As the Democratic National Convention kicks off amid soaring rhetoric and hopeful initiatives for the betterment of our nation, Americans with disabilities are looking for signs that their struggle for equality will be affirmed. At the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), this struggle is not merely a political campaign, but also one that encourages economic opportunity and access to the latest innovations for the more than 50 million Americans living with disabilities.

The AAPD is the largest national nonprofit cross-disability member organization in the United States dedicated to economic self-sufficiency and political empowerment. One of their key goals is to conduct programs to enhance the lives of people with disabilities, including programs to reduce poverty and unemployment, to assure that every disabled person has the right to his or her own living arrangement, and to assure that every child or adult with a disability has access to and funding for assistive technology.

They are also in a coalition with other disability organizations to protect Americans with disabilities from discrimination and to empower them to fully put their skills and talents to work in society. Unfortunately, too many people with disabilities are being left behind in an economy that increasingly demands sophisticated skills and access to all that the high-speed Internet makes possible in our lives—from innovative assistance to expanded economic opportunities.

In 2005, according to Cornell University’s Employment and Disability Institute, the percentage of working-age people with a disability was 12.6 percent in the United States. In other words, 21.5 million of the 170 million working-age Americans reported one or more disabilities. And, unemployment and poverty hits the disabled particularly hard. In 2005, according to Cornell, the poverty rate of working-age people with disabilities was 24.6 percent—nearly three times the rate of the working-age population at large.

With the growing importance of the Web, AAPD is helping people with disabilities find new opportunities to break out of the poverty trap, especially as broadband becomes ubiquitous in urban and rural areas. Distance learning has also been a great boon.  In June 2007, AAPD and Cornell collaborated on a forum that addressed “Harnessing Technology to Expand Employment Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.” One idea presented was to require computer science students to have courses on usability to ensure that new technologies are accessible to all.

Despite the progress AAPD has made, there’s more work to be done.  For example, a United Nations survey of Web accessibility in 20 countries exposed serious shortfalls in many websites’ functionality. “This survey shows that we’re not close to reaching the Internet’s full potential for use by persons with disabilities,” said Thomas Schindlmayr, policy specialist for the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

So, as the convention pageantry and politicking wraps up in Denver, let’s celebrate the progress that disabled Americans have made in society—and recognize the increasingly important role that broadband—and policies that support broadband investment and innovation—are playing in creating new opportunities for all Americans.

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