Good Practices for Accessible Elections in Europe - Inclusion Europe

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Good Practices for Accessible Elections in Europe - Inclusion Europe
Good Practices
for Accessible
Elections in Europe

Produced as part of the project “Accommodating Diversity
for Active Participation in European Elections” in May 2011

                                                          Inclusion Europe

     With financial support from the Fundamental Rights
     & Citizenship Programme of the European Union                       EN
The project partners contributing to this publication were:

ENABLE
146 Argyle Street – G2 8BL Glasgow – Scotland – United Kingdom
enable@enable.org.uk – www.enable.org.uk

Nous Aussi
15 rue Coysevox – 75876 Paris Cedex 18 – France
nous-aussi@unapei.org – www.nousaussi.org

SPMP ČR
Karlinské nám. 12/59 – 186 03 Praha 8 Karlín – Česká republika
spmp@seznam.cz – www.spmpcr.cz

ISBN : 2-87460-123-3
© Inclusion Europe 2011

This publication has been produced with the financial support of the Fundamental Rights
and Citizenship Programme of the European Commission. The contents of this publication
are the sole responsibility of Inclusion Europe and the project partners and can in no way be
taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.
Introduction

All European citizens should have the                     People with intellectual
right to vote and participate in elections.                disabilities
Yet in many cases, people with                            Elderly people facing age-related
disabilities, as well as other vulnerable                  illnesses which hinder their
groups are hindered by barriers which                      participation
prevent them from exercising this                         Other groups of citizens who may
fundamental right. These barriers range                    face language barriers
from a lack of awareness about the right
to vote, to inaccessible information               It is highly encouraging to see the large
about elections and physical barriers at           number of good practices which are
polling stations which prevent people              already in place in many European
with disabilities from voting. In order to         countries to ensure greater accessibility
remove these barriers, practices which             for the above-mentioned groups to
improve access to voting and electoral             elections, and much can be learned from
participation must be implemented.                 these     practices   in    implementing
                                                   accessibility measures in other European
In December 2009, Inclusion Europe
                                                   countries.
launched a project with the aim of
improving the accessibility of elections for
                                                   Inclusion Europe promotes the exchange
the following groups of citizens:
                                                   and uptake of these practices and hopes
                                                   that they will provide concrete examples
                                                   and inspiration to facilitate and improve
                                                   access to voting for all European citizens.

                                                                           Maureen Piggot
                                                                                    President
                                                                            Inclusion Europe

                                               1
Voting for All!

Project ADAP (Accommodating Diversity                This brochure gives statistical data on
for Active Participation in European                 good practices across the different
Elections) was led by Inclusion Europe,              countries, to provide an overview of
and was undertaken together with self-               accessibility measures across Europe, as
advocates from Inclusion Europe’s                    well as presenting more detailed
member organizations ENABLE Scotland,                examples of good practices in 5 different
Nous Aussi (France) and SPMP (Czech                  areas: awareness-raising, surveys on
Republic), who gave invaluable input into            accessibility,  accessible information,
the project and played a very active and             training and access to voting.
important role in selecting best practices
for this brochure.                                   As part of the ADAP project, Policy
                                                     Recommendations, as well as a Guide to
Inclusion Europe collected good practices            Campaigns for More Accessible elections
on accessible measures for elections for             for national associations in easy-to-read
the above-mentioned groups through                   language were produced. These can be
research and questionnaires sent to its              downloaded from the project website:
member organizations in Europe and to                www.voting-for-all.eu.
national electoral commissions or
government departments responsible for               Project ADAP was undertaken with
organizing elections in the Member States            funding from the Fundamental Rights and
of the European Union (EU).                          Citizenship Programme of the European
                                                     Commission from December 2009 to June
Inclusion Europe received responses from             2011.
member organizations in 25 countries1 ,
as well as replies from electoral
commissions or government departments
responsible for organizing elections in 18
EU countries2. In total, information on 29
European countries was gathered.

1
  Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland,
Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovakia, Sweden,
UK.
2
  Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland,
Italy,   Lithuania,    Luxembourg,      Malta,
Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain,
Sweden.

                                                 2
Good practices
1. Awareness-raising                           national and European elections. They
                                               addressed issues such as:
Many people with disabilities are not                 Disenfranchisement of the right to
aware of their right to vote or the                    vote for people with intellectual
electoral and voting process is not                    disabilities due to limitations
accessible for them. Additionally, polling             imposed by legal capacity
station staff as well as politicians and the           measures.
general public are often not aware that               The need for assistance in the
people with disabilities should be                     polling booth for people with
allowed to vote and require specific                   intellectual disabilities by a
accessibility measures to be put in place              person of their choice whom they
in order to facilitate their participation.            trust.
Inclusion Europe’s research revealed a                The importance of providing easy-
number of awareness-raising initiatives                to-read information about voting
across Europe to highlight accessibility               and the elections to facilitate
issues and raise awareness about the                   understanding among people with
importance of the right to vote for                    intellectual disabilities about
people with disabilities, the elderly and              elections and how to vote.
non-native citizens of the country.

Awareness-raising initiatives at
European level

Several initiatives have been undertaken
in recent years to raise awareness about
the     importance      of    voting and
participation in political life by people
with disabilities at European level.           Meetings were also organised at national
                                               level with groups of self-advocates to
Project ADAP, Inclusion Europe                 discuss the importance of voting and to
As part of the ADAP project, the three         find out more about the difficulties
self-advocates working on the project          encountered by people with intellectual
organized meetings with national               disabilities when voting and to share ideas
politicians, their national Members of the     about how to take action and campaign
European Parliament (MEPs) as well as          for more accessible elections in their
representatives from their national            country. A guide for national associations
electoral bodies to raise awareness about      on how to campaign for more accessible
the difficulties faced by people with          elections was produced in easy-to-read
intellectual disabilities and to demand        language giving concrete ideas on how to
improved accessibility for the next            launch an awareness-raising campaign for
                                               more accessible elections.
The final conference of the project in May        The campaign website provides infor-
2011 gathered national politicians, repre-        mation about:
sentatives from national electoral bodies
                                                         The impact of the EU in the daily
or departments responsible for elections
                                                          lives of persons with disabilities.
in the different EU Member States, as well
                                                         The EDF Manifesto: nothing about
as representatives from the EU
                                                          us, without us which contains the
institutions, the Council of Europe,
                                                          TOP 10 demands to make
organisations for people with disabilities
                                                          disability discrimination history,
and the elderly and other relevant
                                                          calls on politicians to assure equal
stakeholders      to  discuss     concrete
                                                          access for voting and participation
accessibility measures for the 2014
                                                          in electoral campaigns and for a
European elections and future national
                                                          European Parliament for all. The
elections.3
                                                          EDF invites the political leaders to
                                                          endorse the Manifesto and also to
            ‘Disability votes count’4,
                                                          integrate its principles in their
            European                                      parties’ campaigns. The manifesto
            Disability                                    was produced in easy-to-read by
            Forum                                         Inclusion Europe and is available
For the 2009 European elections, the                      in all 23 EU languages.
European Disability Forum launched a
campaign to encourage people with
disabilities to take part in European
elections and to combat discrimination.
The campaign highlighted the increasingly
low turnout for European elections. The
main objectives of the ‘Disability Votes
Count’ campaign were to:

       Encourage citizens with disabil-          It also provides a checklist for electoral
        ities to exert their rights to vote       authorities on accessibility, as well as
        and to participate in the 2009            goals and achievements set out for the
        European elections.                       next European elections to political
       Promote free and equal access to          parties and candidates.
        electoral debates and procedures
        for citizens with disabilities.           ‘My Opinion, My Vote’5
       Invite candidates to the elections        The ‘My Opinion, My Vote’ project was
        to engage with the demands of 50          launched in 2009 and was undertaken
        million disabled citizens within EU       with funding from the Lifelong Learning
        policies and legislation.                 Programme for European Education of the
                                                  European Commission.

3
 ADAP website: www.voting-for-all.eu.             5
                                                   ‘My Opinion, My Vote’ website:
4
 ‘Disability votes count’ website:                www.myopinionmyvote.eu.
www.disabilityvotescount.eu.

                                              4
The general objectives of the project              Awareness-raising initiatives at
included:
                                                   national level
       Educating people with intellectual
        disabilities about their political         Inclusion Europe’s research revealed that
        rights.                                    the electoral commissions or relevant
       Encouraging people with intel-             government ministries in 13 European
        lectual disabilities to form and           countries undertook activities to encour-
        express an informed opinion or             age all citizens to participate in the 2009
        decision in local, national                European elections6. Of these, 7 countries
        and European elections and                 undertook specific activities to encourage
        referenda.                                 people with intellectual disability, the
       Raising awareness among those              elderly or any other vulnerable groups to
        who are in a position to facilitate        vote7. Several electoral authorities stated
        people with intellectual disabil-          that they did not undertake awareness-
        ities in exercising their political        raising activities due to the fact that they
        rights (including relatives and            are not permitted to influence voters.
        carers of people with intellectual
        disabilities, politicians and public       In the Netherlands, the Ministry of the
        authorities).                              Interior and Kingdom Relations provided
                                                   brochures and posters for the elderly to
                                                   encourage their participation in the most
                                                   recent national elections. In Ireland, an
                                                   advertising campaign to check if people
                                                   had registered for the European elections
                                                   in 2009 was undertaken, as well as
                                                   newspaper advertising. In Estonia, a
                                                   young and ‘first-time voters’ campaign
As part of the project, the partners
                                                   was undertaken by the Electoral
undertook research to discover how many
                                                   Commission in the most recent national
people with intellectual disabilities were
                                                   elections.
aware of their voting rights in the six
partner countries (Italy, Denmark, Ireland,
Spain, Malta and Hungary). They also                                  ‘Vote SMART’
developed and tested an educational                                   campaign,
programme addressing issues such as                                   Romania
‘Forming a Personal and Independent
Opinion’, ‘What is politics?’ and ‘Political       The VOTE SMART campaign was
Parties and Electoral Programmes’. They            organised by the Pentru Voi Foundation
launched a campaign to raise awareness             (member of Inclusion Europe), the
among people with learning disabilities,           Institute for Public Policies and Inclusion
their families and carers, as well as
                                                   6
professionals,     decision-makers      and          Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia,
                                                   Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania,
political parties.
                                                   Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania.
                                                   7
                                                     Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland,
                                                   Malta and Portugal.

                                               5
Romania. It aimed to create a commu-                learning disability had the opportunity to
nication network between voters and                 get their voices heard.
candidates for County Council elections
and administrative sectors in Bucharest,            The campaign achieved a high level of
which aimed to enable people to vote in             engagement with MPs and parliamentary
an informed way.                                    candidates. It ensured that all three of
                                                    the main political parties (and two smaller
The VOTE SMART campaign took place
                                                    parties) commissioned Mencap to
from May to June 2008 and offered the
                                                    produce their manifestos in easy-to-read
opportunity for political candidates from
                                                    to reach voters with intellectual
5 different counties in Romania (Timis,
                                                    disabilities. As a result of the campaign,
Giurgiu, Hunedoara, Mures and Sibiu) and
                                                    the number of people with an intellectual
6 candidates from Bucharest admin-
                                                    disability who voted doubled from 16% to
istration to present concrete ways in
                                                    31% (shown by a survey of over 1100
which they would promote the social
                                                    people with a learning disability)
inclusion of people with intellectual
                                                    compared with previous elections.
disabilities to voters. Their answers were
made public in the central and local press
and through the organisations involved in
the campaign to inform the electorate
and hold the candidates accountable for
their answers.

                ‘Get my vote’
                campaign8, UK
                                                    In addition to these successes, Mencap
Research carried out by United Response             has also ensured 145 MPs from across the
(a national UK charity supporting people            political spectrum signed an agreement
with intellectual disabilities) in May 2008,        which called for local authorities, political
showed that only 16 per cent of people              parties and central government to
with intellectual disabilities whom they            produce accessible material in relation to
surveyed voted in the 2005 general                  electoral matters, and called on all
election. In a recent Mencap study, 45 per          prospective parliamentary candidates to
cent of people said the reason they didn’t          make their election material easily
vote was because they didn’t understand             accessible for people with a learning
the information produced by political               disability. Additionally, 56 MPs in the new
parties.                                            parliament have supported the acces-
                                                    sibility agenda giving a good basis on
In light of this, for the general election in       which to engage these MPs.
2010, Mencap launched the 'Get my vote'
campaign to make sure people with a

8
 For more information, go to:
www.mencap.org.uk.

                                                6
It highlights the large number of existing
’Accessibility of the electoral process
                                                     voters with disabilities in Scotland. It then
for people with disabilities’9, France
                                                     provides guidance on issues such as:
The guide ‘Accessibility of the electoral
                                                            Protocols and language (for
process for people with disabilities’ is
                                                             example, allowing more time for
aimed at electoral candidates and was
                                                             discussion, addressing the person
produced by the French Ministry of Social
                                                             with a disability directly and not
Affairs and Employment in 2009.
                                                             their assistant, using appropriate
                                                             terms when referring to disability
The guide tells political candidates how to
                                                             issues).
make their meetings, documents and
                                                            How to provide accessible
websites more accessible for people with
                                                             information (for example, using
disabilities. It highlights important issues
                                                             alternative formats including
including:
                                                             simple language, Braille or audio).
       Accessibility of meeting venues                     Ensuring inclusion of people with
        and      non-discrimination       (for               disabilities at meetings (for
        example, ensuring that provisions                    example, ensuring the meeting
        for people who are deaf, blind or                    venue is accessible and easy to
        in wheelchairs are available).                       reach by public transport).
       Accessibility of information (for                   Communication (such as using
        example, the use of Braille, audio,                  clear language and having a sign
        subtitles, simplified language in all                language interpreter).
        documents and on websites).
        Provisions for accessibility set out        The guide also addresses issues such as
        in national legislation (for                 polling station accessibility and the need
        example, making polling stations             for the provision of assistance for voters
        accessible for people with                   with disabilities.
        different types of disability,
        providing accessibility measures
        which allow people to vote as                2. Surveys on accessibility
        independently as possible).
                                                     Surveys on the accessibility of elections
‘Reaching Disabled Voters’, Scotland                 can be used to discover how many
                                                     people with disabilities take part in
The ‘Reaching Disabled Voters’ guide is
                                                     elections and what problems may hinder
aimed towards political candidates and
                                                     their participation in order to see how
provides advice on how to adapt their
                                                     these issues can be addressed. In the UK
campaigns         towards   people      with
                                                     and Belgium, surveys on the accessibility
disabilities. It was produced by ‘Disability
                                                     of elections were carried out to find out
Agenda Scotland’, an alliance of
                                                     the number of people with disabilities
Scotland’s major disability organisations.
                                                     who vote or get involved in politics and
9
 The guide can be found at:                          how accessible polling stations were.
http://www.csa.fr/upload/publication/meme
nto_candidats.pdf.

                                                 7
surveying 294 people in 6 different
                      10
‘Every vote counts’ , UK                            regions of Belgium.

United Response launched the ‘Every                 The surveys highlighted the many
Vote Counts’ campaign in 2007. This                 recurrent problems faced by people with
three-year project, funded by the                   physical disabilities when going to the
Electoral Commission, aimed to raise                polling station, including: lack of
awareness and promote the participation             accessibility for people in wheelchairs,
of people with intellectual disabilities in         people with visual and hearing
campaigns and in every aspect of the                impairments.
democratic process.

Research by United Response, an
organisation which supports people with
intellectual disabilities, mental health
needs or physical disabilities to live in the
community in the UK, has shown that
while 80% of people with intellectual
disabilities are registered to vote, only
16% of them voted in the last 2005 UK
General election and 20% in their last
local elections. The research highlighted a
number of barriers to accessibility,                Letters have been sent to the different
including a lack of easy to understand              communes in this area to raise awareness
information about political parties and             about the problem and to encourage
policies.                                           them to put in place adequate measures
                                                    for better accessibility at the polling
‘Voters with reduced              mobility’         station. For the 2009 elections, they called
booklet, Belgium                                    for measures such as:
The booklet on ‘Voters with reduced                            Adapted transport on election
mobility’ explains the problems which                           day      for   people      with
people with disabilities often encounter                        disabilities.
because polling stations are not                               Awareness-raising        among
accessible. It refers to two surveys which                      polling station officials about
were conducted about the global                                 the needs of people with
accessibility of the regional and European                      disabilities.
elections in 2004, and the commune and                         Larger characters and Braille
provincial elections in 2006. It was written                    on ballot forms for people
as a joint effort by 20 different                               with visual impairments.
associations in the Walloon region of                          Easy-to-read texts about elec-
Brussels in Belgium. It was conducted by                        tions on electoral websites.

10
 For more information, go to:
www.everyvotecounts.org.uk.

                                                8
aspect of the electoral process13. In
3. Access to information                               Sweden, our member reported that they
   about elections                                     have easy-to-read information throughout
                                                       the whole electoral process, including
Improved access to information about                   information about local, national and
voting and the electoral process is vital              European elections, the national political
for people with intellectual disabilities              system, when the elections are held,
and other groups of citizens facing                    where to go to vote, filling in the ballot
difficulties in understanding complex                  form and the election results14. In
information related to all aspects of the              Belgium, the Ministry of the Interior asked
voting process, including how to vote,                 the AFrAHM (French Belgian Association
when and where to vote, how to find                    for people with intellectual disabilities) to
information about the different political              produce an easy-to-read version of official
parties and different types of elections               instructions to be put up at polling
and how to find out the election results.              stations in the last elections.

Inclusion Europe’s research showed that
                                                       Easy-to-read guides on voting and the
there was information in at least one
                                                       elections
accessible format (including easy-to-read,
Braille, audio and video) about at least
                                                       European elections 2009 brochure in
one aspect of the voting process in 18
                                                       easy-to-read15, Inclusion Europe
European countries11. It also revealed that
information produced by political parties              In the run-up to the European 2009
was produced in at least one accessible                elections, Inclusion Europe produced a
format (including easy-to-read language,               leaflet in easy-to-read language about the
Braille, audio, video) in 4 countries12.               European elections for people with
                                                       intellectual disabilities translated for use
In several countries, state funding is                 in 14 different European countries16. The
provided towards accessibility measures                brochure explains for example: when the
to facilitate participation of people with             European 2009 elections took place, what
disabilities in elections, such as in Finland,         the European Parliament is, what an
Lithuania and Sweden.                                  election is and who can vote, how to vote
                                                       and find out the elections results in easy-
Easy-to-understand
information                                            13
                                                          Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland,
                                                       France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal,
Inclusion Europe’s research showed that                Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, UK.
                                                       14
in 14 countries, there is information in                  Swedish Electoral Commission website
easy-to-read language about at least one               www.val.se.
                                                       15
                                                          To see the easy-to-read brochures on the
                                                       European 2009 elections, go to:
11
   Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland,       http://www.inclusion-europe.org.
                                                       16
France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,                  Austria, the Czech Republic, England,
Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia,            Estonia, France , Germany, Greece, Italy,
Spain, Sweden, UK.                                     Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia,
12
   Germany, Latvia, Sweden, UK.                        Slovenia, Spain.

                                                   9
to-read language. The leaflet was widely                  How to vote in local elections.
distributed through Inclusion Europe’s                    How to vote in Scottish elections.
membership to raise awareness about the                   How to vote in European
European 2009 elections and to                             elections.
encourage greater participation among                     What difficult words relating to
people with intellectual disabilities.                     elections mean.

‘How to vote’ pack, Germany                      These booklets use easy-to-read language
                                                 and pictures which are easy-to-
The ‘How to vote’ pack contains one
                                                 understand for people with intellectual
booklet about how to vote in national
                                                 disabilities.
elections and one booklet on how to vote
in European elections. The booklets are
                                                 ‘Voting in Scotland’ booklet, Scotland
provided in a voting pack. They explain,
using easy-to-read language, pictures and
diagrams both for national and European
elections:

     Why voting is important.
     The German parliament and the
      European parliament.
     How to find out about the                  The ‘Voting in Scotland’ booklet was
      different political parties.               published by the Scottish Electoral
     Who can vote.                              Commission in 2007 and explains why
     How to vote at the polling station         voting is important and how to vote in
      and by post.                               easy-to-read language. It covers issues
     How to find out the election               such as: what is voting? Who can vote?
      results.                                   How to vote by post and by proxy, and
                                                 how to find out the election results.
The pack was compiled by a number of
German disability organisations including
Bundesvereinigung Lebenshilfe (also a
                                                 Easy-to-understand websites
member of Inclusion Europe) and Aktion
Mensch. It was published by Karle Finke,         In several countries, including the UK,
Government Representative of Nord-               Germany, Ireland and Sweden, websites
rhein-Westfalen.                                 which      provide     easy-to-understand
                                                 information      about     voting     and
‘Use your vote’ pack, Scotland                   participating in elections have been
                                                 developed.
The ‘Voting in Scotland’ booklet was
produced within the framework of a               ‘Promote the vote’ website17, UK
European project in which self-advocates
from Scotland, Germany and Spain were            This website was produced by a groups of
involved. It features 6 small booklets           self-advocates called ‘Speaking Up’ in
which explain:                                   Cambridge. It features short videos and

      How to prepare for elections.
                                                 17
                                                      www.promotethevote.co.uk.

                                            10
easy-to-read information about the                  once (the national organisation for blind
different stages of voting, including topics        people in Spain). This led to the use of
such as: ‘Why vote?’ ‘How to register to            Braille ballots and also led to the setting
vote’ and ‘How to vote’.                            up of a free phone line where voters
                                                    could receive information about the
Information in other accessible                     electoral role and about the different
                                                    political candidates.
formats
                                                    ‘Don’t leave me out!’ information
Our research revealed that 4 countries18
had information about elections in Braille
                                                    sheet21, Scotland
or large text for people with visual
impairment. Research among electoral
commissions or relevant government
ministries revealed that audio options
providing information about elections
were available for people with visual
impairments in 4 countries19. Information
in sign language was provided 2
countries20.

                                                    The Scottish Council on Deafness
               Accessibility for blind and
                                                    produced an information sheet in 2009
               partially-sighted voters
                                                    for political candidates to raise awareness
               to electoral systems,
                                                    about the importance of making electoral
               European Blind Union
                                                    campaigns accessible for voters with
In July 2009, the European Blind Union              hearing impairments. It was published
published a study on Accessibility for blind        with support from the Scottish Electoral
and partially-sighted voters to electoral           Commission. It highlights that British Sign
systems in EU Member States. The study              Language is the preferred method of
presents research undertaken in 18 EU               communication for 6000 deaf people in
Member States on access to the electoral            Scotland alone. It includes advice such as
process     for    people with        visual        ensuring appropriate support for deaf
impairment. It showed that in some                  people at political meetings and events
countries, provisions such as large print or        and providing information in a wide range
Braille ballot forms are available, and in          of accessible formats.
many countries, blind people are allowed
to be accompanied by a person they trust.
In Spain for example, the Spanish Organic
Law on General Voting procedures was
amended in 2007 due to lobbying from
                                                    21
                                                       You can see the information sheet at:
                                                    http://www.scod.org.uk/pdf/scodpublications
18
   Ireland, Malta, Spain, Sweden.                   /is_mepsWEB.pdf.
19
   Ireland, Latvia, Malta, Sweden.
20
   Italy and Sweden.

                                               11
Information provided in other                       the Irish Centre for Human Rights,
                                                    Integrating Ireland and the Irish Refugee
languages for non-native
                                                    Council.
citizens

According to information collected from             4. Training
Inclusion Europe’s member organizations
and from national electoral bodies or               Training for polling station officials on
relevant governmental departments                   how to assist people with intellectual
responsible for organizing elections,               disabilities, as well as other groups who
information was available in at least one           find it difficult to vote is important to
language other than the national                    ensure that they are provided with the
language about the elections in the                 right support when voting. It is also
country in 15 countries22. In Sweden,               important to provide people with
there is information about elections in 21          intellectual disabilities and other groups
different languages.                                who find it difficult to take part in
                                                    elections with training on how to vote to
Information on registering for a vote,              ensure that they understand the voting
Ireland                                             process.

In Ireland, information about elections
                                                    Training for polling station
exists in a number of languages, including
Chinese mandarin, Polish, Russian and               officials
Slovak. For the 2009 European elections,
                                                    In three countries, Inclusion Europe’s
the Department of the Environment &
                                                    members said that there was training for
Local Government informed us that a
                                                    polling station officials on how to assist
multi-lingual prompt card was translated
                                                    people with intellectual disabilities23. The
into 14 languages to facilitate staff
                                                    Czech Ministry of the Interior informed us
engaged by registration authorities in
                                                    that the Regional Office and the Czech
their door-to-door registration work.
                                                    Statistical Office regularly organize
Leaflets on how to register and how                 training for the electoral commission,
members of local authorities are elected            which includes how to assist people with
were translated into 7 different languages          disabilities. According to the electoral
for the last elections, and a leaflet on how        commissions in Lithuania and Malta,
MEPs are elected was translated into 5 EU           training is given to polling station officials
languages. These were distributed in                and guidelines are issued on how to assist
public offices, foreign embassies and               people with physical disabilities, blind
organizations dealing with integration,             people and the elderly. In Hungary, the
such as the Immigrant Council of Ireland,           National Election Office stated that
                                                    training is provided for polling station
                                                    officials on how to assist the elderly. In
22
   Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece,        Belgium and Finland, guidelines are also
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta, Romania, Sweden, Spain,
                                                    23
UK.                                                      Belgium, Czech Republic, Sweden.

                                               12
issued to polling station officials on how         organisation ‘Outside the box’, with
to assist people with intellectual and             support from the Scottish Electoral
physical disabilities and blind people             Commission. It uses pictures, diagrams
according to the Belgian Department of             and easy-to-read text to explain different
Elections and the Finnish Ministry of              aspects of the electoral process, including:
Justice.
                                                          ‘Choosing things and changing
In Denmark, the Ministry of the Interior                   things’
and Health issues guidelines to                           ‘Finding out who is in charge’
municipalities before each election                       ‘Voting to change things’
containing measures on accessibility
including allowing enough space for a              The manual can be used by people with
person in a wheelchair and their support           intellectual disabilities on their own, with
person in the polling booth. It also               support or in groups. A DVD is included in
stipulates that polling stations should be         the manual which goes through each
accessible for people in wheelchairs and           section in easy-to-understand language. It
with mobility disabilities. The Equal              provides contacts and websites where
Opportunities Centre for Disabled Persons          more information about voting can be
has produced guidelines for municipalities         found.
on how to address different groups of
people with disabilities.
                                                   5. Access to voting
Training for people with                           Lack of access to voting currently hinders
intellectual                                       many people, particularly people with
disabilities                                       disabilities from voting. There is a wide
                                                   range of good practices in this area which
                                                   significantly improve access to voting,
Inclusion Europe’s members in 7 countries          including      measures       to    improve
informed us that there were training               accessibility at polling stations for people
materials developed for people with                with intellectual, sensory and physical
intellectual disabilities about how to             disabilities, as well as providing
vote24.                                            alternative ways of voting for voters who
                                                   may find it difficult to get to the polling
‘Our Voice, our Vote’ peer training                station.
manual, Scotland
‘Our vote, our voice’ is a peer training           Access to polling stations
manual for people with intellectual
disabilities which enables them to train           According to the electoral commissions or
other people with intellectual disabilities        government ministries responsible for
on how to participate in elections. It was         organizing elections, in 11 European
produced by community development                  countries it is stated in national law that

24
  Finland, Germany, UK, Ireland, Norway,
Slovakia, Sweden.

                                              13
polling stations should be accessible for           of these measures is vital for effective
people with disabilities25.                         implementation.

In France, the law states that polling              Research among electoral commissions or
stations and ways of voting should be               government ministries responsible for
accessible for people with physical,                organizing elections also revealed that
sensory, and intellectual disabilities and          funding for the implementation of
mental health problems. Access to                   accessibility measures was available in 7
information and communication through               countries27.
television    programmes         are   also
           26
stipulated . The decree of October 2006             ‘Polling station accessibility’28
states that polling station and voting              brochure, Luxembourg
booths must be accessible for wheelchair
                                                    In June 2009, disability organisation ‘Info-
users. The government also sets out
                                                    Handicap’ produced a brochure about
provisions for deaf voters (including use
                                                    how to make polling stations more
of sign language and subtitles).
                                                    accessible. The brochure explains in detail
In Malta, electoral legislation specifies           concrete accessibility measures for polling
that all polling stations must be accessible        stations, including:
for people in wheelchairs (including                      Requirements for disabled parking
measures such as the tables must be the                    spaces (it states that 5% of
right height for wheelchairs and there                     parking spaces should be
must be adequate lighting for people with                  accessible and that they should
visual impairments).                                       be as close as possible to the
                                                           polling station).
In Scotland (and the United Kingdom),                     Requirements for the polling
under disability discrimination laws, all                  station itself (for example it
voting places should be physically                         states that the passage to the
accessible.                                                polling booths must be free of
                                                           obstacles and corridors must be
Regarding the above-mentioned coun-
                                                           at least 120 cm wide, whilst
tries, some of our members agreed that
                                                           doorways should be more than
polling stations in their countries were
                                                           90cm wide to facilitate access for
accessible, however several did not agree
                                                           wheelchair users).
or said that only a small number of polling
                                                          Requirements for space provided
stations were accessible for people with
                                                           in the polling booths and the
disabilities. The fact that accessibility
                                                           height of tables where the ballot
measures are specified in the national law
                                                           forms are provided.
is an important step, however monitoring

25                                                  27
    Spain, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, Romania,           Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania, Malta,
Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Hungary,             Romania.
                                                    28
Ireland, Malta.                                        The ‘Polling station accessibility’
26
   Articles 73 and 74 of the Law of 2005            (‘Accessibilité des bureau de vote’) brochure
http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/.                can be found at: www.welcome.lu.

                                               14
 Information about accessibility            Assisted voting
          measures for people with visual
          and hearing impairments, such as          Inclusion Europe’s members and the
          the provision of support if               electoral commission or government
          necessary by polling station staff        department responsible for organizing
          and adequate lighting.                    elections stated that assisted voting was
                                                    permitted in 24 countries surveyed30.
‘Polls Apart’ campaign29, UK                        Some countries specified that assisted
                                                    voting was permitted for people with
Scope, a UK organisation for disabled
                                                    physical or sensory disabilities (for
people, launched the ‘Polls Apart’
                                                    example the Netherlands, the Czech
campaign. In the last general election,
                                                    Republic, Spain), in other countries,
Scope surveyed over 2000 polling stations
                                                    assistance is provided upon the discretion
and found that 68% were inaccessible for
                                                    of the polling station official (for example
people with disabilities. On the basis of
                                                    in Belgium and Sweden). In other
this research, Scope raised awareness at
                                                    countries, people could be assisted by a
government and local level about the
                                                    family member or carer (for example in
importance of making their polling
                                                    Latvia).
stations accessible. On the Polls Apart
website, people can find out how
                                                    ‘Pushing for changes in the electoral
accessible their local polling station is in
                                                    code’, Albania
the UK.
                                                    The Help the Life association sent 20
‘Your vote is equal to others!’ project,            parents as observers in Tirana city for the
Romania                                             voting process in the 2007 local elections
                                                    and 2009 national elections. Help the Life
The Romanian Permanent Electoral
                                                    was part of a working group that worked
Authority informed us about the project
                                                    for 6 months to change the electoral code
‘Your vote is equal to others!’, which aims
                                                    before the 2009 national election and
to change electoral law to help blind, deaf
                                                    made important changes. One of these
and motor disabled people to vote. They
                                                    changes was the introduction of assisted
are also researching and wish to better
                                                    voting for people with intellectual
define the concept of ‘intellectually
                                                    disabilities. Part of the programme also
disabled’ in the electoral code. Through
                                                    included training 20 parents as observers
the project they want to produce
                                                    at polling stations on Election Day.
materials in Braille, facilitate access to
polling stations for wheelchairs and
propose special media programmes for
deaf voters. They are currently
researching these issues with NGOs and
                                                    30
plan to organize a conference with                     Albania, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech
                                                    Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
politicians to propose modifications to
                                                    Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,
legislation.
                                                    Lithuania, Luxembourg , Netherlands, Poland,
                                                    Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden,
29
     www.pollsapart.org.uk.                         UK.

                                               15
Alternative ways of voting
                                                      Electronic voting
Postal Voting, voting by proxy and                    According to our research, electronic
advance voting                                        voting was only currently possible in
Our research showed that in 14 countries,             Estonia.     Several    countries     have
it is possible to vote by post31. We found            introduced electronic voting but later
that in 7 countries, it is possible to vote by        stopped using it due to concerns for the
proxy32. In 7 countries, advance voting is            lack of safeguards (for example in
possible33. These measures can facilitate             Portugal) or have introduced pilot
the voting process for those who need                 projects for electronic voting (such as in
assistance or who have physical                       Ireland and Finland). In the Czech
disabilities and cannot get to the polling            Republic, Lithuania and Romania there are
station, including elderly people who have            plans to introduce electronic voting in the
limited mobility or who live in residences            near future. In Norway, for the next
which are far from polling stations.                  elections, some regions will try electronic
                                                      voting.
Mobile polling stations
                                                      Internet voting in Estonia is based on WAI
In 17 countries which replied to the                  principles (Web Accessibility Initiative)35 ,
questionnaire, mobile polling stations                which develops strategies, guidelines, and
were used34. The Department of the                    resources to help make the Web
Environment & Local Government in                     accessible to people with disabilities, and
Ireland informed us that special voting               JAWS (Job Access With Speech). The latter
facilities are provided in hospitals, nursing         converts text and components of the
homes or similar institutions for residents           Windows       operating      system     into
who cannot go to the polling station due              synthesized speech, thus allowing people
to a physical disability or physical illness.         with visual impairments to access written
According to the Austrian Federal Ministry            information in audio form.
of the Interior, Department of Elections In
                                                      In 2009, ANEC (a European consumer
Austria there is a new law which allows
                                                      organization) made a ‘Statement on
subscription of postal voting to disabled
                                                      Accessibility of Voting’, which called for
or bed-ridden people, meaning that they
                                                      greater web accessibility regarding
do not need to apply for a postal ballot
                                                      electronic voting and online information
before every election.
                                                      about elections36.
31
    Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Portugal,
Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, UK,
Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania.
32
    Belgium, France, Norway, UK, Slovakia,
Sweden, Netherlands).
33
   Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Malta,
Portugal, Sweden.
34
   Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France,
Finland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Norway,
                                                      35
Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Italy, Netherlands,              See http://www.w3.org/WAI/.
                                                      36
Austria, Denmark, Estonia.                                 http://www.anec.org.

                                                 16
Acknowledgements

Inclusion Europe would like to thank all       Ministry of the Interior (Czech Republic),
those who provided us with information         Ministry of the Interior and Health
about good practices in their country.         (Denmark), Estonian National Electoral
                                               Committee (Estonia), Ministry of Justice
Inclusion Europe’s Member Organis-             (Finland), Hellenic Republic, Ministry of
ations who contributed to the survey:          Interior,    Decentralisation     and     e-
Help the Life Association (Albania),           government (Greece), National Election
AFrAHM (Belgium), Bulgarian Association        Office (Hungary), Department of the
of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities      Environment & Local Government
(Bulgaria), Association for Self Advocacy      (Ireland), Central Directorate for Electoral
(Croatia), Pancyprian Parents Association      Services, Ministry of the Interior (Italy),
for People with Mental Handicap                The Central Electoral Commission
(Cyprus),    SPMP     (Czech      Republic),   (Lithuania), Ministry of the State
Landsforeningen LEV (Denmark), Estonian        (Luxembourg), Electoral Commission
Mentally Disabled People Support               (Malta),     Electoral     Council     (The
Organisation (Estonia), FDUV (Finland),        Netherlands),       National       Electoral
Nous      Aussi   (France),    Lebenshilfe     Commission       (Portugal),    Permanent
(Germany), POSGAmeA (Greece), ÉFOÉSZ           Electoral Authority (Romania), Ministry of
(Hungary), Inclusion Ireland (Ireland),        the Interior: Deputy Directorate General
Rupju Berns (Latvia), Ligue HMC                of Internal Policy and Electoral Processes
(Luxembourg), Movement in Favour of            (Spain), Swedish Election Authority
Rights of Persons with a Disability (Malta),   (Sweden).
NFU (Norway), Polish Association for
People with Mental Handicap (Poland),          Other non-governmental organisations:
FENACERCI (Portugal), Foundation ‘Pentru       AGE Europe, Alzheimer Europe, the
Voi ‘(Romania), ZPMP v SR (Slovakia),          European Citizen Action Service, the
                                               European Blind Union.
FEAPS & APPS (Spain), FUB (Sweden),
Mencap & ENABLE Scotland (UK).

National electoral commission or
government departments responsible for
organizing elections in the EU Member
States who contributed to the survey:
Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior,
Department     for    electoral    affairs,
Department of Elections (Belgium),
Inclusion Europe
The European Association of Societies
of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities
and their Families

Inclusion Europe is a non-profit organisation. We campaign for the rights and interests of
people with intellectual disabilities and their families. Our members are national organisations
from 39 countries.

People with intellectual disabilities are citizens of their country. They have an equal right to
be included in society, whatever the level of their disability. They want rights, not favours.

People with intellectual disabilities have many gifts and abilities. They also have special
needs. They need a choice of services to support their needs.

Inclusion Europe focuses on three main policy areas:
• Human Rights for people with intellectual disabilities
• Inclusion in society
• Non-discrimination

Inclusion Europe co-ordinates activities in many European countries, including projects,
conferences, working groups and exchange meetings. It responds to European political
proposals and provides information about the needs of people with intellectual disabilities.
Inclusion Europe advises the European Commission and members of the European
Parliament on disability issues.

           Inclusion Europe
           Galeries de la Toison d’Or - 29 Chaussée d’Ixelles - B-1050 Brussels
           Tel. : +32-2-502 28 15 - Fax : +32-2-502 80 10
           secretariat@inclusion-europe.org - www.inclusion-europe.org
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