https://www.etonline.com/dancing-with-the-stars-voting-error-contestants-react-to-phone-glitch-exclusive-110837
Apparently there was a glitch with the phone-in votes, so phone votes were not counted for this week's performance shows. Only the judges' scores and online votes figured in this week.
Some people are saying that this is particularly unfair to ousted contestant Danelle. The reason people believe she is at a particular disadvantage is that more of her fans and the people voting for her might be blind or have another disability, and therefore probably called in more than voted online.
While this COULD be true, I want to make it very clear for people who don't know, that people who are blind and people with disabilities can and often do use computers. Assistive technology such as screen readers, magnification software, and voice recognition programs enable people with various disabilities to use computers. Some of this technology is expensive; however, the trend lately has been for some programs to be lower cost or even free. Some software can be downloaded directly from a web site with no cost involved.
Having said all this, I agree with those who are saying that Danelle should be allowed back into the competition, and a double elimination should take place next Monday night. A glitch is a glitch, and it's not fair that an entire segment of votes did not count. We also must keep in mind that for some people, disabled or not, the cost of a computer and Internet connection are prohibitive, so there are likely more phone than computer votes for the show. Also, for some people living in rural areas of the country, Internet access may be intermittent or even non-existent.
Resources:
https://www.nvaccess.org/download/ (screen reader)
https://www.freedomscientific.com/Downloads/JAWS (screen reader)
https://www.freedomscientific.com/Products/LowVision/MAGic (magnification software)
https://www.nuance.com/dragon.html (voice recognition)
librarianintx
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