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See you.

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Hello everybody. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Healthy Project podcast. I'm your host, Corey Dion Lewis. And today we will be having a really, I think it's gonna be a great conversation. One, I just got back from a conference talking all about policy and advocacy and all that. So I'm already feeling that energy as it is. But I have Bettina with me to talk about something that's passionate to her.

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Bettina, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for asking me. Glad to be here. Yeah, so of course. I'm so happy Jill connected us. Yeah, me too. Jill's awesome. Shout out to Jill. She is, yeah. Totes. So before we get going, how about you tell the people a little bit more about yourself and what gets you up in the morning? Oh wow, that's a great question. So my name is Bettina Dylinsek and just to give a quick background on what I do,

01:03
I work for Nationwide Insurance. I work in corporate technology, specifically digital accessibility. Love what I do. It's kind of funny because I don't feel like I work a day in my life. So you know you like what you do when that's the case. Yeah, exactly. That definitely gets me up every day. You know, just knowing I get to go and do what I love to do. I've also been married for, it's coming up on 27 years. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

01:33
So, yeah, I would have to say my family, you know, for sure. And then what I get to do each day for work. Yeah. So on top of your work, I know you're very passionate about accessibility and specifically I know when we were talking about the accessible absentee ballot voting. Yes. So can you tell people a little bit more about what is the accessible absentee ballot voting bill? And why?

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important. Yeah, for sure. So, absentee, accessible absentee ballot would be a ballot that we would receive. So, normally people get them in the mail on their paper and you fill it out and you put it in the envelope that they've given you and then you mail it back in. So, somebody who is blind can't do that independently. I can still receive the ballot in the mail, but then I would have to ask somebody who's sighted to come over and fill out that ballot for me and

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back. So there's a couple of things there. One, my vote's not independent and it's not private. Right? That's one thing. It's not a private vote because now somebody else has to know how I want to vote because they have to help me fill it out. Number two, I have to put a lot of trust in that person to actually fill it out the way that I ask them to. What happens if I say I want to vote for ex-candidate and they don't agree with me and so they think, well, I'm just going to mark this other one because they'll never know?

03:01
Right. So lots of trust right there that we have to put into somebody else. So as somebody who is blind, I'd like to have that to be a private independent vote. And I'd like to do that on my own. So what that means is that we would actually come up with a way to do it through the computer system and the easiest way that I think that, that this can be done. Obviously there, we want to make sure it's safe. We want to make sure it's protected in that it's not just leaked out to anybody, but I'm thinking, you know, I think of something as simple as a survey monkey. Right.

03:31
You know, you get the ballot through email and you may have to use like multi-factor.

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you know, just to make sure that... Yeah, authentication or whatever. Yes, yes, thank you. Yep, yep. To make sure that, you know, it's you that's gotten it, that you're only gonna use this once. So it can even be something that's a link that's used one time and once you submit it, it's done. You can't go back in there. You can't reopen it. But, you know, but then I could put it on the computer. I can pull it up. I can make my selections using the technology that I have. So as someone who's blind, in case anybody doesn't know this,

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So a screen reader basically lets me hear what you see.

04:16
So if you're looking through a website and you're looking at, you know, you're going through your page and you see links and you see buttons and you see text, the screen reader just allows me to navigate all of that information. So again, it would just allow me the opportunity to mark my ballot independently and privately. Yeah, so that kind of answers my second question is, you know, the benefit. And I think it does lead to, you know, the whole point of being able to be able to vote

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fear of who's watching me, who's changing my vote, that independence and that confidence, that your vote, that way you want to vote matters and it is getting, it is the right vote and I have to worry about that being changed. Right. We don't have to worry about that. I think a second thing to think about too is, you know, the opportunity for someone. What if you're, so I'm active. One of the things I like to do, I like to go to the polls and vote. You know, it's something that I just enjoy doing.

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where I couldn't. Or what if I couldn't get there? Transportation, what if that's an issue?

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You know what I mean? So now I'm at home and I can't get there, but now again, I don't have a way to Cast my ballot. So there's another good reason Why it should be available and why shouldn't it be available to me just like it's available to you to do in paper? Absolutely. Absolutely. You brought up a good point especially for someone like myself who focuses a lot on social determinants of health when we're talking about just you know, your civic engagement and you want to engage but

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transportation? What if you can't, you don't have access to, you know...

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bus or whatever the case may be is just I'm assuming being visually impaired all of those all those things are just amplified as far as difficulty to get access to some of those things. Right and to get access to where you need to be. But I mean let's take it back a few years we just got out of a pandemic you know and as somebody who is blind you know I was told either you have to trust somebody to fill out your ballot for you or you have to go to the the poll.

06:30
Well, what if I didn't feel that was safe? You know, again, there's a lot of people involved in that equation. Whoever's driving, if you're taking an Uber who's driving it. So now you're in a car with somebody and you're you're pretty close, you know, in proximity to that person. I've got to go down to the pole and mingle with all the people that are there. So it just it's nice to have options. So I may feel like, hey, I can go do that. That's fine. I'm a pretty healthy person. So that's fine for me. But what about if what if you have, you know,

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things that you need to worry about and you don't want to expose yourself to somebody else or them to you. Yeah. Are there any like misconceptions about the voting process for visually impaired that you'd like to clarify? Are you talking about like what kind of misconceptions do you have in mind? Well, like for example, if the fact that

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yourself that you independently like to go to you know to catch your own boat but

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Someone there may not you know feed do that is there are there concerns everybody just kind of like, okay Yeah, she can come have her do her or is there any like? Push back, I guess. Yes. Yes from the powers that be yeah, I can put it into Those wheels moving yeah, that's what I thought that's what I thought and yes You know that but what we keep being told is we want to make sure it's secure

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So if I get a paper ballot and you fill that and you pop it back in the mail, can that get lost? Can that get in the wrong hands? Can somebody tamper with that? They sure can. I would think it'd be actually a lot safer to do it through a secure website. Yeah. But you know, that's, that's the whole pushback we get. So I am excited to say that this year.

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It did, when we brought it to, you know, our state government, it did get out of subcommittee. And it got out of committee. So it was actually, this bill was actually on their agenda to vote on when they were all together. And it just never made it to, they just never put it on the agenda. So we're getting closer, I hope.

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maybe next time they'll actually get put it on their agenda. But you know, people probably look at things and the things that all the bills that are coming through, everything that they have to vote on, I'm sure they just either they don't want it there and they're just, or they just feel like it's less of importance than, than other bills that they're voting on. Right. But how, but how can someone, how can we advocate to make them feel like this, this is important, especially, you know, we have this in the election year, you know, what, what can someone like myself or anybody wants to advocate?

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for For easier accessibility like what can someone do talk to your representatives? That's what I did. Yeah, I mean that's really what I did. I went out and I and One person that was real advocate for us is Heather Madsen Yeah, I work with her husband oh, that's awesome. She's my neighbor Oh, she actually just lives right down the street for me and one day I came home from some being out somewhere and my husband says hey Heather Madsen was just here

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Give me that fire and I called her immediately. I'm like I've been wanting to talk to you and So she was a big advocate for me And for this whole process and this bill and putting it together and getting it out there there are a few other states that do offer accessible absentee ballot voting and so I was able to get a hold of a few friends that were in there and Say to them. Hey, can you send me your information on how you guys did this? You know

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What? Sorry about that. Stop talking. But you know, I would ask them, send me, send me how you guys did it. You know, because what I want to do is pass that information along to our representatives as they see this is how easy it is. This is a step by step process that another state has done that's made it.

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you know, that's passed the bill. Right. So I want to do my part in getting as much information as I can so that I was not starting from ground zero, but we were not reinventing a wheel that's already invented, right? People are already putting it in place, seeing that it works by copy and paste, let's just, let's just do that. Yep. Um, do you have, you know, do you have a long-term mission for assessable voting in Iowa or beyond? What does that look like for you?

11:21
I would love to see that the absentee voting is accessible, that anybody in Iowa who's blind or low vision or even has any kind of reading disability can have access to it. That it's as easy as just registering to vote and just marking that spot. I want the accessible absentee ballot. I would love all people to have access to that who need it, but I want it to not be a fight.

11:51
There's some issues as to why we can't do it, but I would love to see from now into the future that it is possible It is safe It's gonna get more voters out there It's gonna get people who maybe are shut-ins who have the same, you know questions about a private independent vote Able to do it and not even worry about it Yeah, and you know just from someone like myself

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last couple elections in our state, going to somewhere to vote, the tension in the room is crazy. And there are times where I still go and vote because I'm about that life, you know what I'm saying? You're not going to scare me into going to vote. But you hear these stories about certain people posting up at voting spots and trying to intimidate you. And I can see how that could

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somebody from wanting to go and vote. Like I'm not trying to deal with that. Right. So just even having, which is awful, I hate that people have to deal with that. But having the option to not have to deal with that for all people would be I think a super benefit. Yeah. Yeah. You brought it up a little bit already, but you talked about how, you know, it'd be nice if you could just have a website, a secured website to cash your vote. How do you

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technologies playing a role in accessible ballots or in the voting process in general? I could see it at some point being where you just do it on your phone. You know, at some point, you know, way down the line. I'm sure they would want to bring it to a like a PC first. Just because they want to make sure of that safety, the security of it so it's not falling into the wrong hands.

13:51
We want to protect ourselves too. Right. So if they could find a way to do that safely, I think that'd be great. Some people don't have access to computers. Some people just have a phone, or they just have a tablet, or a device like that. So it would be neat just to be able to have an app or have something that would be really simple to pull up. I'd also like to see some of the wording of some things that we vote for to be less convoluted.

14:21
Talk about it. I could explain that. Well, you know, I think the last election there was something surrounding, I don't remember exactly what the wording was, but it was something surrounding guns. And it was worded in such a way that it kind of made somebody think something that really wasn't happening.

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So, and it's like, you know, just use plain language. Right, something that I think, I think it says the average American reads are at a fifth or sixth grade level. And I feel like, you know, some powers and maybe use that to their advantage and maybe have things in that can go over some people's heads or make you feel a certain way. Yeah, I understand that too. But going back to your point,

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I think what it would take just people need to speak up about that. Yeah. About it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Speak up about it. Go talk to your representatives. Yeah. Be there. And then also when they are voting for it, if you find out it's going to be on the floor for a vote, you know, go and support. Write letters, write emails, call, you know. It's like I said, Heather's my neighbor. So sometimes I'll see her on the neighborhood and

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just have a time to chat with her. So even that even that's great. You know, some of the representatives too will say, Hey, um, I know Heather's done this and she'll say, I on Fridays hang out at like Main Street cafe or something. So come see me, you know, it's just a free opportunity for anybody who wants to go talk to her about what she, she, you know, she's representing us. So what are the things that she needs to know about? Right. That's so true. And people need to take advantage of those opportunities more.

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just don't know, you know, they have the opportunity to reach out, call, email or whatever, but there are so many ways to make your voice heard. It's just getting people to feel like their voice matters. Yep, and also to feel like whatever you want to talk about with them does also matter. Yeah. Sometimes we can think it's just a small issue. It's something that they're not going to pay attention to.

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I think sometimes fill our minds with things that maybe aren't true. You know, we kind of start having self-talk and We're we're already kind of nervous and we don't want to take up their time We know they're busy, but you know, I don't think we should feel like that Yeah, I don't think they would make you feel like that either. No, I agree. I agree So I know you're also you know, you play the role as if I'm correct me if I'm wrong, but the president of

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Oh, Iowa Council United Blind. Iowa Council for United Blind. Tell me about that experience. I know this is a the the balance is a big push for you guys right now, but what are some other things you guys advocating for? Trying or doing with the work there? Yeah, so it's been I've been the president now for this is my second year. And really we do a lot of educating in the community about blindness. We do a lot of advocating like we just talked about with the balance.

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it. One of the projects that I'm currently working on is with the Historical Society and trying to help make their exhibits accessible for anybody to come in and experience. So if I wanted to go over there and walk through, I'm a big history nerd too, so one of my other things I enjoy. So if I want to go over there and check out an exhibit, you know, what are some things that we can do to make it accessible? Maybe have audio captions for some of the

18:14
If you can read about them, you know, maybe you just put on a pair of headphones and use an iPad or something and then you can, you know, listen to that. Depending upon the artifact, maybe they might have something there that's like a replica that you can feel. So you can see, you know, if you guys are looking at, oh, a Civil War uniform, maybe they've, you know, put something out there that's not necessarily from that era, but it looks exactly like what's in the case. Right.

18:43
So again, that's another thing that we're advocating for. We have our state convention each year, which that's coming up in August, and we just get together and we talk about what we're doing. We bring in speakers to help encourage us. Different areas throughout the state we want to know about, like the Iowa Department for the Blind, you know, what are you guys up to? How can we work together?

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school for the blind, you know, because these are young people now. And so how can us as older people, you know, mentor them maybe or, you know, help with questions, you know, they might say I'm going to college and what should I look for? So we want to definitely be there for that as well. No, that's cool. You know, when I when Joe Wells was here sitting in that same chair, you were saying couch you're sitting on.

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and she was talking about accessibility and the things you can do to make your, even your social media posts more accessible. It got me thinking about my content. I put my website into this platform and I got the worst grade ever. And because it was just something, if I'm being honest, I wasn't even, as I was, I built my own website. So I was just, it was just saying, hey, here's an image. I would just put the image in there. I wasn't even thinking about like the alt text

20:11
anything like that. Right, right. And then I look at this website that was like in the nicest way possible your website sucks. Now I gotta go through all these pictures and all these blog posts, which I'm taking my time. I'm gonna do it. Yeah. To to make them more accessible. It is eye-opening. You know, you like to see like it's like yo.

20:38
man, if somebody really wanted to rock with my content, they would have no idea what was going on on my website because it just wasn't, I made it easy for myself, I didn't make it easier for those in the world to like, from different points, you know, different types of people. So I was really appreciative of that conversation because now I am really, I am really trying to put an effort into it.

21:08
other like it's someone like myself wants to wants to make their... you do this for a living with Nationwide. I do, yep.

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If somebody wanted to make their content easier to access, what are some of your suggestions? For myself, I wanted to improve my website. What could somebody do? Here's some easy things. So you talked about alt text on your. Great, again.

21:38
images that you put on there. So one of the things that I ask or say, you know, to, to developers that I talk to, I'll tell them, ask yourself a question. Does this, does this image add anything to my website? So are you putting it in and completely understandable? Sometimes people put in images to make it look nice, but someone like me, I may not need to know that that's there so you can hide that and market decorative. And then the screen reader just jumps over it. Definitely add alt text to an image if it makes sense.

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value and somebody would need to know about it if they're looking through so do that. Make sure that links and buttons are all labeled correctly and then also make sure that if you get to a link and you use the keyboard that if you hit enter on it it's actually going to take you out to that page. Sometimes people make it so that if you get to a link you can only access it if you use the mouse.

22:38
I'm only using the keyboard to navigate the screen. So you want to make sure that as you go through it, it's left to right, top to bottom, that your form fields are also labeled correctly. So sometimes if you fill out a form, and it has like first name, last name, address, you know, things like that, you want to make sure that you say first name, and not just name, because you might put the next one as name again, for last name. So you want to make sure it's clear, so people know how to fill it out.

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You want to make sure if you have menus that you can use the keyboard to open the menu and navigate through it and choose what you want. Check boxes can be checked if you have that on there. So it's just a variety of things that you'd want to make sure that the keyboard can navigate just like you would navigate with your mouse. No that is good. Now I got to go back today. See that's helpful. But it's good. It's good because I want to make sure that people can access it.

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website I'd be happy to take a look. Yeah, yeah just cut me deep I'm already on this because I already know. Bettina again thank you so much for being here I really appreciate it. Thank you for inviting me. Yeah for those that want to learn more about your work connect with you or connect with anything you're doing where can they where are some resources they can find you at?

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which is the Iowa Council of the United Blind website, which is ICUBLIND.org and you can check things out there. There's a link there to my email and if you want to reach out you can reach me through there. I would say that's the best way to get a hold of me for sure.

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But if anybody does want to talk anything more specific about any of the things we've talked about today or even about accessibility, I would say reach out to Corey and I'll give you my personal information and you can certainly share that. Awesome. Again, thank you so much for being here. And everybody, thank you for listening to the Healthy Project podcast. I'll holler at you next time.