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Political efficacy is a widely studied phenomenon and an important predictor of political participation, but little is known about the political efficacy of the millions of people with disabilities in the United States. This paper reports the results of a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,240 people-stratified to include 700 people with disabilitiesfollowing the November 1998 elections. Several measures of efficacy that help predict political activity were found to be significantly lower among people with disabilities than among otherwise similar people without disabilities. Although lower levels of internal efficacy and civic skills could largely be explained by educational and employment gaps, lower levels of other variables (external efficacy, perceived influence of people with disabilities, and perceived treatment of people with disabilities) remained after applying a wide range of controls, indicating that people with disabilities are less likely to see the political system as responsive to them. This perception is concentrated among non-employed people with disabilities. The lower efficacy levels linked to "disability gaps" in employment, income, education, and group attendance appear to account for as much as half of the disability political participation gap; hence, policies intended to increase employment and educational opportunities for people with disabilities have potentially important political effects.KEY WORDS: political efficacy, political participation, disability, employment Feelings of political efficacy are an important gauge of the health of a democ-

Alienation from political activity, and electoral participation specifically, directly affects the health of democratic representation (Pitkin 1967, Conway 1991, Verba , Schlozman, and Brady 1995. Groups and individuals absent from political life are unable to express directly their needs and preferences to political elites (Verba 1996). When individuals or groups with similar needs are absent from electoral life our system fails to reach its potential for democratic governance (Key 1949: 508). The importance of electoral participation, and voter turnout specifically, is underscored by the changing governmental policies resulting from rates of political participation of different economic and political groups Leighley 1992, Hill et al. 1995;Jennings 1999). The connection between electoral participation and public policy causes great concern in the case of the low participation rates of people with disabilities.People with disabilities have made advances in the legal arena with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that protects the rights of persons with disabilities to participate in, and benefit from, societal institutions. While such advances might be expected to increase electoral participation as people with disabilities feel that elected officials are responsive to their needs and concerns, the few studies examining voter turnout have painted a troubling picture of comparatively low political involvement among people with disabilities, who comprise one of the largest minority groups in the United States. Investigating turnout among people with disabilities may also provide important lessons on factors affecting turnout in general, given that many disabilities constrain resources and social networks, and affect psychological variables, that can be important influences on voter turnout.Using results of a nationally representative survey, this study examines disability and voter turnout both to understand turnout patterns among people with disabilities and to shed light on factors affecting turnout in general. The results of this study provide evidence on many unanswered questions surrounding the voter turnout of people with disabilities. The analysis, however, also raises many exciting questions that deserve to be addressed in a long term research agenda concerning the generally unexamined political participation of this neglected minority group. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONSThe theoretical framework for the vast majority of prior work on voter turnout has been the rational actor model (Downs, 1957). Central to this model is the recognition that the decision to vote, at least for most citizens, is a marginal (low cost/ low benefit) action (Aldrich 1993, Jackman 1993). Consequently, answering the question of 'who votes?' has generally focused on factors that increase or decrease the costs of voting (Wolfinger and Rosenstone 1980, Rosenstone andHansen 1993). According to Verba, Schlozman, and Brady (1995)

Seventy-six consumer members of the American Council of the Blind with primary disabilities of blindness or visual impairment responded to an Employment Concerns Questionnaire which was developed by consumers, advocates, and service providers. Respondents’ concerns included their not receiving adequate help in developing job search strategies, in obtaining information on career opportunities, and in financing assistive devices.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

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The Americans With Disabilities Act, based on the civil rights/minority group and independent living models of disability, may enhance access to health care, personal assistance, employment, the electoral process, and smoke‐free environments for people with disabilities. However, this essential law cannot resolve these key issues. Supplemental theoretical and policy approaches will be necessary to promote fundamental change.

The impact of any disability policy depends on the conceptual model of disability upon which that policy rests. For the past quarter century of disability policymaking, culminating in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the dominant paradigm of disability has been a minority group model. That model identifies discrimination as the primary barrier facing people with disabilities in their desire for full social participation, and it proposes civil rights strategies as the proper policy response to that barrier. An alternative model of disability based on the concept of human variation is proposed that implies additional strategies for achieving the goal of integration of people with disabilities. The utility of a human variation model is illustrated by its application to the issue of access to employment.