I watched my first national political convention in 1976. I was in high school at the time, but watching the gavel-to-gavel coverage and listening to speeches and commentary somehow captured my attention. Now it’s 40 years later and with decades of policy and political experience, those speeches come across to me a lot differently, and, for most part, not for the better. Maybe it’s cynicism; maybe it’s knowing that the issues are more complicated than the kind of sound bite, red meat rhetoric solutions you hear at these conventions.

READ MORE from The GOP Platform and Goodwill’s Priorities (Part One)

This week, a national effort is underway to make the disability vote more influential. The American Association of Persons with Disabilities (AAPD) has designated July 11-15 as National Disability Voter Registration Week. Regardless of one’s political affiliation, people with disabilities play an important role in our democracy and should be able to have as great a voice in the political process as anyone else who exercises their Constitutional right to vote.

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It was two years ago near July 4, that Congress showed a rare form of bi-partisanship and passed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the law that establishes job-training programs and vocational rehabilitation services. The following year, around this time, the agencies responsible for overseeing the law’s enactment released the proposed regulations for implementation. Just prior to the holiday this year, the final rules were made public.

READ MORE from Help Someone Earn Financial Freedom by Supporting WIOA