Vision impairment: Not a hurdle too high when it comes to elections
No hurdle too high for Jill Ogden when it comes to elections.
by Jill Ogden and Judy Williams
Voting can be daunting for most of us, considering the time it takes to go to the polls, wait in line and make all those choices. Add arranging transportation, asking for assistance to read and fill out a ballot—all while feeling inferior throughout the process—and you may come close to imagining what it is like to vote as a person who is blind.
Only in recent history have voters with visual impairments been able to vote independently. Jill Ogden, president of the Stockbridge PTO and mother of six, is one of those fortunate to vote in a state that requires accessible voting machines.
During the 2016 election, Ogden recalls breaking into a cold sweat as she entered her first polling booth, sat down, slid her ballot into the machine, made her selections and printed her ballot. After navigating that process, she took her ballot to the tabulator and cast it.
“It was exhilarating. I felt like a teenager leaving the Secretary of State’s office with a new driver’s license,” she said.
Recently, Ogden was given another opportunity to take her enthusiasm for voting a step further: She was asked to work as an election inspector.
Mandy Uruquhart, Stockbridge Township deputy clerk and elections coordinator, said, “Jill embraces every challenge with a ‘let’s figure it out’ attitude. She is fearless, ambitious and has a great sense of humor, which we absolutely love!”
“I said ‘yes’ with a little bit of apprehension and a lot of optimism.” She grinned.
Ogden’s first hurdle arose with a requisite four-hour elections training session in Mason. The challenge of learning new skills can intimidate anyone, but throw in blindness, and the feat grows to Great-Wall-of-China proportions. How to get there, and how to keep pace with the written materials during class were but two questions rifling through Ogden’s mind.
A friend solved Ogden’s first problem when she offered to drive her. Problem two fell by the wayside when the Ingham County elections coordinator emailed the PowerPoint presentation to her prior to class. Ogden was then able to preread the PDF-formatted document using a screen reader called Voice Over, thereby becoming fully involved and engaged in the training.
Ogden’s next obstacle arose in determining whether she could legally use adaptive technology in the polling place. In the state of Michigan, cell phones are allowed in polling places, but taking pictures of ballots or election equipment is prohibited, except when used as part of adaptive equipment for person with disabilities.
“I didn’t want anything to be misconstrued,” she said, so with the Michigan Department of State Bureau of Elections approval, she gained permission to use iPhone apps to run adaptive equipment that allowed her to read printed election materials.
The day of the election arrived.
“It took me a bit of time to find my stride and feel really useful,” Ogden said. At first, she helped set up the Voter Assist Terminal, a touchscreen device available for anyone to use, but also an accessible voting machine. Then she collected voter applications and ballot stubs. Later, she was assigned the task of serving as one of the two workers (one democrat and one republican) to feed absentee ballots into the tabulator.
Using the iPhone apps, Ogden read tabulator error messages, but only when necessary. “And this was after the ballot had been scanned into the machine and dropped out of sight into the ballot box,” she explained.
At the end of the night, a fatigued but proud Ogden did her part in tearing down the election equipment.
“Through this elections process, I learned a lot,” she said. “My challenges in working the election were made easier because of the wonderful group of election workers in Stockbridge Township precinct one. They didn’t doubt my abilities and were not afraid to throw a challenge at me. I would like to be instrumental in making the job more accessible for blind people in the future.”
