Volunteers routinely offer the accommodation they imagined rather than the one that was needed. There is a reliable way to avoid this.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to…
- Use the open accommodation question
- Avoid the three common presumptions
- Follow the voter’s lead on language
The sentence
Ask: “What would make this easier for you?” Then stop talking. It outperforms every checklist, because the voter has been solving this problem their whole life and you have been thinking about it for four seconds.
Then stop talking
The pause is the technique. Volunteers who ask the question and then immediately suggest an answer have not asked anything.
Three presumptions to drop
- That a wheelchair user wants to be pushed. Ask.
- That a blind voter wants their documents read aloud in a public room. Ask.
- That a person with a speech disability wants you to finish their sentences. Do not.
Language
Follow the voter. Some say “disabled person”, some say “person with a disability”, and the argument between the two camps is not yours to have in front of someone who is trying to vote.
Key takeaways
- Ask what would make this easier — then stop talking
- Drop the three presumptions
- Mirror the voter’s own language