It's a day ahead of the general election, and disability advocates in St. Louis are aiming to ensure that those on the margins know about their rights — including curbside voting.
Born with a rare birth defect that causes the upper hip joint and thigh bone to be severely underdeveloped, 49-year-old Teona McGhaw said she's no stranger to the disparities people with disabilities face after having part of her left leg amputated when she was a newborn.
She got her first prosthetic leg at 3 years old — a small wooden peg that was hardly convenient but useful, she said. Prosthetics have come a long way since then. Today, McGhaw wears a flexible prosthesis that comes close to matching her skin tone.
When asked how she's overcome her own challenges as an above-the-knee amputee throughout her life, McGhaw said she's learned not to let her disability hold her back from simply living, as well as fighting for greater accessibility and equity in transportation, workplaces and political spaces.
A woman of many hats, McGhaw serves as the East Region vice president of membership for the National Women's Political Caucus and is co-founder of the community support nonprofit the Mission Attempt. She was the first Black woman elected as president of the Missouri Women's Political Caucus in 2022. She said she's eyeing a statewide seat in 2028 but noted that people with disabilities are often doubted and seen as less than capable.
McGhaw said she aims to break that stigma.
"I want to be a voice for people that are like me. I have a lot of experience — a lot of failures," McGhaw said. "But I don't want people to have to wait as long as I did to put things into perspective. As a person with a disability, you matter. It's 2026, and some people still don't know what curbside voting is."
Accessibility, curbside voting
Nearly half of all states have curbside voting, and Missouri is one of them, McGhaw noted. According to the Movement Advancement Project, around 23 states don't have applicable laws for curbside voting for those with disabilities, such as New York and Tennessee.
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission and Rutgers University report that voter participation for people with disabilities is generally lower than for others — turnout for people with disabilities across the U.S. was 4.8% lower than voters overall in 2018 and 1.5% lower in 2022.
Although the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 have helped to protect civil rights and make polling places more accessible, one in seven Missouri voters with disabilities reported difficulties with voting in 2022, according to the Missouri Foundation for Health. That year, 36% of registered voters in Missouri reported that they did not vote due to a disability or illness – either their own or a loved one's.
"Why isn't money being poured into accessibility? That's a barrier," McGhaw said. "If people knew, they would feel more welcomed into the voting process. They push absentee voting, but not everyone wants to sit at home. Some people want to go in person to vote because they're uncertain if their vote will actually be received. People with disabilities often feel like they're not given opportunities."
McGhaw said that in Missouri, every polling site is responsible for making sure curbside voting is available for people with disabilities, but not all sites post signs. She said that for years she's pushed for libraries and other polling sites to post curbside voting signs across north St. Louis County. Things have started shifting for the better recently, she said.
"I ride around and I look, I check," McGhaw said. "I think it should be a duty of the people working the polls to make sure that people with disabilities are made aware of their options. That would make people feel like they matter."
In addition to curbside voting, those who are vision impaired can choose in-person assistance at the polls with reading and filling out the ballot. Those who can't leave their home or who have an elevated health risk by voting in person can complete a mail-in ballot, thanks to No Excuse Absentee voting that Missouri legislators implemented in 2022.
The coronavirus pandemic forced many states, including Missouri and Illinois, to change their election laws to make voting more accessible and safer by expanding curbside and early voting. The new and expanded options led to a record number of people voting before Nov. 3, 2020, with early votes accounting for the majority of nearly 160 million votes cast nationwide, the most in any presidential election.
"That was a very good example of how easy curbside voting worked," McGhaw said. "Everybody was in their car just voting then, and it was working. More people were coming out because they were like, 'Oh yeah, let me drive around.' But curbside voting should not just be wrapped around people with disabilities. I can tell you, I raised three boys. Disability or not, sometimes a mom don't want to get them kids out the car, and so moms should be able to pull up."
Additional accessibility options
• General voting rights in Missouri, including curbside voting.
• Curbside voting is supposed to be available at all election sites in Missouri for people with disabilities. Here's what you need to know in St. Louis.
• Gain a voter badge through vot-er.org/badge/ to access voter platforms in hospitals and clinics.
• Homebound? Apply for an ID and have it mailed to you through Missouri Access ID.
• Live in a nursing home or other facility? Check out your voting rights here through the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
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