By Barbara Sheinbein
Disability Voting Rights Week (DVRW), September 8-12, 2025, is a nonpartisan movement hosted by the American Association of People with Disabilities' REV UP campaign. DVRW is about advocating for accessible futures, celebrating community, and building power.
Through DVRW, we want voters with disabilities to …
- Think: My vote matters, and voting is one way that I can use my power in my community.
- Feel: Solidarity with a broader community, supported to access their right to vote.
- Do: Register to vote, make a plan to vote, and support a friend in registering, educating, and voting!
In 2024, there were 40.2 million eligible voters with disabilities, representing one-sixth of the total electorate. (Rutgers, Oct. 2024 Report)
Nearly one-third of all eligible voters — about 72.7 million people — either have a disability themselves or live with someone who does. (Rutgers, Oct. 2024 Report) If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as nondisabled voters, there would be about 2.0 million more voters.
Voters with disabilities in 2022 were three times more likely to have difficulty or need help voting compared to voters without disabilities.
In 2017, the Government Accountability Office found that 60 percent of polling places had at least one problem that made them inaccessible.
Here are some examples:
The polling place is not accessible: While accessibility is required by the ADA, many polling locations remain inaccessible. Physical barriers, including a lack of curb-side voting, ableist attitudes from poll workers, hostility around the polling place, and broken accessible voting machines, are all examples of common accessibility barriers.
Strict photo ID laws: Strict photo ID requirements disproportionately harm disabled voters. Requirements that often go along with these laws, like signature matching, can also jeopardize disabled voters' ballots from being fairly counted. People whose disabilities impact their dexterity, or those who are blind or have low vision, may not be able to create the same signature twice, leading to their ballot not being verified.
Lack of accessible information: Information about how to vote and what you are voting for is often not accessible to screen readers (speech software), and people who need plain language materials.
Laws restricting who can assist voters: Several states have put laws in place that restrict who can help people fill out and return their ballots. People with disabilities should be able to choose the person they trust to assist them.
Lack of accessible transportation and long lines: People with disabilities often do not have reliable access to accessible transportation, which makes getting to the polling place difficult. Additionally, waiting in long lines is not possible for many people with disabilities. While some states do allow people with disabilities to move to the front of the line, this is often not widely known or practiced. Strict rules around absentee ballots: Complicated rules about how you fill out your absentee ballot and ballot envelope can impact disabled voters.
Recognize that for many people, voting is difficult. When registering voters or engaging in conversation with voters, listen with empathy and communicate with compassion.
Lack of access to accessible transportation, inaccessible polling places, strict Voter ID laws, ballots that are not in plain language or available in American Sign Language, limited choice living in congregate settings, prejudice and bias from family members or poll workers – these are just a few of the barriers a disabled voter might experience.
What can you do to help?
Discuss voting with a person (or more than one person) that is in your circle. Be sure that the person knows their voting rights and voting method options. It is also important that a person with a disability makes their own decisions on both the method of voting and how to vote, and not be directed by other well-meaning people. Talk directly to the person with a disability and not talk to someone who is accompanying the person with a disability. Be sure that if a voting issue does come up, it gets reported while the voter is still at the polls so that it can be resolved. Share this information with others so more people become aware of the issues faced by voters with disabilities.
Share information about what is on the ballot in your area! You can use Vote411. There is a web page at WWW.LWVSTL.ORG and click on Vote for further information. If someone is not connected to the internet, be sure to share about the paper Voter's Guide and how they can get a copy. Be flexible to work with the tech or other communication choices that the person with a disability uses.
