5/2/18 Twitter Chat: The House Farm Bill and SNAP

Graphic with yellow background and black text that reads: "#CripTheVote Twitter Chat, The House Farm Bill & SNAP, May 2, 2018, 1 pm Eastern/ 10 am Pacific, Guest host: @TalkPoverty, For more: http://cripthevote.blogspot.com/ On the left is an illustration in black of a shopping cart. On the right is an illustration in black of a knife, spoon and fork.

On April 12, 2018 the House Agriculture Committee introduced the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 (H.R. 2), also known as the Farm Bill. This piece of legislation is estimated to spend about $860 billion over 10 years and proposes new work requirements on millions of low-income people receiving food stamps.

Join #CripTheVote and guest host Talk Poverty in a conversation about the Farm Bill, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps), and the impact on low-income people with disabilities. We especially welcome people who currently use food stamps or used it in the past to join us.

For more about the Farm Bill and SNAP:

The Farm Bill

TalkPoverty.org

House Republicans’ push to slash food stamps in the farm bill, explained

Tara Golsham, Vox.com - April 25, 2018

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
US Department of Agriculture

How to Participate

Follow @GreggBeratan @AndrewPulrang @DisVisibility @talkpoverty. When it’s time, search #CripTheVote on Twitter for the series of live tweets under the ‘Latest’ tab for the full conversation.

If you don’t use Twitter, you can follow along in real time here: http://twubs.com/CripTheVote

If you might be overwhelmed by the amount of tweets and only want to see the chat’s questions so you can respond to them, check @DisVisibility’s account.

Check out this explanation of how to participate in a Twitter chat by Ruti Regan: https://storify.com/RutiRegan/examplechat

Check out this captioned ASL explanation of how to participate in a chat by @behearddc

https://www.facebook.com/HEARDDC/videos/1181213075257528/

Introductory Tweets and Questions for the Chat

Welcome to the #CripTheVote chat on the #FarmBill (HR 2) and how it will impact people with disabilities. We are delighted to have guest host @talkpoverty join us. 

Remember to use the hashtags #CripTheVote #FarmBill when you tweet. If you respond to a question such as Q1, your tweet should follow this format: “A1 [your message] #CripTheVote #FarmBill”

Before we start: SNAP is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. It helps 1 in 8 Americans. ⅔ of people on SNAP are older adults, disabled people & children: https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/most-working-age-snap-participants-work-but-often-in-unstable-jobs #CripTheVote #FarmBill

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is reauthorized under #FarmBill, also known as the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 (HR 2). Full text of bill: https://agriculture.house.gov/uploadedfiles/agriculture_and_nutrition_act_of_2018.pdf

#CripTheVote

The #FarmBill proposes additional stricter work requirements for people who use SNAP and slashes nearly 20 billion from the program. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/news/2018/04/13/449613/house-republican-farm-bill-proposal-launches-dangerous-attack-nutrition-assistance/ #CripTheVote  

Q1 How does SNAP, also known as food stamps, support the well-being and health of multiple marginalized communities? If you receive SNAP, please share your experiences. #CripTheVote #FarmBill

Q2 What does the media get wrong about SNAP and the people who rely on food stamps to stay alive? What are the most dangerous and inaccurate narratives around poor, older, disabled people? #CripTheVote #FarmBill

Q3 What is the lived experience of being disabled and hungry? What does food insecurity look like for disabled people and their families. What needs to be better understood? #CripTheVote #FarmBill

The #FarmBill proposes work requirements for SNAP recipients 18-59 to work or enroll in a training programs for 20 hrs/wk w/ exemptions for people taking care of kids and pregnant or disabled people #CripTheVote  

Q4 What are your thoughts on work requirements for people on SNAP and other safety net programs like Medicaid? Do they help people out of poverty or put them at risk of hardship, food insecurity and hunger? Or something else? #CripTheVote #FarmBill

Q5 How do these work requirements impact people with disabilities who may not fit the disability exemption criteria? #CripTheVote #FarmBill

Q6 How does inadequate transportation/childcare, employment discrimination, geographical differences impact a person’s ability to comply with work requirements like the one proposed for some SNAP recipients? What are some other structural factors? #CripTheVote #FarmBill

Q7 What are the next steps for people who want to protect SNAP and voice their objections to the work requirements in the #FarmBill? #CripTheVote

Q8 For people who rely on safety net programs such as SNAP, Medicaid, and Social Security, what are your concerns and reactions to the current Administration’s attempts to dismantle and weaken these programs? How do we resist & fight back? #CripTheVote #FarmBill

Thank you for joining the #CripTheVote chat on the House Farm Bill & SNAP! A big thank you to our guest host @talkpoverty! Join us 5/20 for our next chat: Making Activism Accessible with @autselfadvocacy http://cripthevote.blogspot.com/2018/04/520-twitter-chat-making-activism.html

5/20/18 Twitter Chat: Making Activism Accessible

Image description: white graphic with black text that reads "#CripTheVote Twitter Chat: Making Activism Accessible, May 20, 2018, 4 pm Pacific/ 7 pm Eastern, Guest host: @autselfadvocacy, For more: http://cripthevote.blogspot.com/. On the left is the icon for Twitter, a bird in black and on the right is a graphic in black of a website with text.

How can activism become more accessible? How are people with cognitive disabilities left out of activism and political participation? Join the co-partners of #CripTheVote in a discussion about these issues with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN). 

From ASAN: People with cognitive disabilities think and learn differently. Down syndrome and autism are examples of cognitive disabilities. We might need more support to learn something new. Using simple, common words to explain things helps us understand.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network is a nonprofit by and for autistic people that works to educate communities, support self-advocacy in all its forms, and improve public perceptions of autism.

Welcome to the #CripTheVote chat on making activism accessible! We are delighted to have guest host @autselfadvocacy join us. Please note: accessibility is a broad topic and today’s chat will focus on accessibility for people w/ cognitive disabilities.

How to Participate

Follow @GreggBeratan @AndrewPulrang @DisVisibility @autselfadvocacy. When it’s time, search #CripTheVote on Twitter for the series of live tweets under the ‘Latest’ tab for the full conversation. 

If you don’t use Twitter, you can follow along in real time here: http://twubs.com/CripTheVote If you might be overwhelmed by the amount of tweets and only want to see the chat’s questions so you can respond to them, check @DisVisibility’s account.

Check out this explanation of how to participate in a Twitter chat by Ruti Regan:

https://storify.com/RutiRegan/examplechat

Check out this captioned ASL explanation of how to participate in a chat by @behearddc

https://www.facebook.com/HEARDDC/videos/1181213075257528/

Introductory Tweets and Questions for the Chat

Remember to use the #CripTheVote hashtag when you tweet. If you respond to a question such as Q1, your tweet should follow this format: “A1 [your message] #CripTheVote”

Q1 What does ‘accessible activism’ mean to you? What are some basic features of accessible activism that any activist, campaign, or organization should follow? #CripTheVote

Q2 Have you run into barriers to activism, including activism outside of the disability community? If so, please describe how they impacted you and how you responded  #CripTheVote

Q3 Are some forms of direct action or in person activism inaccessible? Is that ok, given that people have different limits and abilities? Why or why not? #CripTheVote

Q4 On organizing events: What are the most important things people should know about making their events (meeting, rally, conference) accessible for people w/ cognitive disabilities? What are some dos and don’ts?  #CripTheVote

Q5 On information and language: How can materials (printed, online, video, audio, social media) become more accessible for people w/ cognitive disabilities? What are some great examples you’ve seen? Resources?

Q6 Related to language: Why is it important for materials to be written in plain language? What are some other tips for making information as simple & easy to read as possible?  #CripTheVote

Q7 We are big believers in ‘nothing about us, without us.’ What is your advice for how all organizations, including disability organizations, can include people with cognitive disabilities in their activities/campaigns? How can organizers avoid making people with cognitive disabilities into tokens? #CripTheVote

Definition: Tokens are people who get used by groups of people as a figure to show that the group is inclusive. Groups that use people as tokens do not listen to those people, or their community members. “Tokenizing” is making a person into a token. #CripTheVote

Q8 For people with disabilities who have other marginalized identities: how do we make sure everyone gets a ‘seat at the table’ when it comes to community organizing and activism?

Definition: Marginalized identities are groups that have less power in society. For example, people with disabilities, people of color, women, transgender people, or gay people. People can have more than one marginalized identity. #CripTheVote

Thank you for joining the #CripTheVote chat on making activism accessible for people w/ cognitive disabilities! A big thank you to our guest host @autselfadvocacy. Check out our blog for the latest: http://cripthevote.blogspot.com/

ORGANIZERS FORUM: Disability and Running for Office

Note: We are boosting the following announcement from the National Disability Leadership Alliance, which may be of interest to people with disabilities who want to take the next big step in their quests to #CripTheVote ... by running for office.

===============

From: Jessica Lehman
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 12:32 AM
Subject: Organizers Forum April 17: Disability and Running for Office

ORGANIZERS FORUM: Disability and Running for Office

TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 20181-2 pm Eastern time, 12-1 Central time, 11-12 Mountain time, 10-11 am Pacific time

Call-in: 1-515-739-1285 

Passcode: 521847#

To join through your computer, go to:

https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/organizersforum

Although one in six voters has a disability, we are underrepresented and under-recognized as political candidates and public servants. This call will talk about the importance of running for and serving in public office as a person with a disability, the challenges and opportunities that people with disabilities (especially those who are multiply marginalized) face in campaigns, and the work being done to increase resources to train disabled leaders to run for office. 

Speakers: 

Congressman James Langevin (tentative) represents Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District.  

Thida Cornes was the first openly disabled candidate to run for Mountain View, California City Council and serves on the Mountain View Environmental Sustainability Task Force.  

Reyma McDeid is currently running for Iowa House District 38 and is the Executive Director of Central Iowa Center for Independent Living.  

Sarah Blahovec is the Disability Vote Organizer for the National Council on Independent Living.  

Please forward to your lists ASAP. (Be sure to include computer link and passcode to CART below.)

To give us an idea of who joins our calls, if you are interested in joining on Tuesday, please fill out this quick form! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dHAxWEV5Y3h3MUtrcW1LYXhTcjZyYUE6MQ 

CART: The call will have real-time captioning (CART)! The website where you will be able to view the captioning is https://2020archive.1capapp.com/event/forum/. Thank you to the National Disability Leadership Alliance for sponsoring the captioning of this call.

If you need additional accommodations to participate in the call, please let us know as soon as possible.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! The Organizer's Forum has a call on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, 1-2 pm EST (10-11 am PST).

NOTE: We have a listserv for discussion on these issues. It's organizersforum@yahoogroups.com; please go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/organizersforum/ and click "Join this group!" We also have our separate announcement-only listserv to allow everyone to easily get notices about the Organizer's Forum, calleddisabilityorganizing@googlegroups.com. Please email us to be added.We also have a Facebook page! We can use this is a way to continue our conversation beyond the monthly calls. Please "like" Organizer's Forum on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?cropsuccess&id=680444432#!/pages/Organizers-Forum/228971863811531?sk=info

Background:

The Organizing Workgroup of the National Disability Leadership Alliance hosts these calls the third Tuesday of every month as a resource for disability organizers, in an effort toward building the organizing capacity of the disability community across the country. They generally follow the format of a Welcome followed by 2-3 experts in a given area speaking for a few minutes on their experiences, advice and challenges. The calls include a 20-30 minute question and answer period.

To ask questions via CART: Sign-in to the Chat function on the right side of the transcript and type your question.  One of the call facilitators will read out any questions posted there.

Because we want to maximize the generously donated CART services, we will begin the call promptly at 1pm and end the call promptly at 2pm (eastern time).

April 8, 2018 Chat: Looking Forward - Results From The 2018 #CripTheVote Disability Issues Survey

4/8/18 #CripTheVote Twitter Chat: Results from 2018 #CripTheVote Disability Issues Survey

In the first few months of #CripTheVote, back during the 2016 primaries, we posted a disability issues survey, hoping to get an idea of what kinds of issues and policy ideas disabled voters were thinking about. The results helped guide #CripTheVote discussions, and also provided some concrete ideas to share with candidates, to help engage them more with disability concerns.

Two years later, we decided to run the same survey again, with the same purpose, but also to see how opinions and priorities might have changed. We ran the same questions and options, but also added a place where people could suggest new issues not included in the original survey, that might have emerged since 2016.

This year, we hoped to get at least 500 responses, which is about what we got in 2016. In the end, 589 people responded! And you can see the results … in graphical charts and text data here:

2018 #CripTheVote Disability Issues Survey Results

In this chat, we will discuss these results, what they might mean, and how we can use them during this Midterm Election year.

How to Participate in the Chat

Follow @GreggBeratan @AndrewPulrang and @DisVisibility. When it’s time, search #CripTheVote on Twitter for the series of live tweets under the ‘Latest’ tab for the full conversation. 

If you don’t use Twitter, you can follow along in real time here: http://twubs.com/CripTheVote
If you feel overwhelmed by the volume of tweets and only want to see the chat’s questions so you can respond to them, check @AndrewPulrang’s account.

Check out this explanation of how to participate in a Twitter chat by Ruti Regan: https://storify.com/RutiRegan/examplechat

Check out this captioned ASL explanation of how to participate in a chat by @behearddc
https://www.facebook.com/HEARDDC/videos/1181213075257528/

Introductory Tweets:

Welcome to a Twitter chat on the 2018 #CripTheVote Disability Issues Survey. Please remember to use the #CripTheVote hashtag when you tweet. If you respond to a question such as Q1, your tweet should follow this format: “A1 [your message] #CripTheVote”

Our discussion will reference results from the 2018 and 2016 #CripTheVote Disability Issues Surveys, which you can review here: http://cripthevote.blogspot.com/p/2016-survey.html

Before we start, a note about methodology. We decided to use SurveyMonkey again because of its rich graphical reporting, and to be consistent with the 2016 survey. We also offered a text-only version. #CripTheVote

11 responses were submitted that way and are fully incorporated into the final results. Obviously, this is not a scientific survey or definitive measurement of what the disability community in America thinks on all topics. The purpose is to spark conversation. #CripTheVote

Questions:

Q1: How well do the 2018 survey results match up with your own issue preferences and priorities? #CripTheVote

Q2: Which results of the 2018 Survey surprised you? Which results are good to see and which do you disagree with? #CripTheVote

Q3: Defending Social Security stands out as the top rated policy by far at 72%, with the next highest policy, hiring more disabled people in govt at 56.32%. In 2016, Social Security ranked lower, while all of the scores were closer together. Any thoughts on this? #CripTheVote

Q4: Accessibility-related issues scored fairly high, the 3rd highest priority issue category, and 5th ranked out of 15 policy proposals. What kinds of actual policies and political strategies can help make practical gains in accessibility? #CripTheVote

Q5: What do you think of the lower-ranked issues, Employment, Education, Long Term Care, Transportation, and Assistive Technology? Why do you think these issues ranked relatively low in both years? #CripTheVote

Q6: Aside from a few notable differences, like the much higher ranking for defending Social Security, there wasn’t much change in results between 2016 and 2018. What do you think that suggests? #CripTheVote

Q7: What are your thoughts about the new ‘write-in’ policy ideas? What’s missing? What do you care about? #CripTheVote

Q8: Which results would be most important to know for candidates running for office? #CripTheVote

Q9: How can we use these survey results most effectively during the Midterm Election campaigns? #CripTheVote

This concludes the #CripTheVote chat about our 2018 Disability Issues Survey. Join us on 5/20, for our chat “Making Activism Accessible” with guest host @autselfadvocacy!  https://www.facebook.com/events/178897666172260/