A new report from the Community Legal Aid Society finds ADA accessibility violations at several Delaware polling places.
CLASI’s Disability Law Program assessed 145 of 275 polling places on Election Day in November and found 30% lacked accessible parking spaces for cars and vans, because they were completely absent or spaces marked accessible did not comply with ADA standards.
Project Director Laura Waterland says handicapped spaces need extra room.
“Because without that access aisle, for anybody who is using a wheelchair or a walker, they cannot get out of their car or their van if they do not have that space,” she says.
Waterland adds that between three and 18 percent of polling places had problems with inaccessible routes from parking areas or inaccessible building entrances, including non-compliant ramps, thresholds, doorways, and door handles.
“The doors have to be a certain width, so that can be a problem," Waterland says. "The other issue is the handles themselves need to be accessible, they need to be something that somebody can operate without having to twist.”
She adds the state spent millions on new voting machines to improve accessibility, but many poll workers are not trained on all of the features.
“People who wanted to use the accessibility features on the machine, particularly people who are visually impaired and need to use the module, were actively discouraged from using it," Waterland says. "Like ‘wouldn’t it be quicker if you just took someone in with you?’”
Waterland says it may be too late to give poll workers additional training before Tuesday’s school board elections, but notes the Department of Elections could easily block off additional spaces for handicapped parking.
