A Maryland family appeared on ABC’s “The View” this week to pitch a bill aimed at protecting people with disabilities that they hope lawmakers will pass next year.
Linda and Eric Carpenter Grantham, a Montgomery County couple, want to create a voluntary ID program that would allow people with invisible disabilities to share their characteristics on a personal identification card. A voluntary logo on a driver’s license or student ID could let police know if the person has autism, a mental illness, Alzheimer’s or hearing loss.
The bill, nicknamed the “Eric ID Act,” was introduced in the Maryland Senate last session but failed to get a committee vote and missed a deadline in the House. Still, months before the first day of the next session, autism community advocates and nonprofit founders took to morning talk shows to make their case.
“We need your support,” Linda Carpenter Grantham told “The View” viewers. “Every day people are dying, especially people of color. Please help us.” According to the U.S. Department of Justice, people with developmental disabilities are about seven times more likely to have an encounter with police than neurologically normal people.
The mother-son duo explained that the idea came about after they and others around the world saw the video of the police killing of George Floyd, and Carpenter-Grantham began worrying about how her son would react in an encounter with a police officer, and how officers would react to him.
“I realized I had an African-American son with an invisible disability,” she said.
She initially decided to have an open discussion with Eric, teaching him how to protect himself if confronted by police — staying calm, raising his hands and announcing he was autistic — but this only made him more upset and concerned about the safety of his autistic friends, she explained to her co-hosts.
An avid political watcher, Eric asked his mother to take them to Congress to advocate for passing legislation to teach police how to interact with and communicate with people with invisible disabilities. Since then, the couple has met with federal, state and local officials and law enforcement leaders, who have all mentored and supported their efforts, his mother said. And they quickly began an effort that garnered media attention.
Ahead of the session, the family conducted outreach and networking to promote the bill, and even contracted with television producer Carlos King to make a documentary about the proposed bill.
The power family promoted the ID bill in April, which is also Autism Acceptance Month, on Fox’s “Sherry” show hosted by actress and former “The View” co-host Sherri Shepherd.
Then, through persistence, the Carpenter-Granthams landed an appearance on “The View”: She found her way to meet “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg after the actress’s book signing in May in Washington, D.C., and caught the star’s attention with a 30-second pitch.
Before the show was taped on Wednesday, Carpenter-Grantham said she hugged Goldberg and thanked him.
“I said, ‘God has used you as a blessing in this moment so that people like Eric’s lives can be saved,'” she recalled. Eric said Goldberg’s acceptance of his bill was “the best moment of his life.”
Last session, the Judicial Procedure Committee heard from many proponents, including law enforcement. In written testimony, The Arc Maryland, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, supported the bill but also expressed concerns, saying the voluntary designation should be easily changeable and that people shouldn’t need additional medical certification to operate a motor vehicle.
The group also recommended states make police training mandatory.
During the segment, Rep. Linda Carpenter-Grantham thanked three Democrats who helped write the bill: Sen. Will C. Smith Jr. and Rep. Janelle Wilkins of Montgomery County and Rep. Kim Taylor of Prince George’s County, who sat in the front row during the live taping.
Wilkins said he and Taylor will lead the effort to pass the bill in the House of Representatives, which he said “came from parents and families in our community” and is “critically important” to keeping people with invisible disabilities safe when interacting with police.
“It’s vital that we take up this bill and get it passed,” she said.
Meanwhile, Carpenter-Grantham said she plans to continue promoting her son’s ideas both in the state and abroad.
“Every time I look at my son and realize how much this means to him and others like him, I just have to keep on going.”