PISCATAWAY, N.J. – In the months leading up to the presidential election, Jim Dickson marveled at the constant stream of news stories about voters with disabilities. The sheer volume of coverage was unlike anything he’s seen in 34 years as one of the nation’s most respected disability voting advocates.
Within the reporting, Dickson noticed a trend. While the topics varied -- from accessible polling places, to the #CripTheVote social media campaign, to what the candidates were saying about people with disabilities – almost every story cited research by Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations Professors Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse.
“Lisa and Doug’s research is priceless because it is focused on our participation as voters,” said Dickson, who is blind. “It directly challenges the perception that we are people who need to be taken care of, rather than people with something to contribute. Because of their recent research, we are beginning to be seen as a voting bloc – as citizens, rather than objects.”
Schur examined polling place accessibility in her 2013 report to the Presidential Commission on Election Administration. Then, she and Kruse teamed-up with Syracuse University’s Peter Blanck on the 2014 book, People with Disabilities: Sidelined or Mainstreamed? More recently, Schur and Kruse co-authored widely-cited reports projecting the number of eligible voters with disabilities nationwide and in each of the 50 states.
“The press coverage is off the charts,” Dickson said.
The New York Times referenced Schur and Kruse’s work in a September 21 story that was also published by its sister papers, the Boston Globe, Buffalo News, Dallas Morning News, Dayton Daily News, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Tampa Bay Times. A similar citation appeared that week in the Christian Science Monitor, Fortune, and UPI.
Schur and Kruse’s research was also featured in two USA Today stories, including an article that appeared on the front page of the newspaper’s October 2 Weekend Extra and October 3 International Edition. More than 50 Gannett newspapers, from the Detroit Free Press to Guam’s Pacific Daily News, carried the stories on their website or in print.
"People with disabilities are still combatting a long history of social exclusion, particularly in the political realm,” said Kruse, who uses a wheelchair because of a spinal cord injury. “Politicians typically don't pay a lot of attention to people with disabilities, and it was great to see more focus on disability issues this year. It was also great to see more attention to the barriers that we often face in voting.”
Schur specifically addressed polling place accessibility in a National Public Radio (NPR) story on October 24. The report by veteran correspondent Pam Fessler aired on hundreds of NPR member stations nationwide during the popular afternoon drive-time program All Things Considered.
FiveThirtyEight, FOX News, Vox, and news organizations from New Jersey to South Dakota to Oregon also reported on, or referenced, Schur and Kruse’s research in the run up to the election.
The issue at the heart of the press coverage reflects one of the school’s areas of focus.
"The political participation of people with disabilities is very much connected to employment issues we study at SMLR,” Schur said. “At an individual level, the workplace is a key source of social networks, recruitment, and the development of decision-making and other civic skills that greatly affect an individual's political participation. At a societal level, the legal context for workplaces is set by public policies that are often profoundly shaped by political participation of underrepresented groups like people with disabilities.”
And for Jim Dickson, that’s where the impact of Schur and Kruse’s work is already being felt across the U.S.
“The amount of enthusiasm for voting this year in the disability community was directly related to their splendid research,” Dickson said. “The entire disability community owes a huge debt to Rutgers and its fantastic professors.”
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The following is a three-month chronology of news reports, columns, letters to the editor, and press releases in which Kruse and Schur’s research is cited:
August 12 – USA Today
Also carried by Abilene Reporter-News, The Arizona Republic, Asbury Park Press, Burlington Free Press, Caller-Times, The Commercial Appeal, The Desert Sun, Detroit Free Press, Evansville Courier & Press, Independent Mail, Indian River Press Journal, Kitsap Sun, Knoxville News Sentinel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Naples Daily News, The News Journal, News Leader, Pacific Daily News, Pensacola News Journal, Poughkeepsie Journal, Record Searchlight, Standard-Times, Star-Gazette, Statesman Journal, St. Lucie News-Tribune, The Stuart News, Tallahassee Democrat, Times Record News, Ventura County Star, Visalia Times-Delta
August 15 – Asbury Park Press
Also carried by Courier News, The Daily Journal, Daily Record, Farmington Daily Times, Home News Tribune
August 15 – Disability Scoop
August 29 – Courier-Post
September 5 – Times Union
September 12 – FiveThirtyEight
September 21 – Fortune
September 21 – New York Times
Also carried by Boston Globe, The Buffalo News, Dallas Morning News, Dayton Daily News, Star Tribune, Tampa Bay Times
September 21 – UPI
September 22 – Bustle
September 22 – Christian Science Monitor
September 22 – Pew Research Center
September 26 – Arizona Business Magazine
September 26 – France 2 – French National Television
September 30 – Argus Leader
Also carried by Asbury Park Press, The Baxter Bulletin, The Clarion-Ledger, Coshocton Tribune, Courier-Journal, Courier News, Current-Argus, Daily Record, Daily Times of Salisbury / DelmarvaNow, The Des Moines Register, Detroit Free Press, El Paso Times, Evansville Courier & Press, The Evening Sun, Florida Today, Fond du Lac Reporter, Great Falls Tribune, Green Bay Press-Gazette, The Greenville News, Hattiesburg American, Herald Times Reporter, Home News Tribune, Independent Mail, Indianapolis Star, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Ithaca Journal, The Journal News, The Leaf-Chronicle, Lebanon Daily News, Marshfield News-Herald, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Montgomery Advertiser, The News-Press, Oshkosh Northwestern, Palladium-Item, Pensacola News Journal, Post-Crescent, Poughkeepsie Journal, Public Opinion, The Sheboygan Press, Silver City Sun-News, The Spectrum, Springfield News-Leader, The Star Press, Stevens Point Journal, The Tennesseean, The Town Talk, USA Today, Ventura County Star, Visalia Times-Delta, York Daily Record / York Sunday News, Zanesville Times Recorder
September 30 – USA Today
Appeared on the front page of the October 2 USA Today Weekend Extra and October 3 USA Today International Edition. Also carried by The Arizona Republic, Burlington Free Press, Chicago Sun-Times, Coloradoan, Courier News, The Daily Journal, Daily Tribune, Democrat & Chronicle, The Desert Sun, The Des Moines Register, Detroit Free Press, The Evening Sun, Florida Today, The Greenville News, Hattiesburg American, Home News Tribune, Independent Mail, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Lawrence Journal-World, The Leaf-Chronicle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Naples Daily News, Pacific Daily News, Pensacola News Journal, The Post-Crescent, Poughkeepsie Journal, Springfield News-Leader, St. Cloud Times, Tallahassee Democrat, The Times Herald, Ventura County Star, Visalia Times-Delta, Wausau Daily Herald, York Daily Record / York Sunday News
October 1 – Ravalli Republic
October 1 – Truthout
October 3 – SFGate.com / San Francisco Chronicle
October 5 – Asbury Park Press
October 6 – Register-Guard
October 8 – The Intelligencer
Also carried by Bucks County Courier Times, Burlington County Times
October 12 – KWQC-TV
October 17 – Rutgers Today
October 24 – National Public Radio (NPR)
Aired during All Things Considered and appeared on the website of NPR member stations nationwide
October 28 – American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
October 28 – Vox
October 31 – Colorado Community Media
Carried by Arvada Press, Centennial Citizen, Douglas County News-Press, Elbert County News, Englewood Herald, Golden Transcript, Highlands Ranch Herald, Lakewood Sentinel, Littleton Independent, Lone Tree Voice, Parker Chronicle, The Westminster Window, Wheat Ridge Transcript
November 1 – Little Village
November 3 – FOX News
November 3 – The Herald Tribune
Also carried by Tallahassee Democrat
November 3 – Huffington Post
November 4 – Huffington Post
November 5 – St. Louis Public Radio
November 7 – KSTP-TV
Also carried by WDAY-TV, WDAZ-TV
November 7 – Vox
For a complete list of news reports featuring our faculty, staff, and students, visit SMLR in the News.
