In Japan, 310,000 visually challenged citizens did not have the critical information necessary to make an informed decision in government elections. Prior to the Election in the Dark campaign, candidates’ platforms and political views were posted on government sites as image files, which were incompatible with software programs for the visually impaired. To raise awareness of this oversight, Yahoo Japan created a text-based microsite that literally turned the tables. The content was compatible with software that vocalizes text for the visually impaired and the black on black text was invisible to sighted viewers.
We targeted this campaign to all internet users, voters, visually challenged, and journalists. By launching the microsite when everybody’s attention is towards the Tokyo Metropolitan Election, we gained interests from everyone including the media and resulting in a huge nationwide discussion. Together with the release, we hosted a media event which demonstrates how visually challenged use this microsite. By showing how the visually challenged use the internet live, we clarified the media what the problem is in reality. Additionally, before launch, by leaking this initiative to one of the most viewed nationwide news programs which has a viewing rate over 12%, the project was specially featured. Eventually, we extensively raised awareness of this invisible online election information gap. Moreover, by designing the overall online experience to let viewers speak up on social media, the project further proliferated regarding the gap which exists between the visually challenged and the upcoming election.
Philosophy
To present this issue, instead of a PDF, we launched a text-based microsite with every candidate’s information. However, at first glance, this website is in complete darkness with no comprehensible information/hierarchy available. All election information is written in black text on a black background. This site expresses the state for visually challenged, who cannot obtain information despite the information being there. First, the sighted visits the website hoping to obtain necessary election information, but experience inconvenience instead by not obtaining anything. Soon after, the sighted understands this situation “replicates” the current state of the visually challenged, which eventually makes them realize the deepness of this unknown human rights problem. Nonetheless, through special software that vocalizes the non-visually information on the HTML, the visually challenged access the content without difficulty. By switching the positions of sighted and visually challenged, we provided a solution, and raised awareness about this overlooked information gap.
Result
This campaign achieved phenomenal results. • Achieved +250 media coverage including a special feature program in “Good Morning Japan”(NHK) which is the most major news program in Japan. Overall media impression totaled +257,300,000JPY(Approx. 2,330,000USD). • Pressured by the trending controversy among citizens and media, every major political party (The Liberal Democratic Party, The Democratic Party, Komeito, Japanese Communist Party, Tokyoites First Party, Seikatsusha Network of Tokyo, Ishin Tokyo) promised to resolve this issue. It became the first mark to resolve this disparity. • The voting rate in Tokyo increased by 17.9% than the previous election, and achieved the highest voting rate in the past 5 years. Early voting rate increased by 51.0% than the previous election. The votes casted became the highest ever, which exemplifies the success in stimulating voters’ interest in politics. • +1,200,000 pageviews in 10 days since the launch. • +6349% higher traffic than past similar website.