310,000 people who are visually challenged, felt excluded from the election. According to a research, over 90% of the visually challenged people use screen reader software to “vocalize” various information from the internet in their everyday lives. However, this software vocalizes the textual information written on the HTML file, and it is not suited to vocalize PDF files. Nevertheless, it is required that the official election campaign bulletin containing all of the information about the candidate must be posted online as a PDF file. Although the right to vote is regarded as one of the most essential civil rights, people with heavy visual impairment were left behind, unable to obtain the most necessary information, who the candidates are, from online. Simply put, they are forced in an unequal state. As a major internet powerhouse, Yahoo Japan Corporation wanted to re-consider how an election should be, by bridging this information gap.

Prior to the Election, the microsite was launched containing comprehensive candidate information. This website has two objectives. 1): Let the sighted people realize this unknown human rights problem. 2): Enable the visually challenged to smoothly access necessary candidate information. To achieve them, we collaborated with various visually challenged people, and their supporting organization, experts in public welfare to ensure usability for the visually challenged. The UX/UI and the “audible experience” of the website improved through numerous discussions and mockups. Moreover, not just the candidate information, but further enriched the microsite experience by adding detailed personal information of the candidates, comparable policy check sheet among various parties, questionnaires obtained from the parties, and specially written columns about the election to ensure pleasant audible experience.

June 22(THU), 2017: Microsite launch

June 28(WED), 2017: Comprehensive candidate information published

July 2(SUN), 2017 Election & vote count

July 3(MON), 2017: Preliminary election results posted