Accessibility

Last updated: May 26, 2026

Newburgh Votes is committed to making voting information accessible to every Newburgh resident, regardless of disability, device, or how they get on the web. This page lays out what we've done, what we're still working on, and how to get help if you run into a barrier.

Our commitment

Voting is a right. If our website is what's standing between you and registering, finding your polling place, or understanding what's on the ballot — we want to know about it and fix it. Our goal is to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, the standard adopted by most civic and government websites in the United States.

What we've done

  • Semantic HTML — our pages are built with proper headings, lists, and landmarks so screen readers can navigate them in a logical order.
  • Keyboard navigation — every link, form, and interactive element on the site is reachable and operable with a keyboard alone. No mouse required.
  • Color contrast — text on the site meets WCAG AA contrast ratios against its background.
  • Descriptive link text — links describe where they go ("Find polling place," not "click here").
  • Alt text on images — every meaningful image carries a text description; decorative-only images are hidden from screen readers.
  • Resizable text — our pages scale cleanly when you increase your browser's text size or zoom level.
  • Plain language — we write voter info the way you'd explain it to a neighbor, not the way a state agency would. Shorter sentences, common words, concrete examples.
  • No autoplay — no audio or video plays automatically anywhere on the site.

What we're still working on

We're a small nonprofit. We do our best, but we don't have a budget for a full third-party accessibility audit. Known gaps as of the date above:

  • The site has not yet been audited against WCAG 2.1 AA by an independent expert. If you'd like to help, get in touch.
  • Some documents we link to — the state voter registration PDF, county Board of Elections pages — are hosted on third-party government sites and may not meet accessibility standards. If you need an accessible version of any external document, contact the source agency directly or email us and we'll help you find it.

Voting accessibility — what New York provides

Beyond this website, the state and Orange County provide accessibility services at the polls themselves:

  • Accessible voting machines at every polling place — ballot marking devices with audio ballots, large-print displays, and adaptive input controls (sip-and-puff, paddles, etc.).
  • Curbside voting — if you can't get into your polling place, a poll worker will bring a ballot to your car.
  • Voter assistance in the booth — you can bring anyone of your choice into the voting booth to help you cast your ballot (except your employer or a union representative).
  • Large-print and audio ballots — available at every polling place on request.

For the official New York State accessibility resources, see https://elections.ny.gov/accessible-voting.

Found a barrier?

If something on this site doesn't work for you — a page won't read properly on your screen reader, a form is missing a label, color contrast feels off, anything at all — please tell us. We'll fix it as quickly as we can.

  • Email: [email protected] with the subject "accessibility"
  • Include if you can: the page URL where you ran into the problem, what you were trying to do, and what device, browser, or assistive technology you were using

We respond to accessibility reports within 5 business days.

Updates

We'll revise this page as we make improvements or learn about new issues. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent change.