Politics: Disabled Voters Finally Get Their Say

Disabled voters’ voices are finally being heard as the Government has opened up a consultation for election accessibility. UK elections and referendums have repeatedly shown gaps in the Government’s provisions for disabled people, who have often been left unable to vote.

Breach of Rights

The Government has committed to reviewing the way it supports disabled people after years of polling booths across the country failing to accommodate them.

Many disabled voters have been left unable to make an independent, secret vote, in a clear breach of their rights.

This Government is unfortunately no stranger to such failure; in September 2017 the United Nations released a damning report on the UK’s treatment of disabled people, saying that harsh austerity measures were breaching disabled people’s human rights.

A week later the Government opened the investigation into voter accessibility – something many have spent years fighting for.

The Government is asking disabled people across the UK to give evidence about their voting experiences. The report will explore how disabled people can be better supported and how the voting process can be made easier and more accessible.

The aim will be to identify examples of good practice and improve politicians’ understanding of the situation. The consultation is backed by the Cabinet Office’s accessibility working group, which includes Mencap, Mind, Scope, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, the NHS and the Electoral Commission. Once collected, the evidence will be reviewed for a Spring 2018 report that will make recommendations for future action.

A Helping Hand

The difficulties disabled people run into when voting are not as simple as a lack of wheelchair ramps at polling stations, although that does happen.

The issues begin at registering: the blind, partially-sighted and many others will be unable to fill out traditional registration forms and may need assistance to get registered.

Then polling stations need disabled access, booths that are appropriate for all heights, large-print ballot papers, tactile voting devices and the option to have the presiding officer assist you in marking the paper.

None of those things are impossible but every election produces yet another story of disabled voters being denied their rights and every time organisations have demanded better and gone unheard.

A June 2017 inclusive voting report conducted by WebRoots – a campaign group for digital democracy – explored the barriers faced by disabled and vision-impaired voters. The report built on previous research and included new data and contributions from organisations. individuals and MPs. It set out seven recommendations which included introducing online voting pilots that allow independent balloting at home, something already in place in countries including Australia and Estonia. The report also called for the Human Rights Commission to explore whether the current UK voting system breached human rights.

Have Your Say

Rather than take on board the WebRoots findings the Government opted to conduct its own consultation.

No doubt the same results and recommendations will be found – months later – but it’s at least a start for a long-overdue overhaul. If you would like to submit evidence of your voting experience as a disabled person, you will need to do so before November 14, 2017.

You can find the large-print instructions here. Ironically it says you may call to submit evidence but doesn’t include a phone number – clearly this accessibility consultation cannot come a moment too soon.

by Jo Davey

The post Politics: Disabled Voters Finally Get Their Say appeared first on Felix Magazine.