Voting is one of the most important human rights, but many people who live with disabilities could feel excluded from the process. But Bexar County has developed several options for voters who live with a disability.
Individuals who have low or no vision
Claire Oxley, a volunteer for the League of Women Voters, explained some of the options for voters who have low vision or are blind:
"One is to actually go to a polling place. They can request curbside voting. One of the voting judges will bring a machine to the car where they're parked, and then either the judge or some designated assistant who's with them can mark their ballot for them there. If they bring an assistant, like a friend or family member, it can be anyone except an employer or a labor union chief president, the assumption being that the employer or labor union chief might try to influence their choices."
Visually impaired voters can also enter the polling place and request an accessible voting machine. "The accessible voting machine has two things," she explained. "It has a set of headphones and a Braille pad and using the narration via the headset and the Braille pad, they're able to mark their ballot pretty independently."
Oxley said another option for blind voters is the Absentee Omni Ballot: "They’ve got to download and print up a form off the Elections Department website, and that form is called 'A Declaration to Vote by Mail Because of Blindness,' and then they have to fill out the application for a ballot by mail. They need to mail those two things together to the elections department in order to receive a ballot by mail."
All voting machines in Bexar County for early voting and Election Day are equipped with braille for individuals who are blind.
Individuals who are hard of hearing or deaf
Bexar County provides tools for individuals with hearing and visual disabilities. For the first time, there will be five locations that will allow individuals who are deaf to utilize this service.
Deaflink is a company that was created to specifically send out crucial information to individuals who are deaf. The service sends out accessible alerts across the U.S. to people who are deaf, blind, deaf and blind, and literacy challenged.
Deaflink President and CEO Kay Chiodo explained: “We can send you a link to that accessible site that you can share, or you can have a button on your website that you click. And it comes up in those different modalities, but our alerting system is definitely sent out in an SMS. It's a link that is clicked on, and if you're blind, our alerts actually will raise the dots on your refresh Braille readers so you can get access to the information.”
Chiodo said when deaf voters go to the polls, they have to signal to the poll worker that they are hearing impaired. The poll workers will have a tablet to access Deaflink. The tablet will connect the voter and the poll worker to an ASL interpreter.
“The interpreter, the whole time on the screen, is interpreting everything this person's saying. And if the deaf person has a question like, 'Well, what do I push? Where do I? How do I use this? I've never voted before.' And then the interpreter will voice that through the speakers to the election worker, and they will say, 'Oh, well, let me show you here before we get started,'" Chiodo said.
She added: “Then the interpreters, all they're doing is on that screen to either interpret what the hearing person is saying or to voice what the deaf person is signing, and as the hearing poll worker reads the ballot, the interpreter will be signing it to the deaf voter, and that's how they will go through the process,” she added.
Chiodo credited Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai with providing voting access in five locations in Bexar County for this election, but she would like to see expanded accessibility options in the future.
Deaflink will be provided at the following locations for early voting:
- Bexar County Elections Office at 1103 S. Frio 78207
- Pct 1 Satellite office at 3505 Pleasanton Rd 78221
- Pct 3 Satellite office at 320 Inter Park 78216
- Great Northwest Library at 9050 Wellwood 78250
- San Antonio College Victory center room 117 at 1819 N. Main Ave. 78212
More accessible voting options
Oxley explained some of these options for people who live with a disability and want to head to the polls to vote. For those who want to vote in-person but have limited mobility, Oxley said they can ask for curbside voting.
“Every polling place will have a particular parking spot marked for curbside voting. This is different from just the plain disabled parking, and there'll be a phone number they call the election judge. The judge comes out with this curbside voting machine. It's very much like the machine you vote on inside. It's just a bit smaller and more portable, and the Election Judge will lend assistance as necessary so the voter can vote in their car.”
Oxley said voters with disabilities don’t have to wait in long lines.
“Go right up to the elections clerk at the table where they're checking people in, and say, 'I have this disability,' and they will get bumped to the front of the line immediately. And if they have an assistant with them, that assistant is also bumped to the front of the line so that the assistant can also vote at the same time, you know, so that the disabled person isn't like voting and then waiting and waiting for their assistant to be able to vote.”
Oxley said once this election ends, "I'm going to start working with some of the disability groups and the elections department to try to make sure that every polling place has the machinery they need, and that at least one person among the clerks and judges knows how to use it.”
Oxley added that she will work closely with Disability Rights Texas.
Learn more about accessible voting here or at TPR's voting guide below.
