Accessibility
Access for people with disabilities – accessibility – is a legal right. It’s covered by federal and state laws from the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) to the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
When we talk about accessibility, we are talking about removing barriers to participation—or not creating them in the first place. The goal is to close the stubbornly persistent participation gap between people with and without disabilities. Research published at the EAC shows that between 2016 and 2020, the percentage of voters with a disability grew from 55.9% to 61.8%. But there’s still a 5.7% difference to the 67.5% participation rate for voters without a disability.
Projects
Website: AccessibleVoting.net
Accessible Voting helps you find ways to cast your ballot with the options you need for a successful voting experience. This site contains the details of accessible voting in your state, including early voting, voting in-person on Election Day, mail voting, and accessible vote-by-mail tools for people with print disabilities.
- An article about the project on the Center for Civic Design’s website
- An article on making elections more accessible in Microsoft on the Issues
- A post from development partners Coforma.io on future-proofing the site
Tools
Tools created by CCD
Field Guide 09 – Creating accessible online information
Workbook: Creating accessible forms for print + PDF
- Voter guides: Tips for accessibility in Word documents
- Demystifying accessibility testing – A process for different ways of ensuring that your materials are accessible.
Free tools from around the web
These are just a few of the free tools that we love and use, but there are many others out there.
Color contrast checkers
- Tanaguru Contrast Finder
- WebAIM Color Contrast Checker
- Snook Color Contrast Check
- Color Safe – Accessible Color Palette Creator
Web accessibility checkers
- WebAIM WAVE Accessibility Tool
- Deque AXE or Chrome or Firefox
- Web Accessibility Toolbar (WAT)
- Firefox Developer Toolbar
- WebAIM WAVE Toolbar
Accessibility standards
- W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- WebAIM’s WCAG 2 Checklist
- US Access Board Section 508 Standards
Articles
- Testifying to the PCEA: Accessibility as a driver for innovation
- Helping voters who have extraordinary abilities
- Build for Everyone: Accessibility, the future, and why Domino’s matter ArsTechnica (2019)
- Why accessibility should be at the center of your work – Participatory Budgeting (2017)
- Accessible Voting in 2012. by Whitney Quesenbery, Information Technology and Disabilities Journal, XIII:1 (April 2013)
Research
Report: Designing an accessible ranked choice voting ballot
Peer reviewed paper: Making Voting Accessible: Designing Digital Ballot Marking for People with Low Literacy and Mild Cognitive Disabilities
The story of the research that led to the Anywhere Ballot
Related Resources
Election Assistance Commission – Voting Accessibility
- Fact sheet: Disability and Voter Turnout in the 2020 Elections
- Disability, the Voting Process, and the DIgital DIvide (2022)
Research into the accessibility of the voter experience
- Access Denied: Barriers to Online Voter Registration for CItizens with Disabilities – Accessibility analysis of online voter registration websites from ACLU and the Center for Accessible Technology (2015)
- Understanding Voting Experiences of People with Disabilities – by Jon Sanford, Frances Harris and others at Georgia Tech’s CATEA
Accessible Voting Technology Initiative: Innovations in accessible elections
From 2011 – 2013, this project organized research teams across the country to assess the current state of accessibility in elections, identify where technology has not lived up to its potential, and build innovative solutions to meet voters’ needs. The goal was new ideas for accessible voting that are universal, so everyone can use the same technology, flexible, allowing for differences in voter needs, election procedures, and state laws, and robust, based on best practices and able to keep up with technological change.
The project was run by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and funded by the Election Assistance Commission.
- Final report: Innovations in accessible elections
- 50 ideas for more accessible elections
- Working papers
Book: A Web for Everyone: Designing accessible user experiences
A book by Whitney Quesenbery and Sarah Horton published by Rosenfeld Media.
- Accessible UX principles and guidelines, matched to the WCAG 2.0 standard
- Guidelines for accessible public events from World IA Day
- Sample chapters
- A Podcast for Everyone – 10 interviews with leaders in accessibility
Stories and snapshots of people with disabilities
- Stories of Web Users
from the W3C resource on how people with disabilities use the web - Voter personas
From the Accessible Voting Technology Initiative - Personas of people with disabilities
From the book A Web for Everyone