Clinton, Obama and McCain. Right now, the Presidential campaign has been narrowed down to these three candidates. How do they fare on technology and disability issues? Let's take a look in alphabetical order, so as to avoid favoritism:

Hillary Clinton

Disability is not a highlight on Hillary Clinton's web site. Under the issue of Health Care, there's a Resources sidebar that outlines how Clinton's plan affects certain groups, including Americans with Disabilities.

The site does have a page that outlines her plan for Americans with disabilities, but I couldn't find this page by myself. I only found out about it - after repeated web surfing -- when I encountered Kathryn Hill's detailed breakdown of the candidates . A search function on Clinton's site would have been helpful here (though none of these candidates' sites have this capability).

At the time of this publication, there are 100 videos on Clinton's site. Of those, 33 have the closed caption symbol. It took me several times to figure out how this worked. After a couple of attempts, I realized the captions were at the top of the screen. No wonder I hadn't noticed them. When I tried again later on, I realized the captions - in their own rectangular window, provided by Project readOn - could be moved around according to user preference. D'oh!

In terms of her voting record on disability-related causes, Clinton supports the ADA Restoration Act of 2007, and voted in favor of stem cell research and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act.

Clinton supports net neutrality, which is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. Vint Cerf, one of the founders of the Internet who happens to be deaf, has been quoted as saying, "Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success."

Supposedly, none of Clinton's television ads are captioned in the Washington D.C. area.

John McCain

Like Clinton's, John McCain's web site does not list disability as an issue. He doesn't take advantage of technology like the other candidates, because he doesn't have as many videos as the other two. The videos he does have are not closed captioned.

With respect to disability and technology, the picture is not so good. In the mid-90s, McCain voted against more telecommunications accessibility for the deaf and he does not support net neutrality.

McCain, however, does OK on mainline disability issues. He helped pass the ADA and supports the ADA Restoration Act. He voted for stem cell research and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. He also has a long history of advocating for veterans - a large group within the disability community.

Barack Obama

In the alphabetical pop-up list of issues on Barack Obama's navbar, disabilities are number two. On the Disabilities page of his site is a movie with captioning provided by Project readOn, and a plan that's further outlined in a PDF. In the video Obama reveals his father-in-law had multiple sclerosis and that his wife is clearly familiar with the subtle issues people with disabilities encounter.

There's also a link to a captioned conference call with a Representative and Disability Policy Committee. Not only was this phone call captioned, but live captioning was available on the site. Toward the end of this call, it is said that the discussion is continued in a forum created on the site. I followed the instructions but couldn't find this particular link.

There are five videos on Obama's site, under Barack TV. These are not captioned. However, there's a link on the right to closed captioning, which takes you to a page with 17 closed captioned videos. All of these videos are user friendly.

As far as Obama's record, he supports net neutrality, bringing high-speed broadband to every American, supports the ADA Restoration Act, voted for Stem Cell Research, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act.

A Washington D.C. resident says that Obama's television commercials are captioned there. But Obama has created a bit of a furor with interpreters at his events being placed behind the stage. This has occurred in various locales. A campaign representative said he expects improvement on this issue in the near future.

Last August, the American Association for People with Disabilities (AAPD), in coalition with ADAPT, NCIL, and SABE, sent all the presidential campaigns a questionnaire about their disability leanings. McCain did not respond. According to Disaboom, however, he was the only GOP candidate to "speak" (by telephone) at the AAPD Presidential Candidates forum in NH last fall. AAPD posted a list of promises the attendees made; only Clinton promised to sign the ADA Restoration Act into law. McCain simply promised to "give care for wounded veterans the highest priority" in his administration.

The bottom line: Technology brings us closer together, but for some candidates, it may do the opposite.

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