If I ran the zoo

I have known Mick Rosenthal since the day he came from the hospital after his birth.

His parents are my close friends and they are political activists. His mother Nancy Stephens Rosenthal actually spent a Christmas with the Obamas.

Born with Cerebral Palsy, Mick grew up with many challenges but instead of curbing his enthusiasm, they actually inspired him to do everything in his power to open doors for people like himself.

Since the 2016 election, Mick has worked on a mobile voting app called Brink Election Guide which he described to me in a recent email: “The project itself is a mobile voting app which is specifically targeted towards People With Disabilities, as we are one of the most underrepresented groups when it comes to Election Time but though it has a specific audience, it can be used by everyone!

“Brink is a non-partisan, political app seeking to make the democratic process more accessible to people with disabilities. Our goal is to significantly increase voter turnout in the 2020 Election amongst people with disabilities, and we’re doing that using technology, design and behavioral science.

“We help you register to vote, find your polling location, understand identification requirements and to provide tools for people to handle discrimination or accessibility issues while voting. The Brink Election Guide (www.brinkapp.co) works offline once downloaded in all 50 states and is designed so that even someone who is blind can use it.

“Fortunately, since its launch in Mid-September (on) apple and google play, it’s received a great reception and we are slowly building up and creating awareness.

“The tech team can track the downloads and we do get the feedback and everyone seems to like it and they are proud that the tool is out there because it fulfills a need.”

Mick went on to say that they are off to a good start and hopefully the number of users will continue to build as we get closer to election day.

If you know anyone who can benefit from using this new device, please direct them to www.brinkapp.co.

Needless to say, we want all Americans, whatever their challenges might be, to have a say in the future of our country.