Why Disability Representation Matters
To paraphrase Aaron Sorkin, what kind of an election has it been?
Image Description:
Senator-Elect John Fetterman, a bald man with a goatee wearing a black hooded sweatshirt speaking at a podium with a microphone
Last week, on Election Day, and I was continuously refreshing The New York Times front page and watching Steve Kornacki on MSNBC with bated breath as the election results slowly came in. When I went to sleep, the Senate race in Pennsylvania between Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz and Democratic candidate Lt. Governor John Fetterman had not been called. Waking up the following morning, scanning all the traditional and social media news outlets, I was excited to see that Fetterman, now Senator-Elect Fetterman, had been declared the victor.
As someone who is not a Pennsylvania resident, this race’s importance to me lies in the fact that ableism lost.
For a refresher, ableism is the discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities (Link here to a previous post where I go to greater lengths to define ableism). Ableism is systemic in our political discourse and it can be heard on all sides of the political spectrum. Here are just a few recent examples leading up to this year’s midterms:
President Obama, while president, made a joke about the Special Olympics
Then-candidate Donald Trump openly mocked a disabled reporter onstage, not for the question they asked, but for their disability
People questioned then-President Trump’s health and capabilities after watching how he walked down a ramp and held a glass of water
Similarly, last summer people questioned President Biden’s capabilities after he fell off his bicycle
President Biden’s stutter has consistently led the media and his opponents to question his mental fitness
Governor Ron DeSantis said, in regards to Dr. Fauci, “I’m just sick of seeing him [Fauci]! I know he says he’s gonna retire - someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac,”
This list represents only a tiny fraction of the ableism that is demonstrated in politics, but here’s the thing. In these instances, the targets of these ableist insults were not, at the time, candidates for public office (Technically the ramp and water instances with then-President Trump occurred while he was running for re-election).That is not to say that these politicians weren’t the targets of ableism while they were running. The examples I selected were merely ones that stood out in my head from recent memory.
Since declaring his candidacy, Senator-Elect Fetterman, who has had speech and hearing impairments since surviving a stroke, has been on the receiving end of frankly atrocious ableist attacks. These attacks came not just from his opponent, but from media outlets on both sides of the political aisle. Yet, it was the instance of ableism from NBC News in October that seemed to go viral. It was this instance that had #DisabilityRights trending on Twitter. It was this instance that truly, truly angered me.
In early October, Senator-Elect Fetterman sat down for an interview with NBC correspondent Dasha Burns. It was his first sit-down interview since his stroke, which occurred in May of this year. During the interview, Fetterman used a closed-captioning device that transcribed Dasha Burns’ questions as they were being asked. Burns and Fetterman discussed the then-candidate’s health, where he made it clear that, while he needed accommodations such as the closed captioning devices, he was capable of getting the job done. After the interview, Burns remarked to NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt that, “...in small talk, before the interview, without captioning, it wasn’t clear he was understanding our conversation.” Ed O’Keefe, CBS News Senior White House Correspondent, sharing the story on Twitter, wrote, “Will Pennsylvanians be comfortable with someone representing them who had to conduct a TV interview this way?”
Emily Ladau, a woman, wheelchair user, with brown curly hair and glasses, wearing a navy sleeveless blouse seated outside
As you can see by the Twitter responses that followed, many disabled advocates called out the blatant ableism of this question. Emily Ladau, disabled advocate, author, and guest on Always Looking Up, replied, “The better question is, why are you so clearly *uncomfortable* with a person exercising his right to use an accommodation on the job?”
To answer your question Mr. O’Keefe, the results from Election Day demonstrated that Pennsylvanians are, in fact, comfortable being represented by someone who, under The Americans With Disabilities Act, exercises their right to have reasonable accommodations made in the workplace.
Our society is inherently and systemically ableist. Disabled people comprise the world’s largest minority, yet it is our voices that are underrepresented and constantly silenced out of fear and ignorance. For politicians, as well as institutions of the media from all ends of the political spectrum, to be so blatantly ableist is irresponsible. It perpetuates the false narrative that anyone who is disabled cannot be in a position of power. That they cannot be an effective leader. They are saying that little kids who grow up disabled or who become disabled later in life shouldn’t dream about being President of the United States one day. That, for the sole reason that they are disabled, they shouldn’t believe that they can change the world.
Is this the message we want to continue telling future generations of Americans? Is it?
We as a society need to do better. We as an electorate, as a nation, and as members of the human race, have a moral imperative to demand that our politicians and journalists, who we are supposed to trust to report the news, do better.
Rebecca Cokley, disability rights activist, first U.S. Disability Rights Program Officer for the Ford Foundation, frequent guest on Always Looking Up, and someone I am honored to call a mentor, said it best in an interview with MSNBC columnist, author, and disability rights advocate Liz Plank, where it is discussed how the Oz-Fetterman Senate race exposed America’s ableism:
“Stigma against people with disabilities does real tangible harm. If a disabled person has demonstrated they can fulfill the task of a job with or without accommodations, there should be no questions about their fitness to serve. The numerous people with disabilities that have served with honor in our communities, in Congress [Senator Tammy Duckworth, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley], in the White House [President John F. Kennedy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt], and our nation’s Supreme Court [Justice Sonia Sotomayor], show us that disability is not a disqualifier.”
In this moment of our shared history, I do not implore you to take this message to heart. The time for requests of equality and respect has passed. Instead, I charge each and every one of you to listen to Rebecca’s words and apply them to your lives and to your world. To our world.
Disability is not a disqualifier.
