8 National Disability Groups Collaborate on Voting Accessibility

A collaboration of eight national organizations have come together to develop a tool that states can use to comply with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and make voting accessible to all voters and potential voters in the state. It will also be one place to go, nationwide, for anyone (including people with disabilities) to get information that will assist them to register and vote.

"Having information that people with cognitive disabilities can understand will make it all that much easier to understand by everybody," said Anne-Marie Hughey, Executive Director of the National Council on Independent Living and one of the project team members.

Teresa Moore, a national self-advocacy leader with the OHSU Center for Self-Determination and 21st Century Leadership, sees it as being a friendly place to go where people won't be so scared about registering and voting. "I want it to be a place where people can really learn and understand in an easy way how things work."

Commenting on the members of the collaboration, Steve Eidelman, Executive Director of The Arc of the United States said, "It's significant that this group represents such a broad range of disabilities and interests."

The collaboration members are:

• National Association of Developmental Disabilities Councils (NADDC)
• National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems (NAPAS)
• American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
• National Center for Self-Determination and 21st Century Leadership (a partnership among the OHSU Center on Self-Determination, Moore Advocacy Consulting, Oklahoma People First, and the University of Illinois at Chicago)
• National Council on Independent Living (NCIL)
• Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE)
• TheArcLink Incorporated The Arc of the United States

The team members intend for GoVoter.org to be a user-friendly place for all voters to find information they need to register and vote successfully. A proposal is being sent to the chief election official in every state and territory. To find out how your state is planning to comply with the Help America Vote and to support this projects proposal, contact your state election official. (See the list at the bottom of this message.)

The complete proposal package to states is available at GoVoter.org.

More Project Information
The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires that states’ information and voting materials be accessible to people with all disabilities, including intellectual, mobility, sensory, dexterity-related and emotional disabilities and that information to the public at large be available in alternate formats. A collaboration of national leaders in advocacy for people with disabilities has come together to offer states a tool to use as they seek to make voting accessible to all voters and potential voters. It will be one place to go for anyone to get information that will assist him or her to register and vote.

This national Internet resource will support a state’s implementation of HAVA’s requirements regarding voter information, as well as the Election Assistance to People with Disabilities (EAID) program from the Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD).

The collaborators selected the name “GoVoter” because of its action orientation and the emphasis on the voter, as opposed to the vote. The site will be an information source for voters, not an advocacy site to influence voting.

See the graphic version of initial draft of the site map. Readers should view it for illustrative purpose only. It will change as the content of the site is developed and confirmed.

Key Ingredients of the site will include:

• a place where visitors will enter their zip code and other location data and find any information the state has available: the voter registration locations closest to them, their polling place, the online registration form if it exists, etc.
• A troubleshooting guide on barriers to registering and voting
• Tutorials on how to use voting machines, how to fill out a ballot, how to request assistance at the polls and how to become a poll worker or election volunteer
• Voter rights and responsibilities
• Stories and illustrations
• Online training for poll workers and election volunteer
• How to make polling places accessible
• Sign up to be an election volunteer
• Glossary of Terms
• Information on specific elections and candidates

Why should a state participate?

Cheaper, Faster, Better
The collaborators make up an established national team of editors and content experts that is experienced in voting information and accessibility. The record of accomplishment of TheArcLink in developing www.TheArcLink.org and www.TheDesk.info demonstrates the quality the state can expect for www.GoVoter.org. By subscribing, the state can feel confident that it will get a better product at less cost than if it tried to do the same thing on its own.

Complementary to Other Efforts
Having one place to go for voting accessibility will make the state’s job easier, and will complement the efforts of state disability groups that may be assisting the state in implementing HAVA.

One Place to Go Having one place to go nationwide will make public awareness easier than it would otherwise be. The state will benefit from more extensive public awareness than if it were to do the same thing independently, since expenditures for promotion will otherwise be very limited. States can use the site to post all their election-related information.

Online Tutorials
One of the keys to accessibility is the training of poll workers and election volunteers in making accommodations for people with disabilities. Having the same training easily available across the state means better training and happier voters.

Compliance with EAID Conditions
Election Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities (EAID) funding requires each state to expand some portion of its grant on:

1. making polling places accessible to individuals with the full range of disabilities
2. providing the same opportunity for access and participation (including privacy and independence) to individuals with the full range of disabilities as for other voters
3. training election officials, poll workers and election volunteers on how best to promote the access and participation of individuals with the full range of disabilities in elections for Federal office
4. providing individuals with the full range of disabilities with information about the accessibility of polling place.

Essential to successfully carrying out the intent and requirements of HAVA and EAID will be comprehensive information sharing for election officials and voters regarding accessibility improvements and resources. By collaborating with other states through GoVoter.org, states can achieve the aims of HAVA and EAID with the highest level of efficiency.

The complete proposal package to states is available at the website.

Member Benefits | About AAPD | Join | Disability Resources | News | Contact Us | Calendar | Home