Voting Reform can Include Everyone: Average Citizens, the Aging Population, and People with Disabilities

Abstract

“If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as the non-disabled, 7 million more votes would have been cast in the last presidential election” (National Organization on Disability, October 1999). When interface technologies and/or the voting process as a whole are not flexible enough to meet the needs of those with temporary or permanent disabilities, obtained through aging or otherwise, citizens may experience various problems which may affect or prevent their vote. The authors will be demonstrating a proposed cross-disability accessible interface approach for electronic voting machines. The approach uses private speech output and a simple 3-button interface to supplement a touchscreen or selection wheel.