The Disability Integration Act Gains New Supporters This Election Season


After weeks of feeling unheard and unrepresented by current presidential candidates, disability activists received a treat on Wednesday.

The Disability Integration Act (DIA) is a piece of legislation that ensures a person can not only receive health services, but it also supports long-term service in their homes. Often, people with a variety of disabilities are forced into a group home or other institutionalized setting in order to receive proper care.

S.2427 also allows for a person receiving such services to continue to earn an income. This is something that becomes impossible for most otherwise. In a more in-patient setting, like a group home, you generally cannot leave in order to pursue anything on your own – let alone to work.

Hillary Clinton released a statement on her website voicing support for the DIA:

“As a young lawyer working for the Children’s Defense Fund, I started my career fighting for the inclusion of children with disabilities in our schools. And I’ve never stopped fighting to break down the barriers that hold people with disabilities back. In this campaign, I have committed to improving opportunities for people with disabilities to live in integrated community settings, consistent with the full promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Supreme Court’s historic Olmstead decision.”

The same day, Bernie Sanders signed on to join Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet, Patrick Leahy, and Robert Casey as a co-sponsor of DIA.

It comes as no surprise that these are the only two presidential candidates who currently support DIA. For example, Sanders and Clinton are the only two presidential candidates to have filled out the #PwDsVote 2016 Campaign Questionnaire in full.

Governor John Kasich has filled out portions of the questionnaire.

Neither Ted Cruz nor Donald Trump has bothered to even touch the questionnaire. So which candidates really care about disability rights? The answer isn’t surprising.

Featured image via David Morris via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License

Kirsten Schultz is a writer and chronic illness guru living in Madison, Wisconsin. Her undergraduate degree is in religious studies with a double minor in history and politics. However, during her first go of graduate school, she fell extremely ill and had to drop out. She now shares her musings on living with chronic illness at her site Not Standing Still's Disease, writes about how illness affects Quality of Life (QoL) issues at Chronic Sex and Creaky Joints, and runs a weekly chat on QoL issues Thursday nights on Twitter.