Update: Accessible Election Challenge Now Open

Please share with anyone who might be interested.
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How might we design an accessible election experience for everyone?

We are calling on everyone, including voters, non-voters, election officials, people with disabilities, designers, engineers, and students, to help us make elections more accessible for everyone.

We invite you to join us in this challenge.

Read more below or visit us at: http://www.openideo.com/open/voting/brief.html

What is the challenge?
We are searching for creative answers to the question: How might we design an accessible election experience for everyone?

Here’s how the process works. We start by trying to better understand the problem. Over the next few weeks, everyone will be invited to help us research the issues and share their experiences. We are sharing stories, insights and examples of voting systems or experiences that might relate to elections and accessibility.

In a few weeks, we’ll start focusing on brainstorming solutions. Along the way, there will be opportunities for feedback and to refine concepts and solutions.

You can join the challenge at any time. The discussion is always open.

Who should participate?
Everyone is encouraged to participate. Everyone. That includes you!

To participate, go to: http://www.openideo.com/open/voting/brief.html

Why are we hosting this challenge?
We believe elections can be made more accessible for people with disabilities and anyone else who faces barriers to participating in democracy.

All of the ideas generated by this challenge will be made freely available to anyone who wants to implement them. For example, Los Angeles County elections officials will be following this challenge in their pursuit of a modern voting system. In L.A. County alone, your ideas during this challenge can help improve the voting experience for 4.5 million voters.

Who is hosting the challenge?
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is a non-profit think tank at the cutting edge of designing policies that will boost economic growth and improve quality of life in the United States and around the world. The ITIF Accessible Voting Technology Initiative is a project funded by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to make voting processes and technology more accessible. We are partnering with OpenIDEO on this challenge. OpenIDEO is an open innovation platform that taps into the scale of social networks to tackle challenges for social good. This challenge is one way we are exploring new ideas for improving elections. For more about our project, go tohttp://elections.itif.org<http://elections.itif.org/>.

What should you do next?
To start, read the challenge brief (http://www.openideo.com/open/voting/brief.html) to get a sense of the scope and direction for the challenge.

Then head over to OpenIDEO (http://www.openideo.com/open/voting/inspiration/). Browse through some of the ideas that have already been posted. Create an account, and you can add your own comments to the discussion, or post an Inspiration of your own.
We’re relying on your input to ensure that the work we do together is thoughtful, grounded, and has a real potential for impact.

Is the site accessible?
The OpenIDEO team is working to improve the accessibility of the site. We know it’s not optimal, but they are working to get there. If you have ideas or comments to improve the OpenIDEO site, write to hello@openideo.com<mailto:hello@openideo.com> and the community managers will make sure your feedback is heard.


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Kristina Gupta
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Emory University