When Virginia Jacko found out the first Democratic presidential debates of the 2020 election cycle were going to be held in Miami, she was excited to learn more about the candidates and their policies before they arrived in her city. But as she clicked on the candidates’ websites, she realized that most were not accessible to blind voters like her.
As the CEO of Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Jacko decided to take action. She and her staff reviewed the websites of all 20 Democratic presidential candidates participating in this week’s debates, as well as those of President Donald Trump and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, and they concluded that none of these 2020 presidential campaigns have websites that fully comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Even as many of the candidates have said they want to reach out to disabled voters and advocate for disability rights, their campaigns have built websites that could prevent many of those voters from engaging with them, the analysis found.
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