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I had a
very lengthy discussion with Peggy Elliott today regarding the VIBS issue and
how our system works. Peggy is associated
with the National Federation of the Blind and has been working on this subject
for over ten years. She is a blind
attorney and a concerned voter.
She confirms the use of the telephonic keypad as the best method for the
blind voter to interact with an audio voting system. The NF of the Blind endorses such and beginning this month a
publication will be available for the blind community to access newspapers in an
audio fashion. To use the system,
the person interacts via a telephone keypad. The keys functions are standard and include the 6 to advance
and the 4 to go back. The 7 and 9
are used to speed up and slow down the speed of the voice. She recommends we follow consistently
with the blind association doctrines and procedures. Peggy is
going to write a paper summarizing our discussion and ultimately send it to
Curtis Choung of the NF of the Blind.
She can be invaluable to our further refinement. Interestingly she does not agree with
special keys unless they are distinctive and easily recognizable to the
voter. She thinks the blind voter
would prefer the telephonic keypad overwhelmingly. She will
send the draft to me for review within a few days. PS. Finished
Kentucky TS and Audio certification today. A blind voter participated on the examiner board and gave
very favorable comments about our approach. He was very comfortable with the keypad instructions once he
got into the ballot. He felt most
blind voters would navigate OK after part way into the ballot. Barry
Herron Vice President of Sales Global Election Systems 1611 Wilmeth Rd. McKinney, TX 75069 (972) 542-6000 (972) 542-6044 -----Original
Message----- Would we then
be open to objections and concerns about people who cannot type? Would such a
large keyboard be confusing and disorienting to visually impaired voters? Is it possible to provide a qwerty
keyboard with every VIBS set-up? -----
Original Message ----- From: Steve Knecht Cc: Deborah Seiler Sent: Sunday,
January 13, 2002 7:19 PM Subject: Re: VIBS Write-In Instruction
Modifications Mark, I'm curious
about item one and the key assignment explanations. Are the folks
recommending this blind themselves, or is this something that they've checked
out with the blind? If they have and this is supported by the blind, then
perhaps its a good idea. I'm curious whether this is coming from folks
with or without keypad experience. Deborah have
you run into this type of request? -----
Original Message ----- From: Mark S Earley To: RCR Sent: Sunday,
January 13, 2002 2:00 PM Subject: VIBS Write-In Instruction
Modifications The outcome of the BS 4.1.6 evaluation by
the Florida Division of Elections is they are requiring three modifications
before certification will be granted. One of the changes is modification of the
Write-In Instruction Set and prompts. There two basic modifications required in
the write-in mode: Explain the assignments of letters to the
2 through 9 keys more fully. Change the wording of: "To finish
entering this write in candidate, press 0." ======================== Examples of possible modifications: 1. Explanation of letter assignments to
keys: "To
enter letters of the candidate name, press 2 through 9. The 2 key is assigned
A, B, C. The 3 key is assigned D, E, F. The 4 key is assigned G, H, I. The 5
key is assigned J, K, L. The 6 key is assigned M, N, O. The 7 key is assigned
P, Q, R, S. The 8 key is assigned T, U, V. The 9 key is assigned W, X, Y, Z.
Press a key multiple times to cycle through the letters assigned to that key.
When you have entered a letter correctly, press 0 to accept that letter and
move on to the next letter. If you forget what key a letter is assigned to,
press various keys until you get close to the letter you want, then press that
key several times to locate the correct letter. Remember to be methodical and
patient while voting. For Space,
press 1. To Cancel your write in vote, press
0." Repeat this prompt until the first letter
is entered. Then go back to the regular prompts. example: Voter enters 7777 for the letter S. You have
entered S. To accept S,
press 0. To delete S, press *. Voter presses 0 to accept S. Prompt
returns to: To enter
letters of the candidate name, press 2 through 9. For Space, press 1. etc. It may be a good idea to include the
sentence: "If you forget what key a letter is assigned to, press various
keys until you get close to the letter you want, then press that key several
times to locate the correct letter." in the repeating prompt. 2. Change the wording of "To finish
entering ... to: "To accept your entries and vote for
this write in candidate, press 0." Note that the required changes must be
done before the FL Div will certify Ballot Station with Audio Ballot
capabilities. They have stated several times that if we get them something
promptly, they will expedite the evaluation and certification. Mark |