The Alaska State Commission of Human Rights is urging the state to improve education and voting access for blind and visually impaired people.
Last week (3-12-26), the Commission passed two resolutions proposed by Commissioner William Craig of Sitka, who is a long-time disability rights advocate and is legally blind.
While Commissioner Craig was not present at the meeting for medical reasons, his fellow commissioners represented the resolutions on his behalf. Vice Chairperson Jessie Russridge made a case for Craig’s resolution urging the legislature to update the Alaska Reads Act to require braille education for blind and visually impaired students.
“This has been something that Commissioner Craig is passionate about and has done a lot of work and research [on] and has been affected by this and it’s been brought up before the commission,” said Russridge. “We’ve had good conversation on it, so I’m excited to move it forward.”
Commissioner Craig’s second resolution calls for the state’s Division of Elections to address voting accessibility shortcomings discovered in a federal inquiry. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice found that Alaska violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide accessible polling places and elections websites. The commission’s executive director, Robert Corbisier, cited personal examples from Commissioner Craig and his family that highlight the need for the updates.
“I have learned a lot, obviously, from Commissioner Craig and his son on the Commission. They do use screen readers, but that doesn’t mean that a website is necessarily set up for the screen reader,” said Corbisier. “For example…You can add a hidden HTML tag for that picture that describes what the picture is. But if you don’t do that, it’s not going to be in the code, and the screen reader isn’t going to be able to pick that up and explain to the visually impaired person, ‘Hey, this is what this picture has on it.'”
Ultimately, Corbisier said that the resolution was proposed by Commissioner Craig to address the larger issue of accessibility at the polls, rather than merely making websites accessible.
“His concern is making sure that if there is a methodology that is available to any Alaskan, that is available to any blind or visually impaired Alaskan at an equal an equal rate, at an equal polling location, at every location, and that every location be accessible every methodology be in compliance with the American Disabilities Act,” said Corbisier.
The commission approved both resolutions unanimously.
