Hoosiers with disabilities have, historically, had three ways to vote: in-person before or on Election Day, through an absentee ballot or with a traveling board that brings ballots to people at home.
Michael Ely, a Bloomington man with cerebral palsy, votes in person. Ely uses a power wheelchair and communication device, and he lives alone with assistance. He has a job at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community (IIDC), working to make PDFs accessible for people who use screen readers.
But he said he doesn’t have an answer for why he votes in person.
“It is just like everybody else does,” Ely wrote over email.
Indiana and local officials and advocates in recent years have taken steps to make sure Hoosiers with disabilities, like Ely, have the same freedoms to choose how they vote that people without disabilities do.
In 2018, turnout among voters with disabilities in Indiana lagged behind people without disabilities by 8% — 3.2% higher than the national figure and outside the sample’s margin of error — according to data from Rutgers University and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Four years later, the “disability gap” in Indiana was cut more than half to 3.9%. While still higher than the U.S. gap, it represents a nation-wide decrease, possibly affected by absentee voting measures that became more common after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I definitely think that opening that access for voting in different ways definitely evens the playing field for people who have challenges going and participating in person,” Derek Nord, director of the IIDC, said.
But the gaps are higher nationally in presidential election years, according to Rutgers and EAC data, when overall voter turnout is higher.
Michael Shermis is director of the Bloomington/Monroe County Human Rights Commission and staff liaison to the Council for Community Accessibility (CCA), which creates awareness about and addresses accessibility issues in the city.
He said prior to the 2020 presidential election, Hal Turner, who served on the Monroe County election board at the time, came to the CCA regarding concerns about accessibility at some of its over 30 potential polling sites.
Shermis said the council agreed to do reviews of the sites like they usually do for businesses in Bloomington. They also asked clients of Stone Belt, a central Indiana nonprofit that provides services to people with disabilities, to provide feedback on some of the polling places.
“It’s great for the people who have the place to understand, ‘oh, these are the barriers that exist,’” Shermis said. “And ‘oh, this is a problem,’ and ‘oh, okay, this is a problem, but could we address it in some way.’”
As a result of the reviews, the CCA recommended ways to increase physical accessibility, and the county worked to address them. Shermis said one suggestion was adding signage at locations without accessible restrooms to indicate voters with disabilities could skip the line.
Indiana Disability Rights (IDR), a state agency which provides representation and resources for Hoosiers with disabilities, has similarly taken steps to increase voting accessibility in recent years.
Its “Hoosiers Vote” web page includes election information specifically tailored to people with disabilities, including rights at the polls and questions-and-answers from candidates about how their platforms could affect voters with disabilities.
IDR worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office prior to the 2023 state election to survey polling locations and offer county commissioners recommendations to improve accessibility, WFYI reported. Sam Adams, a senior attorney at IDR, said the agency tries to do these reviews every election. This includes specific guidance on complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, public accommodations and more, according to the ADA website.
But Adams said one effort in 2023 related to absentee ballots for people who are blind or low-vision or have dexterity issues. IDR and the American Council of the Blind of Indiana reached a settlement with the Indiana Election Commission, Election Division and Secretary of State to allow approved voters with disabilities to complete their ballots with an electronic tool.
Prior to the settlement, the only options for a voter who is blind or visually impaired would be to vote in person or with the traveling board, Adams said. There was no option for these voters to receive assistance on a mail-in paper ballot.
Voting in person at the time, following the COVID-19 pandemic, could be dangerous for immunocompromised people who are blind, who have to touch more surfaces to get around, Adams said. Furthermore, receiving assistance through the traveling board requires voters with disabilities to disclose their choices to county officials, not allowing them a private ballot.
As a result of the litigation, approved voters with disabilities can now independently and privately complete a ballot, Adams said, which can be sent to the county via email. The tool, called OmniBallot Portal and developed by Democracy Live, is in use in 34 states, according to its website.
A video demonstration shows it allows voters to receive and digitally mark their choices before downloading a print “return package” to send to election officials. OmniBallot Portal works with voters’ own assistive technology that aids people who are blind with digital content, according to Disability Rights Advocates.
“At least with respect to absentee voting, I think Indiana with the changes that have been made through the settlement of our case has become one of the more accessible states,” Adams said. “We did fight very hard to make sure that the system that was implemented was as accessible as possible, including the option that voters be able to return the ballot without having to print it out and mail it in.”
But Nord, the director of the IIDC, said addressing voting accessibility can start with making other support systems for people with disabilities more accessible.
Nord said one of these areas could be employment. Twenty-eight states require organizations to give employees time off to vote, according to CNN. Indiana does not. For people with disabilities, it can already be challenging to find work, Nord said, and they may be less likely to go vote if they are uncertain if their employer will support them.
Another is transportation. Nord said for people with disabilities without service providers, they may need to rely on public transportation as a “life line to the community.” This includes on Election Day.
“Humans in general are diverse, and with that, they present unique challenges and strengths, each of them,” Nord said. “But we also know people with disabilities specifically have distinct difficulties navigating certain aspects of society. And it’s not a cause of anything they’ve done, but it’s how we’ve structured things.”
Stone Belt, which helps people with disabilities get out to vote, faces transportation challenges of its own on Election Day. Adam Hamel, Stone Belt director of community engagement, said the organization’s biggest barrier is a lack of support staff.
Some staff can’t drive, Hamel said, and some of the people Stone Belt serves may have roommates who do not want to also go to the polls. Staff also have to ensure they are not imposing their own political beliefs on Stone Belt clients.
Hamel said Stone Belt is remedying this by training staff on using public transportation and utilizing rideshare app Uber. Despite the logistical issues, he said they make sure anyone who wants to go out to the polls can.
“I think it is important that the people we support are not just having their voices heard, but seen having their voices heard,” he said. “Seen at the polls so that people recognize that they have the rights and the human dignity to be able to be a part of the process.”
