Living and experiencing life as a person with multiple invisible disabilities is sometimes hard to navigate, but add being a community-focused, Black woman to the mix and that brings a heavy layer of complexity and challenges that I and so many others face as we dare to vote in America.

People with disabilities often become a campaign talking point during election season, but some of us are watching and asking for more than a DEI shout-out from candidates.

Our community and candidates should be educated on how to make our polling locations and candidate events more inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities. For example: Do polling locations or political events have permanent or temporary ramps? Do all polling locations have voting machines with ballot-marking devices for visually impaired voters? Do they have poll workers who are fluent in American Sign Language? If there are long lines, what accommodations are being made for people who cannot stand for long periods of time? These are just a few suggestions from local and national disability advocates.

Lauren Alden works with REV UP Philly, an organization that educates people about disability rights. REV UP stands for “Register! Educate! Vote! Use your Power!” During Disability Pride in Philadelphia, she explained how a lack of accessibility can lead to disenfranchisement.

“Some polling locations that have temporary ramps are not put out, so if maybe an introverted wheelchair user goes to vote and there’s no ramp out to get inside and they don’t want to speak up, then they go home and they don’t vote,” she said.

Sandy Hanebrink is the Executive Director of Touch the Future, a nonprofit that advocates for disability and senior-related needs. She tours the country with the Caravan for Disability Freedom and Justice, a mobile unit that educates citizens about the challenges faced by the disability community at the polls. Hanebrink says that despite people with disabilities comprising a major voting bloc, their interests are often overlooked. 

 “You never even hear in the polls, how is this candidate doing with the disability community?” she said. “You hear the Black community, you hear women, you hear the LGBTQ but never disability, right?”

This year, I’m thinking about requesting a mail-in ballot because it’s the easiest and safest choice if I can only vote after work. Just thinking about driving, parking, and standing in a long voting line at night scares me. Seeing national news stories of voter suppression and voting vigilantes brings back some bad memories I’d like to keep in the past. There have been reports of voter intimidation online and in person, with people showing up at polling locations and physically challenging voters. However, Hanebrink says that many people with disabilities, like herself, decide to vote in person anyway because visibility is important.

“If you do mail-in voting it’s like … everybody who is disabled is still supposed to be behind closed doors,” she said.

A big misconception or assumption is that mail-in ballots can only be mailed, but they can be dropped off at your county election office. Disability Pride advocates inspired me to literally take the extra step to take submit my ballot in person. 

An important part of the fight for disability rights is getting buy-in from those who don’t have disabilities. Alden says this fight is one that all communities should take up. 

“Even if you’re an able-bodied person and you know that your polling location is supposed to have a temporary ramp and you don’t see it … talk to the poll workers and say hey, can you put the ramp out? Because I think that you guys are supposed to have a ramp out here,” she said.

As a member of the disability community, I feel that our only hope to secure equal voting rights is education and preparation. Learning to advocate for myself and others with disabilities can be scary and daunting, but it’s necessary. We all have to do our due diligence and get information from reliable, well-researched sources and trusted messengers. Fact-checking is essential to our survival and combating inequity, discrimination, and misinformation.

So if you’re like me and think your vote is not just your right, it’s your voice, and a small requirement to help uphold democracy, then make a plan to vote.  It’s YOUR choice and right regardless of your disabilities. The polls should be accessible for ALL.

So rock your vote by mail or in person — just vote like your life depends on it — because it does.