People with Disabilities: Socially involved leads to Politically involved....

There are about an estimated 40 million voters with disabilities of all kinds including those who are aging, deafness, Mutliple Sclerosis and other disabilities. Nowadays, many of us are involved in way or another politically that are usually within community-minded and socially involved. Blogging is one example of socially and politically involved.

As disabled people became more socially involved, they also became more politically involved as part of improving our lives. Over the years, there have been growing memberships and attendance at various disability organizations such as Deaf Associations, National Multiple Sclerosis Society and others. I was supporting for "Speech and Hearing" but lately, I notice their lacking in some departments.

Like when I visited for first Men with Multiple Sclerosis support group, it was larger than I expected and the turn-out was great. I can see that disabled people are fitting into a community and getting involved with other disabled people to share that they are not theirs alone and all concerns are shared by many others. Since laws like ADA are not really helping educating the public, I am learning that I should not be relying on any political parties to improve political consciousness amongst disabled people. We, people with disabilities will be educating the public of what they need to know.

Political candidates needs to understant that it is not their political parties they should be worrying about because they should worry about 40 million people with disabilities and the importance of active political involvement by people with disabilities. The heart of advocacy and political involvement is voting.

I am curious, in your opinion, which political parties are really supportive for people with disabilities?

I am going to look into each Disability Related Organizations and find out which political parties they are usually supportive with. In the past, I didn't much politically and lately, I am thinking more deeper.

By the way, in the past few years, I have been involved in the following organizations directly or indirectly:

1. American Diabetes Association
2. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
3. National Multiple Sclerosis Society (also NMSS Ohio)
4. The Arc - organization on mental retardation
5. The Columbus Speech and Hearing Center
6. The Hearing Loss Association of America