Welcome to the National Coalition on Accessible Voting (NCAV)’s Voter Access Guide!
We wrote the Guide to help election administrators make voting accessible. The Guide provides information, recommendations, and checklists on accessibility for every stage of the voting process, from registering and gathering information on voting to casting a ballot. The Guide identifies barriers to accessibility in advance, allowing you to address them early in your planning process.
We provide links to the best free resources available for each topic. Use the resources provided in the Guide as starting points for further research.
We hope that the Guide helps you develop fair, accessible elections with improved turnout from voters with disabilities.
Download the entire Voter Access Guide
- Federal regulations and guidance on voting and accessibility
- Terminology
- List of NCAV member disability rights advocacy organziations
Chapter 2 - Gathering information on voting
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Resources and tools for providing information about voting
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Providing information online
- Creating accessible election websites
- Creating accessible online documents
- Creating accessible online videos and presentations
- Creating accessible social media posts
- Creating accessible emails
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Using accessibility checkers and accessibility tools for online content
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Providing information at the office
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Providing information over the phone
Chapter 3 - Accessible voting in person
- Early voting
- Curbside voting
- Accessibility at the polling place
- Accessibility of voting machines
- Poll worker training and safety
Chapter 4 - Registering to vote
- Registering to vote online
- Registering to vote in person
- Same-day voter registration
- Automatic voter registration
- Voter registration drives
- E-pollbooks
Chapter 5 - Voting by mail and absentee
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Requesting a mail ballot
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Making the ballot accessible
- Ballots sent electronically
- Ballots sent by mail
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Casting the ballot
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All-mail elections
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Ballot curing
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Ballot tracking
Credits
The National Coalition on Accessible Voting is a coalition that maintains and expands voting access for people with disabilities.
The Guide was written by Kelly Israel, coordinator of the National Coalition on Accessible Voting (NCAV). Edits were made by members of the NCAV and election administrators.
Disclaimers
The Guide does not cover every issue. It is a general overview of expanding voting accessibility. We encourage election administrators to do more research on all topics. This Guide brings voting accessibility resources together in one place for easy access.
We link to or cite resources we used to develop the Guide.Conformance to any recommendations or use of any resources contained within or suggested by this Guide is not intended to act as a standard for compliance with federal or state law.
The recommendations in this Guide do not constitute legal advice or advice on how to comply with any federal or state law or policy, including the Help America Vote Act (HAVA),the Voting Rights Act (VRA),the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),and the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984 (VAEHA).
The Guide does not constitute advice on how to implement the President’s Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting (March 7, 2021) or any other Executive Order or policy of any federal agency. Each department, office, agency, organization, entity, or individual must make their own independent determination on compliance with any and all applicable laws, including those discussed in this Guide.