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.

Our work in accessibility includes research aimed at practical steps to remove barriers for voters with disabilities, collaboration with advocates and election offices to make all election information accessible, and working on accessible voting systems and vote-by-mail.

Making Elections Accessible to All is Still a Wicked Problem (or Curbcuts for Elections) from Center for Civic Design

Research

Practical steps towards full accessibility for voters with disabilities

People with disabilities make up over 40 million eligible voters and continue to face barriers to participation at twice the rate of voters without disabilities. This report covers new ways to work towards full access for voters with disabilities that bring election officials, voters, and disability community leaders together.

Anywhere ballot: Making voting accessible

What if anyone could mark their ballot anywhere, any time, on any device?

Designing an accessible RCV ballot

In 2020, we conducted research to support voters with disabilities using RCV ballots. This led to new best practices for designing accessible RCV ballots.

Principles and guidelines for remote ballot marking systems

Requirements and principles for systems that are both secure and accessible.

Tools

Creating accessible online information

field guide

Cover: Creating accessible forms for print + PDF

Creating accessible forms for print and PDF

toolkit

Projects

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

Accessible voting systems

We research and create guidance materials for the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG 2.0) to ensure that all voters can vote independently and privately.

Related Resources

Stories of people with disabilities

Personas of people with disabilities – From the book A Web for Everyone
Helping voters who have extraordinary abilities – from the Anywhere Ballot research
Understanding Voting Experiences of People with Disabilities – by Jon Sanford, Frances Harris and others at Georgia Tech’s CATEA
Stories of Web Users – from the W3C resource on how people with disabilities use the web

Articles from CCD

The new rule on accessibility: Not as hard as you think!
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)

Reports on the accessibility of the voter experience

Promoting Access to Voting: Recommendations for Addressing Barriers to Private and Independent Voting for People with Disabilities – A report from NIST in response to Executive Order 14019, (NIST SP1273)
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)

Book: A Web for Everyone: Designing accessible user experiences

A book by Whitney Quesenbery and Sarah Horton published by Rosenfeld Media.

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

Accessibility standards