife is a lawyer doing pro

bone know work -- pro bonowork, helping people to get on disability. these are people who have the fill out the to forms. and if you don't fill out the forms exactly right, it can be denied. a substantial number of homeless people are those with serious mental illnesses who should be disability, who deserve to be on disability, but they simply of handlingble those forms themselves. and a that is an issue that of additional lot attention. there are some jurisdictions in the courts where they've trained people to help when individuals get on -- they fill out the forms, they get it immediately. so it's not just -- there are of fraud here. no question. but there are also issues of reallybility that are serious ones. >> thank you. now we turn to the crowd. microphone there. so i ask you to use the microphone.

if you can just pull towards the microphone. lauren, maybe you can pull the microphone down so it's more accessible. please identify yourself before you ask your question. >> i'm with the american andciation on he health disability. my question is whether or not, based on some of the comments you were making, whether you there's been a shift in the disability community as to partisanship, specifically, disability used to be a was viewedissue and equally by both sides, both sides wanting to do something. many of you made comments about that. but specifically with the polarization -- politicalization of the affordable care act and people withans for disabilities, whether that is int of causing a shift maybe

the way the disability vote is going to go forward. say that as someone who grew up in a republican home and it's now to see myself voting for republicans based on their positions on health care, they say repeal and replace but never really provide any details as to what that like me. someone with myld say i was friend bob dole, a little while ago, and bob was telling the what was, i think, the lowest moment, other than losing in histe house, political career, which was being on the floor of the senate watching his problem theeagues vote against international disability convention. to himn they all came up afterwards and said how much they loved him. pivotal moment, i think. it's a story more about how forces, the social media

and the new tribal media have a lot of dominate on these issues. at the same time, the fiscal iestions, the ones that mentioned earlier, have become even more important. and the fact is, to deal with a issues, the ones that rich mentioned, which are hugely important ones, of for people, you need money. and if everything gets caught in a vice, that is, how are you and you do a pay for, keep most of the pay-fors off is table entirely, which partisan now, then you're gonna be stuck. then you get to the question mentioned of you want to blow up all regulations. that creates another set of issues. and now everything is tribal. >> president george h.w. bush, of thely the father americans with disabilities act, was hugely bipartisan and seen

great asset among republicans. today's republicans, they sort asrecent what they see expanding rights for everybody but them. peopleink a lot of who -- they wouldn't identify necessarily with the disability unless they themselves are part of it. and then they would see themselves as deserving. overall, they just oppose the expansion of rights. the programs as expansion of government. and we've had now decades of, bad, big government is government. you know, we want to shrink government. i think the kinds of progress we identify with and we think should continue gets sacrificed to all this rhetoric. libertarian ticket echoes its as well -- it as well. got to shrinke government. i think there could be a case government in these areas that will pay off. the's another thing i think

disability rights community can do, is to make some equations where, if you spend this or have this program, the benefits that productivity or reduced reliance on government. off.n, i think it pays so i think making the case on economic grounds is something done.hould be >> actually, eleanor, i have to jump on top of that, because i you.completely agree with our organization, thanks to the governor, who is going to get an award from us later, has met with had 3 of the governors -- governors. and we've seen such excitement by the republican governors around the employment of people disabilities. i'll give you a specific example. so in dakota, you have governor and both of these parents were deaf. so he was raised in a household weretwo parents, who hearing impaired. and they used sign language. that they worked hard on the farm. they worked hard in their

they wereand that enormously bright and successful. and as governor, he has created much opportunity that 50% of people with disabilities in his a job.ave scott walker, not known to be a big government guy. scott walker, governor of wisconsin, not known to be a big has every single month gone to a different private sector employer in his that hires people with disabilities, where it's working andwell for the employers, showcased how it's helping their companies. and not only that, he has expanded a program for young people with disabilities to enable them to go straight from school into the workplace. had 12 such sites in the past. now they have 37. an almost 80%ng employment outcome for these disabilities.ith and it is saving a fortune, these individuals

otherwise would spend their entire lives sitting on their till theiruch parents die, and then their brother's couch, living on government benefits. but because he has invested in has saved a fortune for the taxpayers. one problem we see is what pockets.ll wrong when he saves the money, he invests in the job training and program fa for the youth with the disabilities. who saves the money? states., not the so it's been sort of an issue. the right incentivize people? because if the governors can really fix this, but they're not properly incentivized by getting the cost savings, because it's the costwho get savings, we've seen other governors less enthusiastic, who said, you know what? government benefits for people with disabilities, in west and kentucky, for example, that's our job programs.

day thosewalmart the checks arrives, everybody is their beer and guns with disability checks. a lot of it has to do with the attitudes that they're bringing. are huge cost savings that can be absolutely achieved with proper policy on this. thank you for your question. we have other questions for the awe audience? >> can i say one thing about the question that was just raised? think it's fine if folks with disabilities are one partyed more by than the other, given, say, what are or given, say, couple of us have already referred to in terms of what the republican presidential candidate is doing. i think that's fine, in the booth. of the voting i don't think it's great if the disability community chooses to become identified with one party vs. the other, because then that instance,urage, for these republican governors and republican legislatures and there are more than a majority

them, both in terms of governors and legislators, to aink, oh, disability, that's liberal democratic issue, i'm not going to invest much of my energy in it. and i think the disability be veryy is going to dependent on republican officials. in theing neutral, even privacy of the booth, in this round, those votes are going to democracy. urge that it not become too public, a "we are a lobby."d much.nk you so i have read many of your pieces throughout the years. and thank you for coming today. name is sue. i run a voting solutions, a firm, to bring voting issues to the public. i work in new york state. a longtime interest in journalism and yet i've never journalist. when you're talking about bringing the issues to the forefront and you're taking

knowledge froma journalists to the people like me who have been in the field 30 i have very compelling controversial stories. but i'm feeling a gap in how to go about getting the stories i know t to the public, to get to editors and publishers, writing them myself. i feel like i could use some advice, because there are some compelling stories that would get attention if way.ed in the correct >> you want to know where to sell your story? well, if i knew, i wouldn't tell you. i'd keep it to myself. seriously, though, i think our main concern here, on the big question i hear, how do we get message out? how does respectability, how does the movement get its out?ge and first of all, look to those arenalists and media that already picking up on stories like yours, like the one that

you're interested in. this will tell you, well, here's first base're on with. let me tell them about this story that's going on. whof you don't have someone is covering a beat -- because the beat system as we used to typewriterck in the days of my youth, the last century, has crumbled to a degree, because staffs are smaller and the beat structure has just changed entirely. but there are still people who earlierell, i mentioned that i don't want to keep this one issue, but it is one that's so big right now, videos,e about police overlapping with issues of people with disabilities. problems of delivery of mental health it.ices to folks who need these are all related stories, but which one gets the biggest headline? when it does get that big headline, that's a time when an

inervant reporter can come and say, hey, there's also this story, related to that as well. that. ought to pursue and that can have more legs, example, mental health services for people who are incarcerated or in jeopardy of being incarcerated. that is a story that deserves more attention. advice in be my general. to be more specific, i'd be happy to talk to you about it. >> well, i'm happy -- i'd like to talk to journalists. i've been involved with many daysrios, like just two ago someone i support we found out has been abused by his legal guardian. a terriblehaving time doing anything about that. now, that's a story that could big.y grow legs and be but there's a gap in how, like, someone like me can communicate people so it'sht written in a tasteful, productive way. say i've given

this type of advice over the years, not just to disability to others.ut and that is more so each and every year, because things virally, things spread digitally, you just need one story.ace to place your one major newspaper, one television outlet, one major radio station. don't need to think about papering the media in general a million press releases, so that they're all going to get the same information at the same they're all going to think, well, everybody else got this information too, so i'm it.g to ignore it's really better to find one place, and usually you can sort of figure out who would be the of organization. maybe it's the huffington post. maybe it's the daily caller. thatnow, whatever it is you can interest one reporter so that that reporter knows he's got a -- he or she has a head start. he or she is being tipped off problem. is a maybe this one instance is instances. a lot of

if you get one really good story that others pay attention to, then it spreads. it spreads digitally and others are getting to know about it. i always say come to u.s.a. first, of course, but go to one place, rather than -- which i guess most people in don't do thisns anymore anyway, but when i would get something in my e-mail or back in the days of paper and i'd realize this was a routine press release that went to thousands, i'm not gonna pay much attention to it. >> so we're actually out of time this particular session. thank you. we i want to -- before break, let me just give a couple logistics. so we're going to take a break. during the break, people are inng to actually eat lunch the rayburn cafeteria. our fellows can help direct you to how to get there. you can pick up lunch, bring it back. this is what happens when you're a disability organization.

there's no like fine catering and big lunches with candlesticks. everybody buys themselves lunch in the rayburn cafeteria. sharply,ome back here, for our next panel, which is going to be at 1:15, which is going to be on reaching all voters by making electronic accessible, with sheila newman, cindy ryan. moderated by doc swietser, consultant,olitical who has elected dozens and dozens of congressmen and senators. panels.several more we're ending the day with a awardees.eries of i'm so pleased that governor jack martel and the chief of ryan, dave hoppy, going to be here to get their awards and they're going to take questions. of the councilr on state governments today and was the chair of the national

association, and the chief of staff for paul ryan will both be here later today. but let me just turn to our panel and say quickly, for oneaign 2016, what's the thing that we in the disability community should really work for and achieve in this election cycle going forward? rich? >> this is not the most central of.g i could think but i would say go after donald trump at this point. goingver know what he's to do day to day, week to week, month to month. maybe he could surprise a championnd become of the disability community and you'll take it from wherever you get it. so you've mentioned he hasn't filled out the questionnaire yet. that, who ise like down anywhere from 8 points, 15 the polls, sees disability as an effort where he can make a comeback, then great. mean you have to vote for him, if you're not going to vote for him. as i would see him right now

an opportunity. >> thank you. >> i think raising the disability -- awareness of what disability is, what the word is, spoke of autism. i have a son with add, which we until he was diagnosed, then i became an expert on add, as his mother did told that this tends to be hereditary, and my in my family. not so i checked myself out and guess what? i got add. remarkably high. this helped me to answer a great question i've had for many years. why do news rooms attract so many weird people? [laughter] >> that is true in this generation. you young people are so darn this digital age. it's not nearly as much fun as it was back in the days of the page, if you know that wonderful play and movie. roomsd to wonder why news attracted such a menagerie of characters.

a harvarding to psychiatrist, through this peopleof mind that add like the route of least resistance and are also very becoming experts on making their deadline and forgetting all about it. i bring this up because the issue is visible to me. i care more about it. you mentioned the governor of north dakota and his family. as you know, as i saw on your website, over half of americans have some type of disability in the family. it reminds me of gay, ights.n, lgbt r wewould never have predicted would have gone this far but we have. you have certain tipping points where things do change. i see this coming with people

with disabilities. as i mentioned earlier in this campaign, more visibility than in the past. "time" magazine wrote about this recently but a lot of people do not think that guy sitting industry talking to himself, that that is a disability issue. why aren't services helping him out? i think that will be a big challenge this year. one other thing -- beyond 2016 to 2018, the midterm elections which so many people forget about in the midst of the excitement of the presidential years. this can reverse the course of congress in the midterm likeions and rural towns ferguson can make a big difference. i would say that would be number two. just to think ahead as far as the midterms affecting the vote

on capitol hill. >> thank you. >> i think he is absolutely right. when people have experiences in their own families it transcends partisanship and ideology. tom harkin was responsible for getting mental care clarity because of their experiences. when i wrote about the tragedy of my son with mental illness, i was flooded with responses and it was clear to me there is scarcely a family in america that is not touched by mental illness and the broader range of disabilities. atting that to that is difficult task. hillary clinton will have a very robust sense of policy ideas in this area. the challenge will be getting congress to do anything with them and that is a challenge that is there for all issues, but it means you are focused on

senate and house races, and state and local as much as you can which becomes the critical set of issues. at the state and local level, it is doing exactly what you said with governor walker and others. it is getting the message out there that changing policy not only helps and saves lives, it saves money. that is a message that, in florida, steve has managed to get money from the florida legislature and create a facility in miami-dade where they have a 5000 square foot kitchen and taking people with mental illnesses and training them. they have arrangements with local caterers and restaurants when they come out to give them jobs. that will save the community and the state money, and they know it. >> the rallying cry for the feminist movement was personal is not political. following what everybody has

said, that is what the disability rights community needs to do -- these stories in every household. i agree with norm. hillary clinton, you don't have to worry about her on this issue, but you have to give her a congress she can work with and build a political structure for the future. the state legislatures hae ve andped to pretty bright red they don't want to spend any money on anything. politicsto influence down to the grassroots level and getting people active on this giving people purpose, young people especially do want a cause. i think this is a cause that is already made up. richeanor, claire, norm, -- thank you for that fabulous session. [applause]

>> candidates are expected to have a bigger impact than normal in this fall presidential election. tonight, libertarian presidential candidate gary johnson is our guest on newsmakers. he will discuss his candidacy and policy proposals, as well as his views on donald trump and hillary clinton.

newsmakers tonight at 8:00 eastern followed by your reactions live. democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton will be campaigning monday with vice president joe biden. we will have live coverage from scranton, pennsylvania at 1245 p.m. eastern on c-span and c-span radio. our c-span campaign 2016 bus is in chicago this week at the national conference of state legislatures. officials what issue is most important to you, your district. >> him, , i'm jim bolan. i'm here at the convention. the number one issue that i believe will face the state of south dakota will be the potential extension -- expansion of medicaid. the governor seems to want this particular program expanded, but many oppose it.

it is going to be a very interesting session. thank you very much. >> i'm a legislator in the district of columbia. i'm here to talk about a very important issue for residents of the district. we'll be voting on statehood and self-determination. we are getting out the vote to show everyone in the country that we want to be the 51st state because just like everyone else, we pay taxes, we fight in wars and serve our communities. we want to save quality and rivers and asian of every resident -- the same quality and representation of every resident. >> we have to lift and grow our economy from the middle. >> hi, it's kate. excited to be at the convention today. this federal election has been a really exciting one to follow. as a female, i'm really excited we have a viable female as a

candidate and i cannot wait to see how she does. >> i'm from louisiana. what is more important for me right now in my state is education. education and critical services. we had a wonderful expansion of medicaid. nationally, we need to get the help we need. america is great and louisiana is growing. >> voices from the road on c-span. , anespectabilityusa and organization for the disabled, held the day long conference from capitol hill to highlight issues. even with the americans with disabilities act implemented as law, advocates say voters with disabilities face many challenges by trying to participate in the elections process. this is 50 minutes.

jennifer: good morning. i'm delighted to welcome everybody here to this panel discussion, or series of panel for people by and with disabilities. my name is jennifer laszlo mizrahi. parentshat it means to with children with disabilities. i believe that people with disabilities deserve to be able to achieve the american dream just like anyone else. i also believe that the only way for that to happen is for those of us who have disabilities or have loved ones with disabilities to take political action in our own hands to

really create our own better destiny and our own better future. i'm here on behalf of of ,espectability, a new nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in the washington, d.c. area that is working on the front lines of advancing opportunity for people with disabilities. we have a number of speakers from both sides of the aisle, both democrat and republican. and we closed captioning have american sign language. i really appreciate that our event is fully accessible. if you are following us on c-span or want to have copies of the presentation, they are available on our website. our website is www.respect abilityusa.org. all of our power points are screen reader accessible.

fornt to thank ccac cosponsoring this event. we are providing this as a free probably service -- public service for people. i'm really appreciative of their efforts. our amazingto thank staff. really, we have a terrific team and the head of the team are our young leaders. we have a national fellowship program that is young people who or without disabilities want to enable a better future for the 56 million americans with disabilities. they worked together where they do skills building, advocacy, writing. they create our publication, the respectability report. they are really on the front lines. we feel like we work for them.

we have a tremendous cohort of young fellows. i want to thank brian, our fellows director. i want to let all the fellows know how much we appreciate you and to let anyone who is watching now that we are looking for new fellows for the fall cohort and spring. it is a wonderful fellowship program for people who want to come to washington, gain skills and contacts, and go into careers in public policy advocacy and media. i'm hoping my powerpoint is working and it appears that is the case. i'm just going to start by saying that respectability is a nonprofit organization and that all the materials for this program are on our website. five americans have a disability. one in five.

that is 56 million americans. additionally, a lot of people don't understand what disabilities are. thatdisabilities can be somebody uses a wheelchair. ast is a kind of disability, is blindness or being deaf. so is autism, mental health. the majority of americans who have a disability, it is a nonvisible visibility -- disability. it is important to understand that all of us are facing stigmas, barriers, obstacles that are keeping us from achieving what we want to achieve which are jobs, employment, empowerment and a better future. to achieve that is very important to be deeply involved in the political process. one our board of respectability, we are proud to be completely nonpartisan or bipartisan.

we have board members from both sides of the aisle. all of them are terrific but i want to highlight that congressman steve bartlett and congressman tony carrillo co-authored the americans with disabilities act in the u.s. congress 26 years ago. they have never stopped being true champions of people with disabilities. the ada was past 26 years ago. we have so much yet to accomplish and that is why i am pleased you are here with us today. reportamerican voters that they have a loved one with a disability or they themselves have a disability. disability is a very large minority group, but it is also the only minority that you can join at any time due to accidents, illness or aging.

i want to say there are key things that happen to people with disabilities we need to pay attention to. one is sexual abuse of people with disabilities that starts at a high rate with children. i know this personally as a person who could not read or write until i was much older than much children. i had very low self-esteem and i trust that somebody at school i should not have trusted. when i was in the sixth grade, i was raped. unfortunately, that is very common for people with disabilities, children and adults alike. it is not something you hear discussed in the political agenda. it is one of many reasons we need to have political power. the second reason that we need political power is that individuals with disabilities

are not graduating high school at the rate they need to. only 61% of americans with disabilities graduate high school. it is very important to address that because high school attainment is very critical to attainment and closely linked if people joined the school to prison pipeline. 300,000 americans with disabilities act it this will system every year, some with proud degrees, others after being suspended wrongfully because people do not understand their disability. those people need strong transitions to get into the workforce so they can have jobs and opportunities just like anyone else. only one out of every three americans who have a disability who is working age has a job. the vastn people, majority of whom do want to be

gainfully employed. by the way, we are encouraging competitive, integrated employment. real jobs at real wages. poverty is extreme for people with disabilities. in fact, i know a lot of people think poverty, they think of racial dynamics, african-americans, his annex, women -- hispanics, women. people with disabilities are the poorer of the poor. pooer tretr than african-americans, hispanics, women. if you are marginalized because you are african-american and you have a disability, or a new immigrant and have a disability, it is even more challenging. problem ins a real america and a massive and growing gap in the labor force participation rate between

people with and without disabilities. this is something that we believe should be very much discussed in the political war of ideas. 11 million americans who are working age with disabilities are living exclusively on government benefits. the majority of them would prefer to have gainful employment. very activetion is in writing op-eds around the country trying to raise awareness. there are links that we have published on more than 38 states. this is one of the things young leaders do when they come to washington and work with us as follows. we work with people with writing and placing op-eds. we are very proud of the fact we are very data-driven. always looking for better metrics. one of the reasons for that is because if we don't address these issues, people with

disabilities frequently have one or two outcomes. either they are living at home on their parents couch until their parents die, and which case they are living on their couch, government benefits. 11 million people are currently living on government benefits. in many cases, they answer the school to prison pipeline and they are currently 750,000 americans with disabilities that are incarcerated. we are talking about 150,000 people who are deaf or hearing impaired, 150,000 people who are blind or vision impaired, and half a million who have cognitive impairment. these are significant concerns that we have not seen fully addressed in the political environment and that is why we are having this today. we really need for people like you to move these issues

forward. i want to highlight that we have a tremendous publication on this issue. philip pauli, lauren appelbaum, myself along with eddie just the issueshis on with people with disabilities who are incarcerated. we are very interested in enabling there to be better visions of people with disabilities. we are very proud of our board member jonathan mary, the inventor of reality television. world," "the kardashians." we are working on a new tv show called "broorn this way." it stars young adults with down syndrome who are working and in independent housing. it is very important what we see on television have high

expectations for people with disabilities because high expectations are key. studies have shown with programs like project search, 70% of individuals with disabilities can have terrific jobs. we are really working towards that with our team. now, i will turn it over to mike coworkers -- my coworkers. you can read their bios in the program. you can see their bios on our website. personally ao say few things about these individuals. the first of whom is lauren appelbaum who i had the pleasure of working with in this capacity and others over many years. she is one of the brightest women in america. she is one of the hardest working people i have ever seen. i encourage every single one of you to go to our website that has our publication, the

respectability report, where she and the team have published hundreds of articles about the intersection of the presidential campaign and disabilities. it has over 100,000 clicks already. she went to journalism school, she worked at nbc news with chuck todd and andrea mitchell. she is absolutely extraordinary. it is an honor to work with her. our other colleague, philip pauli, he is unbelievable. he's so smart, he puts me to shame. just to put it in context, when he was eight years old, a tv show did an entire tv special about philip pauli, the smartest eight-year-old on earth. if you googled him, at age eight, he was the most impressive young person that you could ever see. but to work with him in our office side-by-side as he works

on the testimony that we are submitting and have now submitted in 100% of the states in america, to work with him on analyzing data to ensure the best practices is pure joy. i think both of these individuals are true gifts to the 56 million americans who have a disability. i encourage you to join with us in these efforts because none of the work that we are doing can succeed without you. without further ado, let me turn it over to philip pauli. [applause] philip: good morning. as jennifer said, my name is philip pauli and we will not be showing the clip of the tv show today. it is on you to. tube. i want to talk about our friends, neighbors, loved ones, family members. there are one in five americans who have disabilities. in total, over 56 million one type ofth

disability or another. to put that in a different context, that means there are 40 million voting age people with disabilities. as we will be talking about today, those votes can swing elections. they can turn the outcome perhaps of the presidential election. we will be talking about why that matters, why you yourselves to get more involved, and we will be talking about what you need to know and how we can work together. said, we, jennifer respectability exists to be a voice in the political arena. darn many voices and the disability -- there are many voices in the disability advocacy. before respectability existed, as jennifer was looking at the challenges facing the disability community, she partnered with

polling firms to conduct polls of voters in the presidential election looking at visibility, which many pollsters did not consider before. we found that the majority of likely voters at least knew somebody with a disability. we found that there could be significant response to candidates who explicitly talk about disability issues. we found that democratic wo men are likely to talk about these issues directly. votersd 51% of likely know somebody with a disability or are somebody with a disability. respectability was founded in 2013 with the mission to change attitudes in society, to bust st igmas, and empower people with disabilities. critical to that is economic involvement and political involvement. we were founded in 2013.

in 2014, we conducted another poll of likely voters in competitive districts, swing states, places like wisconsin and ohio. a higher percentage of people likely knew somebody with a disability or a member of the disability community themselves. one of the pollsters we worked with was stan greenberg. he says this community is far bigger than people realize. as we said, disability impacts more than half of the electorate. you can see the breakdown in terms of people not knowing if they have a loved one or friends with a disability and those who do. one of the interesting findings is the likely voters we polled, it broke down along partisanship. of republicans and democrats with disabilities. most important, independents with disabilities. the percentages really match up

with partisanship as people identified voters without his abilities. -- disabilities. after the midterm elections, we looked at what motivated the voters. how they decided on what candidates they asked for. found they were likely to vote for candidates who made a top priority of enabling citizens with disabilities to go into employment. the percentages were very solid, right down the middle in terms of partisanship. we found employment was a critical issue, particularly for independent voters, independent women and non-college-educated voters. i encourage you to go to our website where we have the full methodology and questionnaire you could look at. one of the interesting things is that midterm elections tend to be fairly quiet.

not many people out there besides hard-core political geeks . we found voters with disabilities and voters with loved ones were very excited to get out there in a crucial election that otherwise people would have ignored. betweendid comparisons voters with disabilities and voters without. we found that people with disabilities were very concerned about the economy to a greater percentage than other voters. as you can see, we have a breakdown in terms of what issues people most cared about. the overriding issue, voters from the disability community, was the economy. much to theat very gap in labor force participation rates. currently, only one in three americans with a disability is employed. there is progress being made at the state level, but significant challenges remain. in the long-term, even as

african-americans and women have been joining the workforce in greater numbers, people with disabilities are falling behind. the evidence we have found from the studies and polls we have done, from talking to people in the community, both in d.c. and back home, this matters. this can win elections. asked dan greenberg said, the issues of employment among people with disabilities can affect outcomes in competitive races. candidates are looking for voters so they can find a coalition. we also worked with republican es, who sayst ayr that we are accustomed to thinking about soccer moms, hispanics or value voters but this poll shows that americans with disabilities and those who care about deeply about them are a demographic we need to care about in the future.

-- i will turn it over to lauren appelbaum who will talk about our outreach to presidential candidate. take it away. lauren: thank you. i know it is early morning with metro networking so we appreciate everyone who made it here. brought up said, he what brought us to why we are paying attention to this issue in the 2016 cycle. what we decided to do was sent our young fellows to iowa and new hampshire where they spent nearly two months attending town halls and other meetings with all of the candidates. all 22 presidential candidates that were in the race at the time from major parties received visits from our fellows who went and sat in the town halls and

asked them critical questions on issues of employment for people with disabilities and other issues relating to what people with disabilities are wanting to hear from their elected officials. pictures and i will describe the pictures up on the screen. associateur democracy interviewing bernie sanders. the next picture, two of our fellows taking a picture with hillary clinton. the next one with ted cruz. the next one with marco rubio. down below, a selfie with donald trump. pictures with john kasich and jeb bush. we found this extremely important to reach out on both sides of the aisle. disability rights is not a partisan issue, so we were very careful to reach out. even when it became clear who the nominees might be, we still reached out to all the presidential candidates because

just because someone is no longer running for president, it does not mean they will not have an influential position in government, media and elsewhere who can make a decision that would impact our issues. few things we did other than attending have town halls was we had briefings. in one of these pictures, you will see a picture from the representative of the sanders, bush, o'malley, santorum campaign all sitting together. not only those of us from d.c., disabilityted organizations that were local to new hampshire, iowa, nevada, for them to talk about what is important for them. we found, as everyone said, politics is local. issues we saw on the national stage, sometimes there were other issues on the local stage we needed to pay attention to that our partners in these

individual states were able to alert us. an example of the impacts of our work -- we met with the hillary clinton campaign a dozen times or so. we got a call from a woman in the iowa office saying did you know that hillary is going to be doing an autism plan? we said this is wonderful. how can we be involved? how can we make sure the right people are here giving information? so, we were able to provide information like we have offered to every other campaign about why it's important to not only reach out to people who have autism, but all disabilities. of different issues, and specifically employment issues. -- one kindof kind of outcome. it is a wide coalition that we

are very thankful to be part of. another issue that is we found out from our partners in iowa that a lot of the caucus locations themselves are physically not accessible. it might be at houses or elsewhere so we brought it up with individuals from different campaigns were then able to take it to the next level. while it was not fixed 100% for this cycle, we have noticed it is working, the needle is moving in the correct direction. hopefully by next election, people will not think of holding a caucus house in a place that is not accessible for a wheelchair. another example is priorities usa which is a program to an super pac. they run two ads. dante and grace. it features young individuals with disabilities, focused on

trump, specifically attacking turmrump supposedly making fun f a journalist with a disability. this is significant because before this did not exist. you don't see in 2012 or prior, campaigns or super pac's doing ads on disability issues. we are seeing a shift which continues in both party platform. in the dnc platform, 35 mentions of disability which is more than double than in previous cycles. the rnc party platform, they really talked about the importance of advancing americans with disabilities, the ada, employment for people with disabilities and the issue of sub-minimum wage. you are seeing this across the aisle of both parties really pushing these issues.

did was ct that we our questionnaire. we sent it to every single presidential candidate that was 16in-depth questionnaire, questions on employment issues, education, housing, stigmas. we had several candidates on both sides of the aisle return their responses, including hillary clinton and bernie sanders on the democratic side, and jeb bush, ben carson, chris christie and john kasich on the republican side. we're still waiting for answers on donald trump and we will continue to ask him up until election day. 1 days: there are 90 left until election day so there is plenty of time left. lauren: that is right. knockenew jersey have

d on the doors of trump headquarters, so there are opportunities for people to engage candidates on both sides of the aisle to get them to it answer these questions. one thing we did with these is we took them and made individual state voter guides. worked philip's team's for testimony for each of the states and sent them to media because people are not -- before the cycle, people were not paying attention to these issues and we wanted to help make that happen. said, they were sent to individual state presses. we have different press organizations say this is interesting, we never covered this. wisconsin in particular has been very interested in disability issues. they have been asking us for comment every time something comes up in a nonpartisan way which has been great.

i mentioned there is a way for everyone in this room to get involved. we have taken this presidential pdwe's questionnaire and adapted it for down ballot. we're looking for open and competitive senate and gubernatorial candidates in several different states, which is available on our website. handout here received a that lists the candidates running in these states, their e-mail addresses and twitter handles. we found it very effective when individuals, not just us as an organization, but people reaching out to candidates, especially if you happen to be from the state. they can then contact the folks running for senate and governor in your state and say hey, respectability sent to a questionnaire.

we would love for you to send it out. both parties have a place they can start from. their party platforms talk about disability issues so they can take information from there to answer questions, as well as looking at examples of presidential candidates who filled those out. jennifer mentioned the respectability report. we can all check it out on our website. we do our best to cover every single issue of the intersection of disabilities and the 2016 election. presidential and down ballot. if you hear, see something, tend a townhall, later this afternoon, several of our fellows will be talking about their experience in iowa and new hampshire and letting you know how you can do that yourself who cana state level

really make a difference. we found attending these events, attending the town halls and asking the questions, that is why candidates started really talking about these issues. press started being interested in covering these issues. you have that on one hand. the other hand, if you say you cannot travel somewhere, that is ok. you can get on social media, tweet, e-mail them. there are different ways everyone can get involved. i mentioned there were other disability groups that are really doing amazing work that we cannot forget. up include aapd's rev movement and crip the vote. rev up has been doing a lot of work at the state and national level all around the country. if you were not familiar with any of these websites, you can

check it out. crip the vote is a hashtag. while i'm on those issues, if you're tweeting we ask you use the #pwdvote. . we would love for you to be live tweeting. we are checking that hashtag. you can submit a question that way as well. there are several articles about this work that i would love for you to be aware of. at the dnc,ou heard a lot of news covered her speech for being the turning point of disability issues being presented in a positive light at the conventions. there are several other articles from cnn to fox and elsewhere

that are really highlighting how the importance of this movement is. i want to turn this back to philip who will talk about other issues of inaccessibility in the boating world. -- voting world. philip: thank you. so, as si said, we are 91 days away from the election. when it comes to that cold november day when america will get out to the polls, many people with disabilities will face many barriers that may rob them of their political voice, power. to put things into perspective, in 2012, only 27% of polling places were accessible. that is less than one in three. there is a variety of reasons for that. it is a significant issue and an issue we need to talk about now and deal with. now, what does inaccessibility

mean in terms of a polling place? one significant issue we have seen in the primary season and continue to see during the general election is the fact campaign event often times occur in non-88 accessible locations. sometimes fundraisers will be private residence which are not bound by the rules of the ada. far too often, websites, television, social media are not accessible because they don't have captions. one issue we see is candidate websites are not fully accessible, meeting somebody that is blind or visually impaired can go to a website and cannot read the platform because it is not optimized. a significant issue we see again is the lack of captioning on videos. we will talk in more detail about how campaigns, candidates and people who utilize social media can improve their

accessibility, whether it is by websites or adding captions to videos. that can be easy. also the lack of asl interpreters at events. often times there is no option to request accommodation. there are typical things we think of. physical barriers. lack of ramps, parking, elevators, braille ballots. new hampshire because of disability rights, they have been doing a lot to improve accessibility. there is exciting work being done. in accessibility remains a serious problem and we will talk about it more later. we've got quite a bit of time before november and i think in this time we need to be working as a community about these issues. one of the links on our

powerpoint is the link to the social media contact list, or state and local election officials. those of you at home watching this, i encourage you to go to that link and find the contact information about your local election officials and ask them questions about making accessible voting options, early voting, voter registration with people with intellectual disabilities. we found so some idiot to being credibly powerful -- we found social media to be an incredibly powerful tool. the information available from your local election officials is important. as a resident of arlington, virginia, when i go to the voter registration portal on the website, it lists what my local polling place is and whether it is ada accessible. that is important information that could be shared.

as we said, far too many polling places are not accessible. another thing we talk about is there are personal stories that matter and are powerful. i with love it more and more people with disabilities broke op-ed's that talked about their issues voting or getting the ability to vote. voter id is increasingly irrelevant and the intersection of other minority communities. also, there are other things that ada voting checklists available online. lauren is the master of social media and she has put together lists of senator candidates, gubernatorial candidates as well as political journalists. we tweet at the campaigns, at the staff of the campaigns and journalists who would be interested. we have been working very hard.

slide?have this >> yes, i do. philip: i will turn it over to her. lauren: we are be going into the next panel shortly but we will -- before we have questions for the next one. i wanted to very quickly go over some of the social media work that we have been doing and what you could be doing. to not only tweet the political candidates, but their staff as well. on the powerpoint, it has links to the senate candidates and gubernatorial candidates in the races we have identified as being open and competitive where we think we could make a difference in getting people to talk about disability issues. we recommend you check that out. also, if you are in the room, we

have sheets we handed out. what else is important to do? are you doing something we should be aware of? we have 100,000 on our e-mail list. if you are doing something that you think is important, send it the goodcause we love work happening. 67,000 facebook fans and 5000 twitter followers. follow us on twitter. we are trying to grow the twitter following. we really like to be involved. i will give you some sample tweets. if anyone is interested in learning how to tweet more, better, etc. -- if you are in the room, please find me during the break. i have my computer and i will give you a tutorial. if you are at home, e-mail me. send me your information and i

will call you and i will teach you. we are going to open it up for a few minutes of questions before we go to our next panel. so, we will be glad to take any questions on this. this is serving as an overview of our day of training. lothere is any questions, a that we touched upon we will go into deeper. we will repeat your question and to we have the floor mic set up. >> [indiscernible] in new york, voting routines -- votepeople take hours to

and they are not adequately trained. that as to add another barrier. lauren: you are correct. the questions about accessible voting machines. in new hampshire in particular, they unveiled a new voting machine for individuals who are blind who are able to vote for the first time without assistance. we are very much into universal design, that if someone can create a machine that everyone can use regardless of your ability or disability, everyone else in the room would be able to use it. thank you for bringing up that issue. >> [indiscernible]

lauren: the question is about mental health and addressing that in the political campaign. this is an extremely important issue. i would like to answer your question in a couple of layers. people deeply do not understand mental health issues. there is complete ignorance about mental health and the range of mental health issues and the range of mental health solutions that are possible. earlier, i mentioned there are 750,000 individuals with disabilities that are incarcerated. many of them have mental health issues as well. in many cases, we are almost made it illegal to have a mental health issue because it is so

hard to get a job and people wind up homeless and homeless can be so illegal that people are jailed for being vagrant. there is a whole range of mental health issues. what we see is between treatments and medication and community-based services, there could be tremendous outcomes, opportunities and improvements for people with mental health differences. when you call a candidate crazy, or if after a mass shooting, the first thing the national rifle association does is to try and deflect attention from the sales of weapons or the mass access to weapons to mental health issues to try to distract from their corporate goals, it increases the stigma for individuals with disabilities. one of the things we have done is really tried to educate candidates. if you look at this down ballot

candidate questionnaire that we are doing for senate and governor candidates, if you go to our website which i encourage you to do, we have the questions we are asking them. we also have some answers for them, some information and places to go to. for example, we are constantly telling people who are candidates to go to nami and other mental health organizations that are really expert in those issues to become better informed. if you disagree with an individual, calling them crazy really insults people who do have legitimate mental health differences. we really believe that education is very important. in the presidential campaign, we have most seen this around the issue of these mass shootings triedthe nra has really -

to stigmatize people with mental ectlth differences to defl gun-control issues. the candidates backed by gun issues were too quick to jump on that as a solution as opposed to recognizing that actually people with disabilities, including those with mental health differences, are the biggest victims of crime, more likely to become victims of crime, and the vast majority of individuals who engage in violent crime are not people who have mental health differences. isat most violent crime something from people in the domestic dispute or they know one another or there is a drug deal gone bad and not a mental health difference. education for us has been a very big part of it. we have another session coming up and i don't want to take away people's ability to have a short

break. did you have anything else? ok, so, we have some amazing speakers coming back after the break. we will take an incredibly short break. lauren appelbaum is going to moderate our next session where marian and rodney will speak. they will speak about ensuring access to events. i personally know that there is going to be moderation by lauren. i want to say the ada centers are amazing and marian does a great job. they are free and available to everyone. i want to say a personal thanks to rodney hood of j.p. morgan chase because j.p. morgan chase as a company has made employment of people with disabilities one of their top priorities. he is an incredible individual who served in public life, but

now at the bank, he is enabling people to have a better future. they're involved in something you will hear about that is unbelievably exciting. i will put in a plug because i have a pet peeve. here it is -- from people who are disenfranchised and poor in america, we tend to sit in our silos. people who are hispanic, go to la raza. people who are african-american, go to the naacp. people with disabilities are with an individual disability organization generally surrounding their one disability they identify with. i believe very strongly that the power and future is about inclusion and integration, so we tear down those silos and enable people with disabilities to participate. if they are african-american, fully in the naacp or any other

organization. hispanic, to be able to participate in la raza. people with other ethnicities to participate in other organizations. i myself, i'm white. i along very proudly to win organization of disability organizations nationally. there are more than 100 working as asians nationally represent -- organizations representing disabilities. their ceo's and presidents are white 100%. more than 100 organizations. our fellowship program is looking for people who are from multiple disenfranchised populations. apply if you are caucasian, but if you are hispanic or from the

immigrant, asian, african american -- we want to ensure that talent pipeline for the disability community reflects our nation fully. we are going to take a very short break and we will come back. we will hear from two extraordinary leaders about how you can help on this. i know some of you in the audience are experts on these issues but i want you to consider that session a train the trainer because the more of us that can leave this room, for those watching on c-span, can leave and train others on these issues, the better this nation will be for everybody to matter whether you have a disability or you don't. all of us should be in a welcoming, respectful and equal nation where all of us can obtain a better future. i want to thank my panelists, lauren appelbaum and philip pauli, further amazing

presentations. we will be back with you very shortly. thank you. [applause] >> c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, sarah westwood from the washington examiner will join us to discuss hillary clinton's recently released e-mails. allegations surface there is possible conflicts of interest in her role as secretary of state activities of the clinton foundation. onald green, an author american history, will analyze the liberty party in 1841, the reform party in the early 1990's and what the evolution meant for third parties. be sure to watch washington journal saturday morning at 7 a.m. eastern. joined the discussion.

issuesrday, c-span's spotlight looks at trade deals, >> and we will defend american jobs, and american workers, by saying noted that trade deals like the transpacific partnership, and unfair trade practices. >> in the state of pennsylvania, they have lost one third of their manufacturing jobs since the clintons put china into the wto. >> the program includes a look at nafta, in 1994 free trade agreement between the united states, mexico, and canada. >> this whole world is together in the cause of more jobs for our people, more exports for our markets, and more democracy for our allies. >> a discussion on how the founding fathers viewed free-trade. >> historically, the united states simply was not a free-trade nation,