Hoping to increase the clout of its constituency, the National Organization on Disability launched a campaign called Vote 2000 a year ago. Dickson said 500,000 new disabled voters have been registered. Disabled-rights groups also are pressing for improved access to polling places. Dickson estimates that one-third of the country's 120,000 polling places are not fully accessible. In Philadelphia, activist Jessie Jane Lewis said less than 10 percent of the 1,681 polling places are fully accessible, though she said aggressive lobbying and voter registration drives seem to be having an effect.
People have to enfranchise themselves.
It isn't through the goodness of their hearts that election officials are going to make the polling places accessible. Most states try to accommodate disabled voters by allowing them to cast absentee ballots. But Dickson said these procedures sometimes require applications 30 days before Election Day, and do not substitute for a trip to the polls. Voting by absentee ballot segregates us. It puts us out of sight, and out of sight is out of mind.