Technology can be used by election management bodies (EMBs) to reach voters in special needs groups. Such special needs groups include people with physical disabilities or mental disabilities, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people in remote areas, and people with poor literacy and numeracy skills.
Audio Visual Applications
Many of the 'mainstream' communication devices listed under Using Technology for Reaching Voters can be used to reach voters with special needs. In particular, methods that use audio and/or visual recordings (see Audio Visual Applications) meet many of the needs of people who have difficulty reading or understanding printed material. Some of these communication methods, particularly audio tapes and video tapes, can be used to directly target special needs groups.
Language Interpretation and Translation Services
Technology can also be used to communicate with voters in a wide variety of different languages. While several software packages exist that can 'automatically' translate material into a variety of languages, EMBs will need to excercise extreme caution if they opt ot use these programs. The relative complexity and specialized nature of electoral communication is often beyond the ability of many of these systems. Furthermore, the importance of ensuring that precisely correct messages are communicated would make it unwise to solely trust the effectiveness of an automatic software translation system without at least being proof-read by a human translator.
Electoral material in a range of languages can be made available in printed form and in audio visual form. Public broadcast radio in a variety of languages is a particularly effective form of communication where such services are popular.
Where electoral information is made available electronically, such as in a web site or in an electronic voting system, information could be made available in a variety of languages. This is particularly useful in a society where significantly large numbers of people speak one or more languages other than the dominant of 'official' language. Automated telephone information systems could also provide information in a range of languages (see Telephone)
The telephone can also be used to provide interpreter services in some countries. Such a service allows a person to ring a designated number and ask to speak to a person in a particular language. The interpreter service will connect the caller to an interpreter who speaks that language. The interpreter may be able to answer the call himself or herself (and may be provided with information for that purpose by an agency employing that service), or may set up a 3-way conference call involving the caller, the interpreter, and a person at the agency that is able to answer the inquiry.
An EMB can make use of telephone interpreter services to complement its telephone information line. The telephone number of the interpreter service can be included on material published by the EMB, accompanied by instructions to call the number for further information in a number of languages.
Hearing Assistance
Technology can also be used to assist people with hearing disabilities. In addition to personal hearing aid devices, telephones can be fitted with hearing assistance features that amplify sounds for persons using the telephone to access information inquiry lines.
Visual Assistance
Technology can be used to assist people with impaired vision. Devices can be used to magnify printed material being used by voters. For example, some jurisdictions (Western Australian State elections being one) provide magnification devices in some polling places for use by vision impaired people when marking their ballot papers. These devices take the form of a large plastic or glass magnifying screen that is fixed above the writing surface.
Where electoral information is made available to voters on screen, the software can be programmed to magnify or zoom in on text and images to make them easier to read by vision impaired people. Similarly, printed material can be created using large point sizes for vision impaired people.
As a general rule, whenever printed material is made available by an EMB in hardcopy or electronic form, regard should be had for people who have difficulty reading small print, and standard point sizes should be adopted that maximise the number of people able to read them. Care should also be taken when choosing fonts for printing or displaying text. Some fonts are much easier to read than others. Considerable research has been conducted on font readability, and EMBs are advised to consult experts in this field when choosing fonts for publications.
