May 23, 2016 The disabled face significant obstacles to voting in America’s political system, Stanford expert finds
Stanford law scholar Rabia Belt’s new research shows that millions of votes are lost because the disabled encounter inadequate accommodations at the polls and legal obstacles regarding mental health.
“People with disabilities are the ticking time bomb of the electorate.”
So says Stanford law researcher Rabia Belt, who has new research on the disenfranchisement of disabled Americans. The intersection of disability and citizenship – in history and in the here-and-now – is, in Belt’s view, part of a great unseen in law and democracy.
Stanford’s Rabia Belt is a legal historian whose recent scholarship focuses on disability and suffrage. (Image credit: Bruce Forrester Photography)
The number of disabled individuals in this country is sobering – about 50 million and counting. And in the lead-up to the 2016 election, the nation is ill prepared to accommodate them, said Belt, who joined Stanford Law School last year as a research fellow to finish her dissertation before she takes up her position as an assistant professor teaching disability law and criminal law at [...]