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As Election Day nears, people with disabilities are again faced with barriers at the polls despite laws ensuring their right to vote.

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The challenges range from voting-machine access and poll workers who aren't properly trained to intimidation and rudeness from election officials, according to The New Standard. Advocates charge that people with disabilities can't rely on federal laws that are supposed eliminate barriers. There were 51.2 million people with disabilities, according to the Census Bureau in 2002, and 32.2 million reported having a severe disability. (For more on people with disabilities, see the October 2006 issue of DiversityInc.)

"The basic requirement of having the polling place itself be accessible--in other words you can get into it in a wheelchair, that's been [federal law] for some time now," says Brenda Wright, managing attorney with the National Voting Rights Institute. "Although ... it's not been fully complied with everywhere, so it's an ongoing struggle to achieve full compliance with these laws that are out there to provide these protections."

Sometimes it's simply a problem with getting into a polling site. Advocates report problems with doors that are too heavy or with handles that are difficult to use as well as entrances that are locked or not clearly marked. All states are required to have accessibility at polling sites, but a General Accountability Office study from 2001 found 84 percent of polling sites had one or more obstacles that could interfere with voting.

Machines designed to help people with visual and mobility impairments also pose problems in that the voters need to rely on a third party for help, compromising their privacy. Anita Cameron, a disability-rights advocate who has served as a poll worker and election judge, has vowed to make sure people with disabilities can vote in her Washington, D.C., community.

"I witnessed personally an election judge coerce a person with a disability to change their vote," Cameron says. "I've witnessed an election judge speak loudly and comment about the choice a person with a disability made."

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