Longmore: Palin talks about ’special needs children,’ but …
… Obama has substantive plans for all people with disabilities
October 5th, 2008
Writing in huffingtonpost.com, Paul K. Longmore says presidential campaign coverage has included a lot of talk about “special needs” children, thanks to Sarah Palin, but little about the issues that concern the 54 million Americans with disabilities of all ages.
Longmore compares the stances of the McCain-Palin ticket and the Obama-Biden ticket on healthcare, health insurance and social services for people with disabilities.
An excerpt:
Even though 90 percent of the 54 Americans with disabilities are adults, Palin, John McCain, and the news media have talked almost exclusively about children. And that talk has been mostly about “compassion” not “issues.”
The McCain-Palin campaign website has a single page on “Americans with Disabilities for McCain,” but it says nothing about policy positions. Other pages mention autism and disabled veterans but no other issues.
In contrast, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have said little on the campaign trail about disability issues but their campaign website provides detailed policy proposals in a comprehensive “Plan to Empower Americans with Disabilities.”
Paul K. Longmore is a professor of history and director, Institute on Disability, at San Francisco State University. His “ Open letter to the disability rights constituency ” appeared exclusively on this site last month.
from an excellent blog on the rights of disabled persons
http://www.patriciaebauer.com/2008/10/05/mental-health-parity/
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