Nantucket's Ableist Town Meeting

To the editor: Ever since the warrant supporting Our Island Home was defeated last year, I have been haunted by how ableist our town meeting is.

I believe it was Dawn Holdgate who pointed out after the town meeting vote that defeated funding for OIH, that if everyone from Our Island Home was able to attend the town meeting, the warrant would have passed.

I have no familiarity with the town bylaws surrounding town meeting or any state laws associated with how we vote. But I believe that we need to address the fact that the only people who can attend are those who are able to vote.

My mother is 93 years old and has been an active member of the Nantucket community for almost 50 years. She was a business owner here for almost four decades, a member of the school committee, and one of the first public advocates for affordable housing. Yet, she has no voice on any votes. She cannot attend town meeting. She has 24/7 care at home and can’t sit for four hours and wait to hear all the arguments about a warrant.

She’s not alone. The people who are most affected by the OIH vote can’t go to town meeting for hours on end and sit there waiting to take a vote Many of them are disabled, many of them need 24/7 nursing care, many of them are incontinent.

It’s ridiculous that the people in our community who are going to be most affected by the vote don’t have a voice.

Isn’t there a way we could do voting by proxy? Or allowing the Our Island Home warrant to be the first one called?

Can’t we do something to address the fact that the only voices that are heard are those who are physically able to attend?

And if we remove the whole issue around OIH and consider our neighbors in a larger perspective…I’m sure there are deaf citizens among us who can’t hear anything in person or on Zoom. As far as I am aware, there is no sign language interpretation offered to them. What about our blind population?

So for me personally, I’m concerned about the elderly people who should be able to vote for the OIH warrant. But thinking about it on a larger scale makes me more sensitive to the fact that there are probably lots of people out there who aren’t able to be part of town meeting.

It is absolutely an ableist process.

We as a community should address the inequity and ensure that everyone’s constitutional right to vote isn’t infringed upon before the next town meeting.

Clearly, the current process does not allow for everyone to be a part of the debate and to cast their vote.

Deirdre Splaine Lewis