Dr Kelly Fleming

I’ve been a Disabled advocate for accessibility for 45 years and today I was once again reminded that this full time unpaid job is forever. I am Deaf, low vision and a power chair user with a service dog.

I went to vote today. Trying to locate the signage that directs one to voting areas was extremely difficult as a low vision individual. I knew the location although I’ve never personally been in the building before today.

The signage was quite small and I had to literally stop to locate every arrow.

I had to try to locate the power door button which luckily Bobby found for me because I finally gave up and said to him Bobby door and he found the button to push. Then we got into the vestibule, the space between the outside entrance and the indoor entrance. Of course I couldn’t locate the power door button.  I could see Bobby looking around to find out. So when I said Bobby door, I watched his head as he finally located the power door button.

Once inside, I was searching for the signage.

I finally saw a person and doors open so having voted all my adult life I knew ok, go in that direction.

I then was pointed to a table with a person. I didn’t move, I didn’t know which table so luckily the person from the door entrance walked over with me. I handed in my voting card and was about to reach for my ID and the person wearing a mask was apparently speaking to me even though I had already indicated I was Deaf.  Then proceeded to hand me a paper that after a quick glance to the top line was obviously a list of acceptable ID proof.

I held up my ID and was then shown the voting form. I do commend the person for pointing to each row and holding up their fingers to show how many you could vote for in the 3 lines.

I repeated their explanation by replicating the pointed explanation. To which I got a nod.

Then a hand pointed to where to go to vote “privately”.

I had no clue. I can’t see that far to identify locations so I simply just took the folder, smiled and moved forward to the other side of the room.

Found a table. Yay! Needed to find the marker. The table was far lower than my chair. I’m looking at the cardboard box that is supposed to provide you privacy and it’s nowhere near provided privacy for a person who uses a wheelchair and cannot lean forward to a table that is blocked in front of their chair.

After a little searching I did find the marker.

My “privacy” for filling out the ballot was my lap.

I finished and I had no clue where I was supposed to take the ballot.

So there I sat in the middle of the room with my covered ballot. Finally the person from the door noticed me there and showed me where I was supposed to go.

After completing the process which thankfully they had an individual responsible for inserting the ballot and gave me the thumbs up, I went to the entrance and pulled out my phone to express my accessibility concerns.

The person went to find the supervisor of the voting station who came out and said they have a form for accessibility issues.

I thought oh good! So the person was going to fill it out for me. I typed on my phone that I could fill it out, I needed somewhere accessible to fill it out.

Yep, that was nowhere to be found no matter what my suggestions were to create a little writing table for my lap. Hey, a box would have worked just fine in my lap.

So this other person filled it out of on my behalf. I typed my concerns on my phone and everything was copied (not word for word).

Then I took the form and signed it Dr Kelly Fleming

On the front it asks if they can contact me. Oh yes, by all means, please do.

45 years I’ve been doing Disability advocacy. Just once in my life I would like to go somewhere that I don’t need to fill out a form or explain how the location can make itself more accessible.

It’s not a one size fits all accessibility. Every Disabled individual is different and we all have different abilities.

At this rate I’ll still be doing Disability advocacy to the day I die (far in the future, God willing).

🙏🏽❤️🤟🏽