By Mike Cason
While representatives and senators hashed out bills on the fifth and seventh floors of the Alabama State House on Thursday, people with disabilities met in a committee room on a quiet hallway on the first floor.
They were there to launch REV UP, an initiative to help disabled people get involved in political advocacy and improve access to voting. REV UP stands for “Register, Educate, Vote, Use your Power.” Alabama is the 20th state to adopt the campaign that started in Texas in 2016 and that has ties to the American Association of People with Disabilities.
Katie Toro, who lives in Morgan County and works as a peer advocate for an independent living center, talked about being a shy child who grew up in foster care.
“I had to find my voice. And REV UP is to help individuals with disabilities find their voice. Because one thing is that people with disabilities are kept quiet,” Toro said.
Toro said there are consequences to not being heard.
“Out of sight, out of mind. So, it’s time for us to raise our voices, to get out there and let them know that we’re out there and we need to break these barriers down so everybody else can get out there,” Toro said.
Barbara Manuel, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Alabama, said the goals of REV UP are straightforward.
“We want the same rights, the same privileges as anyone else,” Manuel said. “That’s all we’re asking for. We want to be treated fairly, whether it’s blindness, whether you’re in a wheelchair, or other unseen disabilities. We’re here. We’re human. We want to be treated fairly.”
Toro, Manuel, Jenny Lux of Huntsville and Karen Jones of Montgomery spoke as the co-leaders of REV UP. The League of Women Voters of Alabama helped organize the launch and a session in civic engagement training.
Kathy Jones, president of the League of Women Voters Alabama, said REV UP will provide a powerful voice that is needed for voting rights concerns of Alabama’s disabled citizens.
The initiative comes one month after Alabama lawmakers passed SB1, a bill to make it a felony to pay someone or to receive payment for helping voters get absentee ballot applications, fill them out, and turn them in.
The Republican majority in the Legislature passed the bill over opposition from Democrats and from advocates who said it would deprive elderly, disabled, and incarcerated voters and others from help they need.
Supporters of the legislation said exceptions in the new law make allowances for those who need help with absentee voting, like the disabled, blind, and illiterate. They said the new law was intended to stop ballot harvesting, the distribution and collection of absentee ballot applications by third parties to influence election outcomes.
Opponents of the bill questioned that purpose and cited the lack of examples of ballot harvesting in Alabama. A federal lawsuit has been filed challenging the new law as unconstitutional.
While REV UP will focus on voting, Toro said there will be broad overlap with other issues affecting the disabled.
“That involves every type of barrier that is put in place for us,” Toro said. “That includes transportation, that includes health care, that includes education, that includes just daily living.
“There have been days where I saw other people living their day-to-day lives and I was stuck at home with no transportation and no way to get to a voting poll to be able to vote against and for different bills out there. There’s been times where I went to go and vote and the handicapped parking was blocked.”
Toro said part of her job as a co-leader of REV UP is to overcome the discouragement she encounters.
“I hear in my work every day, ‘Why should I vote, Katie?They don’t care what we have to say.’” Toro said. “So we’ve got to break these barriers so people with disabilities can get out there and vote for and against these bills. We say we’re a free country and we’re one nation. Well, we need to become one nation and one country and get Alabama on the same page.”
Manuel said the Federation of the Blind consistently hears examples of why more civic engagement is necessary, such as when people are first trying to adjust to their loss of sight.
“A lot of times people think their life is over,” Manuel said. “We’re here to let them know you still can lead a productive, quality life. With the proper training and tools, you can be proficient in just about everything you want to do.
“We constantly get calls from parents of blind children. Wondering, my child is maybe 9 or 10 years old, sometimes even older, and within a public school system. And they do not know how to read. These are things that we can change in the state of Alabama.”
Jones said there is a need for onsite assessments of voting precincts to check for potential problems for disabled voters. Jones said the need to draw attention to the issues affecting the disabled exceeds what most people believe.
“Just like me, I have an invisible disability,” said Jones, who suffers from the effects of a stroke. “I don’t walk with a cane. I don’t know when is a good day or a bad day for me when my body wants to operate and cooperate. So we have to stop the assumption that disabled means you’re in a wheelchair.”
“How many state representatives and senators have invisible disabilities?” Jones said. “So those disabled state representatives should be the first that want to join REV UP Alabama to collaborate on efforts. I would love for state representatives and state senators to boldly come out, they don’t have to be specific on what their disability is, but let people know.”
Manuel said it is important to build relationships with lawmakers.
“We want to educate everyone to let them know that these barriers exist,” Manuel said. “A lot of times people don’t even realize they exist. But this one of the reasons why REV UP is here in Alabama. And I know that we are going to make some positive changes.
“The numbers will grow. We will have disabled as well as other individuals helping us lift this tremendous load to change the pendulum and let the pendulum swing in the right direction for disabled individuals in the state of Alabama.”
