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Defining Documents in American History: Liberalism

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Polling Place Accessibility Checklist

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Date: 2016

Author: U.S. Department of Justice

Genre: legal information; public guidance

Summary Overview

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a 1990 federal civil rights law that provides protections to people with disabilities to ensure that they are treated equally in all aspects of life. Title II of the ADA requires state and local governments to ensure that people with disabilities have a full and equal opportunity to vote. The ADA’s provisions apply to all aspects of voting, including ballot access and access to polling places (i.e., vote centers). Voting in person at one’s designated polling place represents the quintessential American voting experience, although voting by mail has become an increasingly common alternative.

In communities large and small, people cast their ballots in a variety of facilities that temporarily serve as polling places, such as libraries, schools, and fire stations, or churches, stores, and other private buildings. Voters include people with a variety of disabilities, such as those who use wheelchairs, scooters, or other devices, those who have difficulty walking or using stairs, or those who are blind or have vision loss. They are people, young and old, who have come to their polling place to exercise their right to vote. Many localities report that their polling places are accessible. However, a review by the Government Accountability Office estimated in 2008 that only 27 percent of polling places were accessible to people with disabilities. According to the ADA, people with disabilities must have the opportunity to be full participants in a public civic event. The ADA requires that state and local governments ensure that people with disabilities can access and use all of their voting facilities.

Defining Moment

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations set out what makes a facility accessible. Because a mix of public and private facilities are used as polling places, district officials can ensure Election Day accessibility of a polling place by using low-cost temporary measures, such as portable ramps or doorstops, rather than necessarily making permanent modifications to a facility. In cases where temporary measures will not fix a barrier, and permanent modifications are infeasible (because of cost or use of the facility outside of polling), districts must locate an alternative, accessible polling place.

In the years following the institution of the ADA, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) occasionally issued guidance to state and local governments regarding voting rights under the ADA. The document presented here, a checklist for polling officials to ensure compliance with the law, was released in 2016. The checklist is based on a fuller explanation of ADA regulations called the Standards for Accessible Design.

Author Biography

The ADA was put in place by a broad bipartisan coalition of legislators based on the recommendations of the National Council on Disabilities. It was signed into law in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush. Generally supported by the American public, it was initially opposed by business interests because of concerns over the cost of modifications. Since then, it has become an ingrained part of business, education, and public life in communities throughout the United States.

The DOJ, an independent part of the executive branch of the U.S. government, is charged, among other things, with informing public entities about their rights and responsibilities concerning federal laws and regulations. In this instance, the DOJ issued (in 2016) specific guidance regarding the layout and use of polling places under the ADA. The guidance is based on the more comprehensive and authoritative ADA Standards for Accessibility Design. As noted in the document, those standards were established in 1991 and revised in 2010. The 2016 checklist reproduced here came out of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division—specifically, its Disability Rights Section.

Document Analysis

The checklist is broken down into nine sections: Parking, Passenger Drop-Off Areas, Exterior Route to Accessible Entrance, Polling Place Entrances, Route from Entrance into Voting Area, Within the Voting Area, Ramps, Lifts, and Elevators. Each section has a set of Yes or No questions to address in order to determine whether a space or facility is compliant. The user can also add comments or notes/measurements at the end of each question.

The checklist is designed to assist officials in determining whether a facility being considered for use as a polling place is accessible to people with mobility or vision disabilities, and, if not, whether modifications can be made to ensure accessibility or relocation to another accessible facility will be necessary. The checklist can be used to evaluate both new and existing polling places. Completing the checklist is a way to learn whether a facility is accessible for voters with disabilities, and to identify and help remedy any barriers that exist.

The evaluation of a polling place’s accessibility is meant to bring to focus those areas of the facility that will be used by voters—specifically, voters with disabilities—on Election Day. The checklist leads one to examine parking area and passenger drop-off sites routes (both exterior and interior) the entrance to the polling place, and the voting area itself.

Each disability parking space must have an access aisle adjacent to it that is wide enough to allow voters with a mobility disability to get out of their car or van, and signage identifying it as an accessible parking space. After exiting the vehicle, the voter with a disability must have an accessible route from the parking lot or passenger drop-off site (including from public transportation stops) to get to the entrance of the voting center. Inside the polling place, there must be an accessible route from the entrance through hallways, corridors, and interior rooms leading to the voting area. All such routes, exterior or interior, must be free of abrupt changes in level, steps, high thresholds, or steeply sloped walkways. Gradually sloping ramps can be added as necessary. Each polling place must have at least one accessible entrance with a minimum clearance width to allow wheelchairs through. If the voting area is not on the same level as the entrance, there must be a user-operable elevator or lift to provide an accessible route to individuals with disabilities. The voting area must have an accessible entrance and adequate circulation and maneuvering space for voters who use wheelchairs or scooters, or who walk with mobility devices, to get in to the voting area, sign in at the check-in table, and go to the voting stations or machines.

Although one person can complete a survey of a polling place, it is recommended elsewhere in the document (narrative portion; not shown) that two people work together to make the process go more quickly and easily. One can be responsible for taking the measurements and the other for recording the information and taking any photographs.

Some accessibility barriers at polling places can be addressed with temporary remedies. By visiting local hardware or home improvement stores, or shopping online, one may find such items as traffic cones, accessible parking signs, directional signs, portable ramps, doorstops, threshold wedges, and more. When temporary measures are insufficient, district officials will likely need to budget for building contractors to make the necessary changes to the facility. Many contractors specialize in accessible design and construction and can serve as a resource for local officials.

Bibliography and Additional Reading

“ADA Checklist for Polling Places.” U.S. Department of Justice, 2016. archive.ada.gov/votingchecklist.pdf.

“ADA Standards for Accessible Design.” U.S. Department of Justice, 2010. www.ada.gov/law-and-regs/design-standards/.

Kent, Janice. ADA in Detail: Interpreting the 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2017.

“Voters with Disabilities: Challenges to Voting Accessibility.” U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2013. www.gao.gov/products/gao-13-538sp.

Citation Types

MLA 9th

"Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) Polling Place Accessibility Checklist." Defining Documents in American History: Liberalism, edited by Michael Shally-Jensen, Salem Press, 2025. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=DDLiberalism_0052.

APA 7th

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Polling Place Accessibility Checklist. Defining Documents in American History: Liberalism, In M. Shally-Jensen (Ed.), Salem Press, 2025. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=DDLiberalism_0052.

CMOS 17th

"Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) Polling Place Accessibility Checklist." Defining Documents in American History: Liberalism, Edited by Michael Shally-Jensen. Salem Press, 2025. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=DDLiberalism_0052.

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