Accessible Polling Places for the Visually Impaired: A Compilation of Survey Results

The Help America Vote Act mandated that all polling places have an accessible method of voting that provides privacy and independence. Direct Recording Electronic voting machines (DREs) have been assumed to be the solution to providing accessible voting, but there is reason to believe extant systems do not adequately serve this goal (Runyan, 2007). This survey builds upon previous work with the visually disabled population and provides the opinions and recommendations of 202 legally blind voters. Topics addressed include obstacles at the polling place, multiple modality systems, voting confidence, and input devices. Data-based recommendations for auditory modes of voting systems include adjustable speed and volume, using male text-to-speech synthesized voices, and allowing for flexible navigation and the ability to skip through sections of text.