It's time the White House took 54 million Americans (and counting) more seriously.

The needs of people with disabilities are many, but they're not impossible. That's why disability-rights activists are demanding that the White House make people with disabilities a top priority by creating a permanent special assistant to the president on disability.

The new initiative to convince White House officials that people with disabilities deserve the highest levels of government supporting their cause as much as others is far from over. The individuals behind the initiative are hoping that outsiders will recommend Olegario Cantos VII--who recently announced the end of his rotation as associate director with the Domestic Policy Council--as the newly selected special assistant. Blind since birth, Cantos is considered one of the highest-placed and most influential people with a disability to work inside the federal government.

As of right now, no other adviser inside the Domestic Policy Council is temporary, except for the adviser in charge of disabilities. Instead of appointing an individual with the sustainable commitment and influence to help people with disabilities, the White House undermines the number of people affected by disability--nearly one-fifth of the population, including veterans.

Mark Johnson, a nationally recognized activist, community organizer and director of advocacy at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Ga., hopes that whoever should succeed Bush will look at the goal of the New Freedom Initiative, the 2001 program intended to increase people with disabilities' access to assistive and universally designed technologies, education and employment opportunities, in addition to looking at the wide-ranging diversity represented in this population.

"There was great anticipation and expectation when the president wrote up the New Freedom Initiative, [but] because disability issues cross so many different departments, there were a lot of people who said, 'Where is the leadership that will make all these different components work together?'"

Johnson and his colleagues are asking all Americans to reach out to the president and the 2008 presidential candidates telling them to "Please appoint a PERMANENT Special Assistant to the President on Disability. No more temporary assignments for this crucial national leadership position!"    

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