June 22, 2005

"Touch screen not best choice for disabled voters"

"A key point seems to have been lost in the varying and various arguments for and against touch-screen voting machines. The spirit and intent of the accessible voting law are to allow every disabled person the opportunity to cast his or her vote in private. The key word in the preceding sentence is "every." It is not acceptable to accommodate some of the disabled community and expect the rest of us to live with "business as usual." That is discrimination, and it is not legal.

Accommodating people with differing disabilities requires great flexibility in an accessible voting machine. What works for the visually or hearing or cognitively impaired does not necessarily work for people with mobility impairments. That is one specific shortcoming with the touch-screen machines which have been under consideration in Volusia County. People with limited use of their hands and arms may not be able to use the touch-screens. Quadriplegics (people who are disabled from the neck downward like the late actor Christopher Reeve) cannot use a touch-screen in the same way as someone who has use of their hands. They require a sip/puff device which uses air to activate the voting machine, much like one uses a straw to sip a soda."

Here is the story.

Posted by Randy Riddle at June 22, 2005 08:38 AM