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Designing Usable Audio for Voting Systems: Best Practices and a Test Approach

Published

Author(s)

Lynn Baumeister, Whitney Quesenbery, Sharon J. Laskowski

Abstract

Voting systems must support multiple interaction modes: presenting information both visually and auditorily, accepting navigation and selections from both screen touches and key presses on a tactile controller. The best practices outlined in this document focus on the audio and tactile controller experience. These best practices are intended to give voting system designers methods to improve their existing audio or for creating audio for a new voting system. These best practices describe an incremental approach to testing the audio with voters with disabilities, before the audio has been programmed into the system and is potentially more difficult to change, thereby providing an opportunity to improve the audio experience and give those voters an optimal voting experience.
Citation
Voting Technology Series - 100-5
Report Number
100-5

Keywords

Accessible voting, audio ballot, usability testing, user-centered design, disability.

Citation

Baumeister, L. , Quesenbery, W. and Laskowski, S. (2025), Designing Usable Audio for Voting Systems: Best Practices and a Test Approach, Voting Technology Series, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.VTS.100-5, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=958001 (Accessed February 16, 2025)

Issues

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Created January 31, 2025