Read this story in English.
Voting is one of the most important human rights, but many people with disabilities may feel excluded from the process. Bexar County has several options for voters with disabilities.
People who have low or no vision
Bexar County has several options for voters with low vision or blindness.
League of Women Voters volunteer Claire Oxley explained some of these options:
“One of them is to go to a polling place. They can request curbside voting. One of the voting judges will bring a machine to the car where they are parked, and then the judge or a designated assistant who is with them can mark their ballot there. If they bring an assistant, such as a friend or family member, it can be anyone except an employer or the president of a union, assuming that the employer or the president of the union could try to influence their decisions.”
Voters with visual impairments can also enter the polling place and request an accessible voting machine. “The accessible voting machine does two things,” he explained. “It has a set of headphones and a Braille keyboard, and by using the narration through the headphones and the Braille keyboard, they will be able to mark their ballot quite independently.”
Oxley said another option for blind voters is the absentee ballot: “They have to download and print a form from the Department of Elections website, which is called ‘Declaration that You May Vote by Mail Due to Blindness,’ ‘ and then they have to complete the application to receive a mail-in ballot. They have to mail those two documents together to the elections department to receive a mail-in ballot.”
All voting machines in Bexar County for early and Election Day voting are equipped with braille for blind people.
Applications for absentee ballots and the Omni ballot can be submitted until October 25.
People with hearing problems or deaf
Bexar County provides tools for people with hearing and vision disabilities.
For the first time in Bexar County, there will be five locations allowing deaf people to use this service.
Deaflink is a company that was created specifically to send crucial information to deaf people. The service sends accessible alerts throughout the United States to people who are deaf, blind, deafblind, and hard of reading.
Kay Chiodo, President and CEO of Deaflink, explains how it works on the website.
“We can send you a link to that accessible site for you to share, or you can have a button on your website that you click on. And it will appear in those different modalities, but our alert system is definitely sent in an SMS. “It’s a link you click on, and if you’re blind, our alerts will actually raise the dots on your refresh Braille readers so you can access the information.”
Chiodo says that when deaf voters go to the polls, they have to tell the election official that they have hearing problems. Election officials will have a tablet to access Deaflink. The tablet will connect the voter and election official with an ASL interpreter.
“The interpreter, who is on the screen all the time, interprets everything the person says. And if the deaf person has a question like, ‘Well, what should I press? Where do I do it? How do I use this? I’ve never voted before.’ And then the interpreter will say it over the speakers to the poll worker, and the poll worker will say, ‘Oh, well, let me show you this before we start,'” Chiodo describes. “Then the interpreters, they have to interpret on that screen what says the hearing person or express what the deaf person is signing, and while the hearing election worker reads the ballot, the interpreter will be signing it for the deaf voter, and that is how the process will be carried out,” he added.
Chiodo credits Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai for providing voting access at five locations in Bexar County for this election, but would like to see expanded accessibility options in the future.
TPR was founded and is supported by our community. If you value our commitment to the highest standards of responsible journalism and are able to do so, please consider making your support gift today.
