Designing Usable Voting Systems for Voters With Hidden Barriers: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Little research has been conducted considering how to improve the usability of voting systems for people with hidden barriers, including voters with dyslexia, non-native English voters, and voters with arthritis. This article explores usability issues for people with hidden barriers through a series of interviews and usability tests of a web-based Voting Application. First, voters with and without dyslexia preferred using a Helvetica font over custom-designed dyslexia fonts called Lexia Readable and Open Dyslexic. Second, voters whose native language was English, Spanish, or Chinese preferred ballots in their native languages that were written in Plain Language style over ballots written in Traditional Language style. Third, voters with arthritis preferred a multicolumn ballot layout over a scroll ballot layout or multipage ballot layout because voters were able to see all candidates at a glance. Last, voters with arthritis preferred simpler user input devices, and therefore preferred a 2-button or 3-button input device over a 5-button input device. These results serve to inform designers on how to improve voting systems so that they are usable for voters with hidden barriers.