empowering voter with disabilites

[PaulRSpencer]

Is it possible to provide users with more information on voting with a disability? Could the one box provide information on accessible voting for voters with disabilities? If a user searches for information on accessible voting it would be ideal if information came up confirming that every polling place has an electronic accessible voting system (AVS) and other features that allow voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently. Some of the rules vary across the country but many requirements like the AVS are required in every polling place by federal law. In contrast not all polling places are physically accessible. In California most counties communicate to voters via the mailed voter information guide whether or not their polling place is physically accessible. It would be ideal if when a search tells a voter where their polling place is it would also tell whether or not this particular polling place is accessible.

I am an attorney in our Voting Rights Unit at Disability Rights California. We love how this project is improving the lives of voters. We see in our outreach and hotline work that it is not easy for voter with disabilities to find information on accessible voting. We hope that some of the same innovative solutions this project has applied to voters in general could incorporate voters with disabilities.

[lbirdpew]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I have a few questions about your proposal. In the scenario you described, how would accessibility be assessed? Would jurisdictions self-certify their locations to the state who would pass that info along to VIP? If a last minute polling place change occurs and a site cannot be surveyed for accessibility, how would we handle that case?

We (the Voting Info Project team at Pew) would like to explore this more as you bring up a great point about empowering all voters. If it's easier for you, we can always setup a time for our team to talk more about this with you on a phone conference. Just send me an email at lbird@pewtrusts.org and we can set something up.

Lester