Help! I can’t see the ballot!

I’ve researched the issues. I’ve studied the candidates. I’m ready to vote. Now I’m just hoping the talking voting machine works when Whitney leads me to my voting booth.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires voting systems to provide independent and private voting for all voters — including those of us with disabilities. I use a touch screen machine with audio output to vote — with sound added to the ballot, I put on headphones, listen to the choices, and punch a button on a special contraption connected to the keyboard. That is, as long as someone at the polling place knows how to get the machine and the contraption to work. It isn’t exactly intuitive.

My experience in the last couple of elections has gone something like this: I sign in, and poll workers scramble. All of them seem to want to do right by me, but few of them know what “right” is. Where are the headphones? How do you start the talking machine? Why isn’t the audio working?

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) sets up a toll-free hotline (877-632-1940) on election days to help voters who are blind if we experience problems at polling places. Voting specialists are on the line to help blind voters and/or poll workers resolve the issue, but back during the 2008 election my issue with the voting machine couldn’t be resolved. My husband Mike can see, so he signed an affidavit to be able to help me with a written ballot. Voting specialists on the National Federation of the Blind hotline recorded details and referred my issue “to the proper authorities for follow-up action.”

I’m really hoping things go smoothly at the polling place today — not only for me, but for all of us who are blind and want to vote independently. It’d be swell if none of us have to make use of that hotline number this year, but I’m glad the NFB is ready to help if necessary. Now, off to the polling place. “Whitney, forward!”

Voting for All Stars — goin’ in blind

You might remember a post I wrote called Enter the Letters You See in this Box — If You Can See Them. I used that post to vent my frustration after attempting to vote on-line for the 2008 All Star team. I managed to fill out the ballot using my talking computer but couldn’t get past the CAPTCHA – that’s the box of distorted letters that shows up before you can hit the “submit” button. From that 2008 post:

Many sites using CAPTCHA have added an audio option. This probably makes them feel good about helping the blind. It might make sighted people who see that link feel good, too, to know those of us who can’t see have an option. Trouble is, those audio CAPTCHAs are impossible!

In that post I encouraged readers to link to the Gmail sign up page and click on “Listen and type the numbers you hear” to hear what I was talking about. A woman’s voice speaks numbers out loud, but creepy noises and voices talking backward in the background make it nearly impossible to figure out what she’s saying. Again, from that post:

In fact, the next time you get nostalgic for those mysterious backward-talking “Paul is Dead” clues on Beatles albums, you don’t have to get out your turntable and old LPs. Just link to an audio CAPTCHA.

Well gee, how things can change in two short years. Without my precious vote, Jermaine Dye, the White Sox outfielder I was pulling for in 2008 didn’t make the All Star team that year. This year, he didn’t even make the White Sox team, and now he isn’t playing baseball at all (although the rumor mill says a team may pick him up after the All-Star break). As for Major League Baseball, it has spent the past two years making major league efforts to ensure MLB.com is accessible to people with visual impairments! From an MLB.com press release:

This year’s All Star ballot is part of Major League Baseballs on-going commitment to the accessibility and usability of its website for fans with visual impairments. In February of this year, MLB announced its accessibility initiative in a joint press release issued with the American Council of the Blind.

This year’s All Star ballot still has an audio CAPTCHA, but no creepy background noises. The numbers are spoken out loud in a clear, succinct voice and you can hit the “repeat audio” link to repeat the same spoken numbers up to ten different times.

Hanni and I always love a baseball game.

You don’t have to go through any CAPTCHA hoops to leave a comment here on the Safe & Sound blog. Spam filters do a pretty good job. Major League Baseball’s site is a teeny tiny bit more complex than my Safe & Sound blog, though. Their on-line All Star ballot allows fans to vote up to 25 times for their favorite players, so I understand why they need CAPTCHA — they have to have some way to make sure that humans, and not automated computer programs, are the ones doing the voting. I’m just glad that when they decided to add an audio CAPTCHA, they used one that you can understand! This morning I was able to access the mlb.com web site with my talking computer and vote for White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko to make the All Star team. If I can do it, so can you!PS: Ever since I found out that White Sox pitcher Matt Thornton went to Grand Valley State University in Michigan, he’s been my favorite White Sox player. My sister Bev, my nephew Brian and niece Stacey all graduated from GVSU, a very fine school that developed a very fine (and humble) relief pitcher for our team. Thornton has struck out 47 and allowed one home run in 33 2/3 innings this year. He has also limited left- handed hitters to a .167 batting average with 29 strikeouts in 60 at- bats. A story in today’s Chicago Tribune says that when Matt Thornton’s hotel telephone rang Sunday morning he was worried his wife and 11-month daughter could be in danger. Instead, it was the White Sox director of team travel telling him that Yankees manager Joe Girardi had selected him for the All Star team.

“I’m kind of in shock that it happened,” said Thornton, who was planning to take his family to the zoo and perhaps visit relatives in Michigan during the All-Star break.

Thornton said he would lobby hard for teammate Paul Konerko, whose only chance of being selected to the July 13 All-Star game would be if he won the Final Vote ballot.

Fans can vote for Konerko at mlb.com through Thursday. And yes, he has the best numbers of any of the five candidates. Including Youk and Swisher.

Sandra Casts her Vote

What a pleasure it is to introduce guest blogger Sandra Murillo today, the day she voted in her first presidential election. I met Sandra when she was still in high school – I interviewed her for a Chicago Tribune story about how kids who are blind are educated in the public schools. Sandra is now a sophomore at South Suburban College, planning to transfer to the journalism school at the University of Illinois next year – that’s my alma mater!

Sandra Casts Her Vote

State ID and voter registration card in hand, I left with my mom for our polling place this morning at 7:30 AM. It was not as crowded as I imagined. While my mom and I were waiting to sign in, we were having a chat with some of our neighbors. I really enjoyed that part of my first voting experience. When my turn to sign in finally came, I felt a sense of anticipation.

“I would like to have audio access on a touch-screen machine,” I told the poll worker. I had given thought about how I would word this statement. Voters who are blind or visually impaired need to know about their rights before going out to vote. I could either ask them if they had this equipment, or kindly request this accommodation. Since I knew that recent legislation demands the availability of this equipment in every polling place, I decided to choose the latter option.

“Sure!” the worker told me. “When you get to the touch-screen machine, a poll worker will set up the audio equipment.”

Her confidence surprised me. I’ve heard it is fairly uncommon for workers at a polling place to have knowledge of the availability of this equipment, but she seemed to know what she was doing.

After a few minutes, another kind poll worker greeted me and gave me the special keypad and earphones I would be using. The keypad is in the shape of a TV remote control; it is connected to the touch-screen machine. All of the keys had tactual markings as well as Braille labels — arrow keys (up, down, left and right,) a select button, volume and speed controls, and a help button.

This was the worker’s first time setting up this equipment. She had technical difficulties at first. After restarting the machine two times and numerous apologies, she finally got the sound going. “It worked!” I told her with a huge grin on my face.

“Great!” She said with a sigh of relief.

I was finally in action! After reviewing the instructions on how to navigate through the ballot, I began to make my selections. I used the arrow and select keys to do the actual voting. The audio was clear, and best of all, I could adjust it to the volume and speed I wanted.

This voting experience was very positive for me. I would advise voters who are blind or visually impaired to be patient and assertive at the same time. If a pole worker cannot work out the audio equipment, it is not because they don’t want to, but because this is also a new experience for them. Be persistent, but kind at the same time, and you will have a positive experience.

I highly encourage everyone — whether you can see or not — to register and vote. This is a wonderful opportunity — it enables you to be heard. Voting for the first time gave me a better appreciation for my country. I realized that not many people have this privilege, and we often take it for granted.

How Can You Vote if You Can’t See?

A comment to my Tuesday blog post from a young woman named Sandra gave me the idea to write this post about voting. Sandra is blind, and she had some questions — not about who to vote for, but literally how to vote.

…have you (or any other readers of this blog) ever used the touch screen machines with audio output? If so, are they accessible? This is my first time voting, so that’s why I’m curious.

I used the touch screen machine with audio output during the primary earlier this year, and it worked fine – very accessible. With sound added to the ballot, I put on headphones, listened to the choices, and punched a button on a special contraption connected to the keyboard. All by myself.

The contraption comes with a “help” button that explains aloud how it works, it’s not exactly intuitive but after just a few tries I got the hang of it. The biggest glitch in audio voting comes right at the beginning, when you sign in. Sandra should expect the poll workers to scramble; they don’t get many voters with visual impairments and may not know what to do with her. My experience is that they want to do right by us but feel a bit awkward.

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) set up a toll-free hotline (877-632-1940) to help blind voters if they experience any problems at the polling places this Tuesday. Voting specialists answering this number are supposed to help the blind voter and/or the poll worker resolve the issue.

I hate to think this, but I have a feeling that hotline will be busy on Tuesday. A sighted friend of mine voted early today, and He told me that a man who is blind was there in line with him. When it was the blind guy’s turn to vote, one of the poll workers read every choice out loud to him. “Maybe there were talking machines there, but for some reason the poll worker helped him on a regular machine,” my friend told me. “I thought I read that all the polling places were supposed to be accessible.”

He read that right. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires “voting systems” to provide independent and private voting for all voters — including citizens who are blind or visually impaired.

My friend’s experience this morning tells me these machines might not always work! If something like this happens on Tuesday, and a blind voter can’t vote independently and privately, NFB says the voting specialists on their hotline will record details. “Information from situations that cannot be resolved during a phone call to the hotline will be referred to the proper authorities for follow-up action.”

The hotline is only running on November 4. For that — and many other reasons — I decided against early voting this year. I’ll spend my time in line on Tuesday memorizing the hotline number. With any luck, by the time I get to the talking voting machine, there’ll be no reason to make a call!