Disability Representation in USA Presidential Race?

Sarah Tuberty

United States of America has just concluded it's Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia this past week. The Democratic Party officially nominated Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate, in an arguably controversial turn of events, with the step down announcement of current President Joe Biden in July of 2024.

Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris officially selected Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz, as her running mate Tim Waltz. During the DNC Tim Walz shared his family story, which includes a 17 year old son, Gus Walz, who is apart of the Disability Community.

Tim Walz's son Gus has a learning disorder. Can his visibility help disabled Americans?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBrnKM0jo40

In American History, disability has long been erased or misrepresented. Up until present day, American Society has largely understood disability to either be "a bad thing" or "something to overcome" leading to feelings of pity or exploited to make the rest of the population feel better about themselves- as Disability Rights Activist, Stella Young, explains via her term "inspiration porn."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K9Gg164Bsw

Globally, it does not yet feel that we have gotten Disability representation right in our media outlets.

As the Harris-Waltz campaign develops, it seems that this narrative of disability will feature to be a part of it.

How do you all feel about this? Is it helpful to have this representation on a main stage? Does it feel that it is exploiting the Disability Community to secure votes? Can both exist where the narrative is possibly exploited but it gets out important messages? Or is there a pathway for the Harris-Waltz campaign to authentically represent this narrative? I wonder, what would that look like? What would that feel like?