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Section CommentsGeneral CommentsGlossary Comments
 
Name :   Jim Dickson
Organization :   American Assoc. of People With Disabilities (AAPD)
Post Date :   9/30/2005

Section Comments
Section :  2.2.7
Page no. :  
Line no.:  
Comment :  The Rights Task Force suggests the following recommendations to be  
included in the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) Access  
Standards, specifically Section 2.2.7, and the "Human Factors" section  
which deals with accessibility, accuracy, and secrecy in the voting  
process:

1.      An element that needs to be included as the first step in "access  
to the voting process" is accessible voter registration.
 
There are 20.9 million voting aged citizens with disabilities who are not  
registered to vote, approximately 56% of the total disability population.  
This figure comes from the examination of 740,000 public voting records in  
ten states, prior to the November 2004 election.  Despite the passage of  
the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) in 1993, there remains a large  
voter registration gap between people with disabilities and the general  
population * a barrier here prohibits further participation in the  
electoral process.  
 
As you may be aware, many people with disabilities who are eligible to  
vote do not drive and consequently do not have a need to visit the state  
division of motor vehicles (DMV) as highlighted by the NVRA.  Intending to  
eliminate the voter registration gap, the NVRA also requires that states  
shall designate disability and social service agencies to offer voter  
registration, application collection, and to send the voter registrations  
to the state registrar's office.  Unfortunately, disability and social  
service agency participation in NVRA mandates has been spotty at best.  
Under Motor Voter, states are given the leeway to identify disability and  
social service agencies which shall provide voter registration,  
particularly if they receive federal funding.   Any states which have not  
identified agency participation so must do so immediately, and the Rights  
Task Force recommends that all states shall undertake regular compliance  
reviews to ensure that people with disabilities have full access to the  
registration process.  
 
As Diane Golden, Ph.D., of the Missouri Assistive Technology Council  
states, in any access standards development process, a central goal is to  
ensure that the level of accessibility required is reasonably achievable  
while at the same time providing an adequate level of accessibility for  
individuals with a wide variety of disabilities.  It is acknowledged that  
full accessibility cannot be delivered to all individuals with all types  
and combinations of disabilities.  At the same time, it is also commonly  
understood that accessibility standards should not provide an extensive  
level of accessibility to one disability group while disregarding the  
access needs of others.  And most importantly, access standards should  
always maintain or move the level of accessibility forward.  A new set of  
access standards should never reduce the level of accessibility that was  
delivered by a previous set of standards.