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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Fellow NFB of Connecticut Members and Friends,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>As you may well know, the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut with outstanding support from our national leaders is working to make absentee voting fully nonvisually accessible. We still have a ways to go, but here is some progress.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>The Secretary of the State has agreed to e-mail to any print disabled voter an accessible PDF absentee ballot. The technical design is not there yet and is a work actively in progress. And so is a fully accessible application for such a ballot. But the Secretary of the State has gotten it to the point that if you have a Windows PC you can fill out their form accessibly. I did it using JAWS. Please use the attached form. Unfortunately, this form does not work with Voiceover on an IPhone or IPad, and we are advocating with the state on this specific issue still. I was able to submit this to my town clerk, and she accepted it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>If you submit this form by typing your name and the date in the signature and date blocks and choose to e-mail the file, please ensure that your town clerk accepts it in writing and agrees to send you an accessible absentee ballot by e-mail. If you don’t get a confirmation in a couple of days, also print and send this application by regular mail or call your town clerk to arrange its delivery. The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is fast approaching, so we want to get this to anyone who can use it to expedite things for some of us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>We continue to work on making voting by absentee ballot fully accessible to all blind people in Connecticut. Many thanks to so many of you, and I hope this may be a first if only partial fruit of our hard work.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Nathanael Wales<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>