GRANT TO HELP REMOVE VOTING BARRIERS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation has awarded the University of Arkansas a three-year, $444,841 grant to fund The Empowerment Project, a national research and service effort designed to make voting easier for individuals with disabilities.

Co-investigators Dr. Kay Schriner and Dr. Todd Shields of Political Science will conduct studies of the policies affecting electoral participation of people with disabilities and methods for improving access to the electoral process. The grant will also fund technical assistance to disability organizations and state election officials to make polling places more accessible. The project is part of the Department of Political Science's Center for the Study of Representation.

Steven Neuse, chair of the department of political science, said this new grant will bring additional national recognition to the department. "Dr. Kay Schriner and Dr. Todd Shields have conducted ground-breaking research on the political participation of people with disabilities, who are America's largest minority group," Neuse said. "This project will add to that knowledge base and will also help people with disabilities by removing some of the barriers they have faced."

In previous research, Shields and Schriner found that only 62% of people with disabilities are registered to vote, as compared to 78% of non-disabled individuals, and that only 44% of people with disabilities vote, as compared to 65% of non-disabled individuals.

"These findings are troubling," Shields said. "If people with disabilities don't register and vote, their needs and concerns will not be represented in the electoral process. Our new grant will allow us to identify ways that people with disabilities can take a more active part in American democracy."

The grant will fund research into effective ways of improving access to the electoral process. For example, relaxing absentee voting laws may make it easier for people with mobility impairments to cast their ballots.

Similarly, new technologies that permit a blind voter to use an automated voice system to vote might make it easier for the blind person to vote secretly, rather than relying on the assistance of family members or voting officials.

"We need to know much more about the way technology and policy reforms can be used to remove architectural and communication barriers so that American citizens who have disabilities can participate equally in the election process," Schriner said.

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