Here are the results of our disability issues survey. There have been 140 respondents so far. The survey is still open. Click here if you want to add your ratings.
Respondents were asked to rate the importance of each issue. We did not ask them to choose only a limited number, or to put all the issues in priority order from highest to lowest. Based on this, we get the following priority list -- 1 being highest, 10 the lowest:
1. Health care (affordability, accessibility, disability discrimination, health disparities).
2. Updating federal benefits amounts, rules, eligibility thresholds, and earning rules (SSI, SSDI, Medicaid, Medicare, higher benefits, more ability to work and save without losing benefits).
3. Defending and enforcing disability rights laws (ADA, 504, IDEA).
4. Right to vote and access to voting (polling place access, mail-in, allowing assistance, multiple day voting, voter ID laws, etc).
5. Mask bans and other aspects of COVID / infectious illness protections.
6. A four-way tie between:
Home care (Home and Community-Based Services, waiting lists for services, nursing home transition, Money Follows The Person).
Police violence against disabled people.
Employment (equal opportunity, equal pay & ending subminimum wage, workplace accommodations, vocational rehabilitation services, government hiring initiatives).
Mental health (funding for treatment and support, policies on involuntary confinement and treatment, homelessness policy, links to gun control debates).
7. Enforcing and expanding accessibility codes and standards (public buildings and facilities, streets and sidewalks, businesses, consumer electronics and internet).
8. War, military action, and genocide around the world and their effect on disabled people (Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, etc.)
9. A two-way tie between:
Transportation access (taxis, Uber & Lyft, buses, paratransit, transit stations, airlines and airports).
Education (Special Education funding, IDEA & IEP regulations, transition planning, college / postsecondary education accessibility).
10. Drug / opioids policy (access to pain medications).
It's worth noting that the lowest rated issue, drug / opioids policy, still received a score of 78 out of 100. This suggests that all ten issues are viewed as pretty important.