Sarah Palin, Future Advocate for Disabilities?

What lies ahead for Sarah Palin following her resignation from the governorship of Alaska?

"Civil rights leader for people with intellectual disabilities," as Special Olympics president Tim Shriver suggests in a July 23rd Washington Post op-ed. This, he says, would be the "perfect job" for Sarah Palin, the mother of a young child, Trig, who has Down Syndrome; these are her "powerful credentials." Writes Shriver:

As a parent, imagine the attention she could help draw to challenges children with Down Syndrome face in early childhood. There are far too few early childhood centers for children with special needs, far too few day-care options, far too few preschools that accept children with Down Syndrome. Palin's name could do a lot for the cause of early childhood service improvements.

Imagine the impact she would have if she testified before Congress about the health disparities facing children with Down Syndrome. Good medical care is difficult to get and frequently substandard. I remember one medical professional telling me that care for children with special needs was usually "quick and dirty. Get them in and get them out." Palin could expose the dirty secret that people with special needs are among the most discriminated against populations in the health care world.

Imagine Palin leading efforts to awaken her community and her country to the gifts of people with Down Syndrome. Today, when parents learn that they are carrying a child with Down Syndrome, the vast majority choose to terminate (some estimates are as high as 90%). This doesn't have to be about the legality of abortion but rather about informing prospective parents that people with Down Syndrome can lead happy and productive lives. That's a message that both the conservative Sam Brownback and the liberal Ted Kennedy have endorsed. I bet they'd both welcome Palin as a messenger.

Noting that some will says that Palin is "controversial to be effective in these roles," Shriver suggests that she could be "united," and suggests that she join with President Obama's Friday announcement to make the US a signatory to the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: "Couldn't Palin join with the president in helping our nation renew its global leadership for full inclusion of people with disabilities?"

During last year's Presidential campaign, Palin's being the mother of a child with Down Syndrome was regularly noted. Examination of Palin's statements regarding disability suggest that, before taking a national (and, as Shriver seems to suggest, even an international) role in advocacy for individuals with disabilities, some study of disability in a broader context and of disabilities rights more generally would be helpful. In September of 2008 Palin spoke about curing "dreadful diseases" following a reference to "special needs." Some more extensive comments from an October 2008 interview refer to Palin's views on providing "opportunities to special needs children and special needs adults also."

I was fortunate to have been interviewed by Newsweek about John McCain's pledge to help families with special needs children. In response to reporter Claudia Kalb's question "Isn't Sarah Palin a good role model for special-needs families across the country?" I said:

I appreciate the fact that the choice of Palin brought working mothers, and especially working mothers of special-needs children, into the national discussion. And as a mother, I hesitate to criticize or judge another mother on her parenting style. But I'm concerned about the reality [she would face in] taking care of a special-needs child.

And, while one, again, prefers to refrain from casting any judgments on other parents, and especially parents of children with disabilities, I'm not sure how Palin might be able to balance the realities of day-to-day care for a child with a disability while throwing herself, as has been speculated, into preparing for a future presidential campaign. If she can, more power to her, and many will be curious about how she manages it, and what she will be "advocating" for.