People with visual impairments cannot access important voice information in Detroit, the ADA complaint says
The nonprofit advocacy group Detroit Disability Power has filed a complaint with the city, saying people with visual impairments will not be able to access information about satellite polling stations ahead of the November election.
The group claims that the city violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide available information about satellite polling stations on its website for visually impaired people.
“We are five days out of election day and still the City of Detroit website does not have screen-readable information about the upcoming one,” said Cosma, CEO of Detroit Disability Power, in a statement Thursday. have basic accommodation, such as available information on where we can vote or hand in our ballot papers. There are more than 128,000 disabled residents in our city, including more than 27,000 Detroit people with visual impairments. We want to be involved in the democratic process – it must be accessible. ”
The satellite polling stations are only accessible via a downloadable PDF that a screen reader cannot access. Screen readers allow visually impaired people to navigate on computers.
Detroit Disability Power says it has been making Clerk’s Office aware of the issue for weeks, and the issue has still not been resolved.
It is far from the first time that the Clerk comes under fire for his handling of election information. In recent elections, Clerk Janice Winfrey’s office has added unnecessary obstacles to voting by putting up signs with incorrect voting times, failing to send absent ballot papers on time and reducing satellite polls and absent ballot boxes.
Voting rights activist Denzel McCampbell is running against Winfrey in the general election.
Visually impaired people can access information on how to vote in Detroit at michiganvoting.org and 313votes.org.
A guide to Detroit’s election on November 2nd
A guide to Detroit’s election on November 2nd
By Lee DeVito, Alex Washington and Steve Neavling
Local news
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