As the 2018 election season heats up, Chicago-based Access Living, together with more than 30 advocacy organizations from around the state, hosted a nonpartisan gubernatorial candidate forum last Thursday. Six Democratic candidates for Illinois Governor attended the event including Daniel Biss, Bob Daiber, Tio Hardiman, Chris Kennedy, and JB Pritzker. “Last year, many Americans saw for the first time the political power and commitment of people with disabilities,” says Marca Bristo, president and CEO of Access Living. “Through ADAPT and other groups, people with disabilities put their bodies on the line, going to battle for all Americans to stop the dismantling of our health care. Candidates who ignore our issues in 2018 will pay a price at the polls.”

The event featured questions submitted by voters around the state, focusing on the candidates’ views, plans and policy priorities for issues critical to disabled Illinoisans. Questions included Illinois’ bias toward institutionalizing disabled people and plans to enforce a Supreme Court ruling supporting people living in the community, efforts to improve the employment rate of disabled people, school inclusion plans for students with disabilities, and affordable, accessible housing for Illinoisans with disabilities and their families. In the November 2016 election, 16 million disabled Americans voted, though that is about six percent less than nondisabled voters. There are about 35 million eligible voters with a disability, surpassing the number of eligible Black and Latino voters. If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as people without disabilities, there would be about 2.2 million more voters. In Illinois, there are 1.4 million people with a disability (11.1 percent of total 12.7 m population). In Chicago and Cook County, percentages are similar with 292,332 residents and 551,169 residents, respectively.