Title:
Disability, Democracy & the Power of Representation

Subtitle:
The disability vote, Josh Turek’s election, voting rights, and the future of disability in American politics.

Transcript:

Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week, we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths, let’s go.

Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I’m Alycia Anderson. Marty, my hostess-with-the-mostest sidekick, is back with me today, and we are talking about something that’s been on our minds a lot lately, especiallywith the elections that just happened. We’re gonna talk about disability and democracy today, so we’re going kinda deep.

And even more specifically, we’re gonna talk about disability representation in American politics. We’ve just seen really cool things happen, like Josh Turek, a fellow wheelchair user who I’ve been following for months, a Paralympic gold medalist athlete, was just elected to the United States Senate.

Big deal. And that got us thinking over here about the history of people with disabilities in government, the leaders who have helped pave the way, and what disability representation actually means and what it looks like today. Marty, my brilliant husband and partner, also has been writing about this a lot lately in our Contributors Corner.

If you haven’t checked out our Contributors Corner, please go to our website and do so. But it’s a series on our website where we explore all kinds of different topics, and he’s been exploring disability, voting blocs, and what our community really needs from American democracy. Perfect timing for all the things that have been in the news lately.

And with the work that we do every day helping companies, organizations, and educational institutions become more inclusive and educated on some of these topics there’s been an interesting connection between what we’re seeing in the workforce and what we’re seeing in government, because both places, we are ultimately talking about who gets opportunities, who gets represented whose perspectives get to be part of decision-making.

So today, we’re gonna look at all of those things, some of the history, what’s happening now, and we’re gonna imagine what’s gonna happen into the future and what disability representation might look like. So Marty, let’s get to it. Welcome back. Let’s start with the election, because there’s some pretty interesting things and history, that has just been made.

Welcome.

Marty Anderson: Yeah, it’s awesome to be back on Pushing Forward with Alycia and talking about such an important topic. Democracy is a foundation in the United States of America, and as citizens, we have the power to help shape the direction of our future. It is amazing to see that Josh Turek was elected last night to the Senate a wheelchair basketball player, gold medalist, and he’s actually been serving for quite some time on the State Assembly as a representative for his district, and has recently moved up to senator, so that’s exciting.

Alycia Anderson: What does that mean for disability representation as a whole? What do you think?

Marty Anderson: It’s another piece of disability representation. I know that all of us live busy lives, and we’re concentrated on how we’re gonna put food on our table, keep a roof over our heads, and all of those necessities. And then we often are torn with what we’re dreaming about, what our projects are for us.

It’s work, it’s running all these companies doing projects. And, oftentimes we don’t have enough time to devote to how everything actually works in our country. But, it’s a beautiful thing that any citizen of the United States of America can have an effect on how our country runs. And it starts from the local government, where our local city, town representatives are working on howlife is in our cities, up to the states, and then up to the federal level, and each one of these has different processes and different rules and regulations. For the average citizen in America, it’s hard to understand all the complexities. We’re taught about it in our general education in high school, and some of us choose to go into it in college, et cetera. But it is amazing how it works. And so with the conversation today, I’d like to focus on the disability aspects and how the disability community has been a part of this process, and hope to inspire people to be active about it, to think about what their vote means and press their representatives from the local, state to the federal on the importance of disability discussions and topics in our politics and shaping the direction of how our future will look like through that.

Alycia Anderson: I love that, and I feel like having representation like a Josh Turek or some of the other people that have paved the way in our government like Tammy Duckworth, she’s a senator in Illinois. There’s a lot of representatives that are out there and that have been out there, and that visibility first and foremost before we get into like what all of that means into legislation and democracy. What do you think the visibility of disabled government leaders do forprogressing leadership roles from a disability standpoint in government moving forward?

Because when, for me, when you see somebody like Josh Turek going door to door, knocking on doors and going through an entire campaign and then winning, I would assume, at least for me, we’ve talked about it a lot. Like maybe we should consider going into some type of a government role where we can make a difference from a legislation standpoint, and I feel like that representation is gonna open the mindset to a lot of other disabled people out there to maybe lean into leadership roles that might be able to make a difference in government as well.

Marty Anderson: Yeah, it’s exciting. There’s so many shapes and forms to do it. You’re actually making a difference without being an elected official as the appointed inaugural seat on the diversity task force for the California Department of Insurance. Those types of things, anywhere we can bring the conversation of disability to the table and help shape the discussions is where we’re gonna succeed in our country and hopefully continue to be a shining light for the rest of the world.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, I agree.

Marty Anderson: I’d love to briefly think about the current representation in the recent history that we’ve seen. Names like John Fetterman, who’s serving as a US senator from Pennsylvania, who’s been a highly visible representative that has auditory processing challenges and has shared openly about his clinical depression. Of course the governor,of Texas, Greg Abbott, who served since 2015 and was paralyzed from an accident in 1984. You mentioned Tammy Duckworth, along with representatives like Dan Crenshaw who have been military members with disabilities who have represented. The list goes on and on really, but we’re talking, about how each one of them has an opportunity. And I was looking through some of the stats, and I think I saw that disability represents about 6.9% of the federal legislators, and how one in four Americans, 25 to 26%, is not being represented fully enough in our electorate if you look at it through that lens.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, and that’s a huge percentage, and I know over the last several election cycles, we’ve talked a lot about the gaps in leaning into government officials and their campaigns leaning into that 25%and looking at it as something to go after and to leverage in getting the vote out for people with disabilities.

I think that’s an interesting number that you just talked about.

Marty Anderson: I’d love to throw out some names for our audience. We’d love for this to be an informative episode for you. Take away something, learn, because we need to understand who’s been there in the past. And here in California, I’d love to shout out about Lateefah Simon, who was born legally blind entering Congress in January ’25. People like Jessica Benham, an autistic legislator with a background in autistic self-advocacy in the Pennsylvania House. Others like David Ortiz from Colorado.

Alycia Anderson: I’ve been in contact with David Ortiz on LinkedIn. We’ve had some exchange, and what I find really interesting about hisrole specifically is upon his arrival legislation was prompted to create more physical accessibility and improvements in some of the historic Capitol buildings.

And so just I guess leaning into the point that having disabled representatives not only helps legislation and move forward, new laws, but also take into consideration all kinds of different universal design and accessibility advancements that can happenalong the way as well, which is really powerful.

Marty Anderson: Yeah. And the funny thing is we’ve been doing this work for several years now, and its amazing how much we’ve touched and talked with people in our community from all different aspects. And on the conversation today, people can go back and listen to episode 105. We had Sarah Crawford, who’s a North Carolina House of Representatives member representing District 66, and we’ve had Theo Braddy on the show with the National Council on Independent Living. so many different topics, right? And not to mention all the conversations we’ve had on IDD and cognitive disabilities, and that begs for me to throw out there, there are so many complex things in the disabled voting needs, and we’ve seen some gain traction. Others have never had the representation that they need to do the things that they want. We just had Elizabeth Ansell, who’s promoting and advocating for ME/CFS with representatives pushing for more legislation.

And oftentimes we focus on the essential needs of healthcare and transportation and independent living. But, I believe our conversations need to stretch much farther. All of those legislative issues are necessities, don’t get me wrong. But they look at the lens of disability as something that needs to be helped, is something that needs to be supported because can’t do things for ourselves. Whereas legislation in the future, I hope moves to much broader topics that look at disability as something that is not, limiting and something that is, “Hey, we’re trying to have equal lives and opportunities.

We wanna be able to put away for retirement. We wanna have life insurance. We wanna be able to succeed. We wanna be able to go on vacations. We want to see a whole range of different things come to the table.”

Alycia Anderson: And we hear it all the time in our advocacy. The barriers aren’t the disability, the barriers are the environments that are creating the barriers, or the policies that are limiting, like you’re saying, the opportunities to have resources and different things in the world, like a life insurance or something like that.

Those are the things that need to be expanded, the disability isn’t the barrier, it’s the infrastructure and all the things that are built around it that are excluding us. And that’s where disability and democracy really overlaps, because we need to be part of those conversations and processes so the barriers are removed, and entry to all of those things is way more plentiful and has more opportunity than we have right now.

Marty Anderson: Yeah, and I’ll finish that with I’m tired of the scare tactics. I’m tired of the fear of the reversal of the ADA. I’m tired of the overturning of Olmstead. I’m tired of all of the negative stuff that gets thrown into the conversations in those. And that’s where I think that as a disability community, we need to come together even more to understand how we can shape the disability conversation in politics moving into the future?

Alycia Anderson: Okay, so Marty, you just mentioned Olmstead and some other legislative things. Let’s talk about some of those things in case not everybody knows what you just said. Let’s talk about Olmstead and why there was 18 governors discussing it. Let’s just give them some facts. In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. L.C. that unjustified segregation of people with disabilities can violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. What is that issue? Do you wanna dive into that a little bit?

Marty Anderson: Yeah, so Olmstead is actually a landmark Supreme Court decision from 1999 that basically established that people with disabilities have the right to live in their communities rather than being unnecessarily placed in institutions. It’s a huge part of disability civil rights and independent living in America.

But recently, in 2026, the Department of Justice changed how it interprets and enforces some of those protections, which raised serious concerns in the disability community.

In response, 18 governors came together and sent a letter urging the federal government to uphold those protections, and while the original Supreme Court ruling hasn’t been overturned the controversy over how it’s being enforced hasn’t been fully resolved.

So it’s really an important reminder that disability rights and public policy are still evolving and why having disability voices represented in government matters so much.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, and like to your point on big issues, like Olmstead is basically saying, are people with disabilities better off living in institutions or having the opportunity to live independently? Those are major pieces of democracy, right? And our freedoms as part of this country. in June and July of 2026, the Department of Justice changed its legal interpretation and withdrew the longstanding guidance concerning the community integration.

On September 3rd, 2026, governors sent a joint letter expressing their concern about federal government’s approach in reframing support for disabled community and integration.

Marty Anderson: And to bring that to a personal level, it shapes how, disabled people live in our communities, right? And, when we talk about the disability community, I’ve tried to break it down in the articles that I’ve written in the Contributor’s Corner. I’ve done a lot of deep research. This has all been on my mind because how do we make changes? We do it through numbers, right? And, though the disabled community is made of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, all types of people with different opinions, there are things that we should mutually be concerned about, and we should mutually spend some time on trying to solve. And yes, those necessities that we have fought so hard for should remain a given in tomorrow’s political future, not something that can be taken away. We shouldn’t be always worried about advocacy and protesting something, but more of expanding opportunities.

Alycia Anderson: That just made me think of like, where policy becomes personal, and it reminds me of the conversation that we had with Tony Coelho when he was on the podcast about how disability in politics in certain times of our history has brought all parties together because disability is actually the one thing that everybody can relate to.

And if you talk about your personal experiences and bring those in, there’s no question everybody should be open and willing to look at different issues and how we could better move forward from a policy, politics, and democracy standpoint for people with disabilities.

So I think that personal element and, how Tony talked about on the podcast how beautiful it was that government on all sides of the aisle, it, disability was one of the things that they could agree on back then when the ADA was being passed, because it benefits everybody.

Marty Anderson: Yeah. And the personal side of this story in regards to Olmstead is we can’t go into thinking about these decisions and political legislation from the lens of unknowns and assumptions, where the main thing that pops into your head may be, about person that’s younger that’s living with severe disabilities, that may be needing constant care, the reality is this Olmstead decision is also going to affect a large portion of senior citizens in our country, right? And this Olmstead ultimately can affect those senior citizens who are being forced out of their homes into institutions, and those types of decisions, you really have to dive into and think about, right? And personally, I think about those from our own situation, right? What happens as we age? What happens if our disabilities become, more restrictive, more limiting? How will we be able to ensure that we get to live out the rest of our days in our home with each other, not stuck in a rehab facility, living lives that you don’t want to live, right? So a lot of these decisions in our country, really affect a lot of people, and I talk about the disability community in my articles as, again, everybody knows these decisions about disability, can actually affect any one of us at any time. Even if you’re not living with a disability legislation should be a concern to you because, the what if.

What if I become disabled, right?

There’s a lot to unpack in all of this, and this conversation truly just came out of the elections yesterday, and on another personal note, we could talk about accessibility at the polls. We could talk about what it was like for us. We could talk about, how do we engage our audience to join this conversation with us? If you’re listening and you want to add something to this conversation, put a comment on the YouTube channel or make a comment on our website. Send us a contact request. Do something, right? Let’s work on all of this together.

Alycia Anderson: We could do some fun historical facts since you brought up accessible polling about what the history has looked like a little bit and that.

Wanna do a few of those?

Marty Anderson: Sure.

Alycia Anderson: Okay. The right to choose someone to help you vote pertains to the ADA. And in 1982, Congress added Section 208 to the Voting Rights Act that protects voters’ rights of assistance when needed because of disability.

Maybe blindness, difficulty reading or writing, et cetera. So that’s an interesting fact. Did you know that?

Marty Anderson: I don’t know a lot about our disability policies

Alycia Anderson: Another interesting fact. The ADA protects the entire voting journey. It protects covering registration, election websites, early voting, absentee voting, and Election Day access in federal, state, and local elections. Accessibility starts long before someone enters the voting booth.

So that’s a good fun fact that it protects us all along the way.

Yeah, and I was reading a fun fact about accessibility at the polls, I saw a statistic that in 2024, 14% of people with disabilities reported that they had issues getting to the polls. So that remains one of those what should be a given in today’s age, that anybody who’s a citizen can make it to the polls and get their vote counted. And another fact here on that note, the DOJ says that absentee voting cannot replace in-person access for disabled voters who prefer to vote at the polls on election day. So having multiple choices in accessibility in how to vote is extremely important. So I like that one a lot, too.

Marty Anderson: Yeah. And then my mind wanders to think of potential cases where disabled voters may not be exercising their rights. Maybe it’s young adults with IDD who live under the umbrella of their parents who don’t think that they should vote. it could be a lot of things that are barriers to the vote that are outside of the polling place.

Alycia Anderson: How about the future of voting access A 2024 DOJ rule established technical accessibility standards for government websites and apps, including election offices. As of November 2026, the compliance deadlines are April 26, 2027 for governments serving 50,000 or more people, and April 26, 2028 for smaller governments and special districts.

Existing ADA obligations still apply before those dates. So that’s good. There’s a mandate and a focus on stronger digital accessibility as well.

Marty Anderson: Yeah. And hopefully we’ll see the traction on those requirements, right? Instead of kicking the can down the road, extending deadlines all of these things. The facts of the matter are our world is changing faster than ever. With AI advancing every facet of how we operate, how we maintain our systems, how we build systems, how the expectations are going to also change rapidly from our citizens. And so all of those are awesome that they’re required by law, which, again, should be a given in the United States of America.

Alycia Anderson: And I wanna backpedal for a minute because you mentioned something that was important, very important actually, about the misconception if someone with an intellectual disability has the ability to go and vote, and federal disability laws protect their voting rights, although specific eligibility rules vary by state.

And I know I saw a big… right before the elections there was a lot of marketing campaigns and education on Americans with intellectual disability and their rights to voting as well. And so when we talk about accessible democracy, we’re not just talking about wheelchair ramps and voting machines, we’re talking about accessible information, communication, supported and decision-making, and to make sure that all people with disabilities have the ability to participate without making an assumption about their ability and whether they’re able to participate in it or not.

And so I think, all the layers of that advocacy is extremely important as well.

Marty Anderson: Yeah. And while you were reading through that, I was thinking in my mind how even internal ableism can be a blocker for disabled voters.

Who don’t feel like they matter, don’t feel like their vote counts, and so much so, that they don’t even try, right?

Alycia Anderson: Or even just unsure or uneducated in what is out there from an accessibility standpoint for them to be able to participate in a way that works for their needs. And so that’s really important education and resources that need to be out there regularly.

Marty Anderson: And, I’d like to add to that, what is drawing disabled voters to the polls? When’s the last time you heard a major policy change for disability? When is the last time that there was an issue or a proposition or something on the ballot that was drawing disabled voters, right? So that begs the question, how much representation is needed before that happens?

Alycia Anderson: Well, there’s a lot more representation that’s needed, so those types of issues are on the ballot for us to vote for, but you and I had a debate about this yesterday because you were saying disability’s not on the ballot. There wasn’t any specific initiatives to vote on. But I think that’s why it’s important for us to study who we’re voting in from a local level, state level, and federal level and what their priorities are, and if they are advancing some of the advocacy that we need to continue to move that forward.

So I believe that disability’s always on the ballot, whether there’s a specific initiative or not. We’re voting in people who understand that people with disabilities are part of our community and part of our democracy or we’re not. And so I think that’s extremely important in our voting.

Marty Anderson: Yeah, it is 100%, and you’re 100% correct. Disability is always on the ballot. It’s the people that we’re choosing to lead our country in the different positions, right?

And as a fun fact, yesterday I threw in AI the vote for California in our district, and I said, crunch the numbers. This is who we are: disabled couple, married, over 50, own a home. How should I vote to protect my rights and all of the things in regards to disability?” And AI is great about throwing answers, and it begged for more, right? And it alluded, like you just mentioned, that check out the stances of the people in regards to disability. And when I started diving into those, I was once again disappointed at what was available through our advanced days and ages where we can search and check out anything. And when you look up politicians and you put the word, “What’s their stance on disability?” You’re not gonna find much. so the problem is in our system, we as disabled community need to be asking more of our politicians. We need to be asking them the tough questions that help them shape their views?

Alycia Anderson: I agree. So as we’re wrapping up this episode, what is your hopes and dreams for future generations when we’re talking about civic participation and doing better into the future?

Marty Anderson: Yeah, there’s so much more to unpack in this conversation.The future of disability and democracy in the United States, I hope will be more thoughtful, be more interactive, be called on more by leadership at all levels. Because we talk about this all the time and it’s embedded in our speeches, and it’s embedded in our products, how disability is so complex, so varied, but it also is our common ground as it stretches across all party lines, it stretches across all gender lines, cultural lines, et cetera. And if we implement bringing disability into the conversation more, it’s going to help melt away all the problems that we’re facing as a society. And, I look at it from a current affairs standpoint with the conversations about AI and where is our world gonna be. Is AI gonna wipe us out, or is it gonna help advance us to a place we’ve never seen before? And those ideas and thoughts about where our future is going is extremely important. And disability needs to be a vital piece of the pie because through our work in inclusion of people with disabilities, we uncover solutions, find innovations, provide creative pathways to bring people together to help us all find a better tomorrow.

Alycia Anderson: Beautiful. Is that a pushing forward moment?

Marty Anderson: It definitely could be.

How about for you?

Do you have something?

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, we’re talking a lot about representation and democracy. And so I feel like representation is more than just having a seat at the table. It’s about us making sure that everybody has an opportunity to exercise their vote and shape the future. And people with disabilities need to have way more of an active role in that because to your point, our voices will help bridge change that the masses sometimes aren’t even considering.

Marty Anderson: And I have a pushing forward moment to end this episode.

Alycia Anderson: Okay.

Marty Anderson: I want to encourage our existing representation to understand that because disability has such limited representation in the structures of our government, that those who are representing us now are faced with challenges unlike any other representatives out there. Because they’re being looked at through a magnifying glass, and every single thing that they do represents the disability community as a whole. So I wanna end this episode with the hopes that those representatives have the courage, the desire, and the want to hold that in their hearts as they move forward in their policy efforts.

Alycia Anderson: And be bold in their actions.

Marty Anderson: Be bold in their actions. Find the allies in the room that can cross the bipartisan divides, a la Tony Coelho, and make our world a better place. As we move into the next cycle, for all of you out there that are disabled citizens, think about how you can be more proactive in approaching the next results and the next election. How can you get more out of your representatives today? How can we band together to build a voice that will be listened to?

Alycia Anderson: Alright Marty, this was a very thought-provoking episode, timely with the elections, and I hope that it’s an episode that allows some people to learn something new about this voting bloc.

Marty Anderson: Yeah. I hope that we have further episodes on this in the future.

Alycia Anderson: Definitely. Marty, thank you for such an insightful conversation.

So timely. Another great episode together. This has been Pushing Forward with Alycia and Marty, post voting day. And pushing forward is how we roll on this podcast. We will see you next week.