As part of IFES’ goal to increase access to the ballot for people with disabilities around the world, Virginia Atkinson, IFES Regional Program Coordinator for Europe and Asia, was a presenter at Inclusion Europe’s conference Voting for All! Improving the Accessibility of Elections in the Member States of the European Union.

Atkinson presented on IFES’ efforts to remove barriers for voters with disabilities, such as designing and using Tactile Ballot Guides in Kosovo and our most recent project in Southeast Asia to monitor and raise awareness about disability access issues in elections. Through this project, IFES is expanding Indonesian disabled people’s organizations’ regional leadership capabilities to help create a South-South dialogue for collecting and sharing best practices.

Inclusion Europe is a regional association which represents the interests of people with intellectual disabilities and their families.  It has 75 member organizations in 39 European countries. The conference gathered EU and national politicians, as well as representatives from national electoral commissions and other relevant international stakeholders to discuss best practices and proposals for making elections more accessible.

Best practices included the example of Sweden where the Election Committee’s website is in easy-to-read, sign language, audio and the top 12 languages of immigrants to the country. It can also be changed into numerous different colors.

Other examples include Germany and Scotland which produce booklets on why voting is important, how to prepare for elections, how to vote, what difficult words relating to elections mean and how to find out the election results.

Recommendations for making elections more accessible focused on five areas:

• Accessible information regarding elections and political party platforms
• Removal of all restrictions on legal capacity
• Training for registration and polling station staff 
• Allowing a person the voter with a disability trusts to assist them in the polling booth
• Increasing access to the voting process by improving transport to the polling station, ensuring the polling station is accessible, taking advantage of new technologies, and allowing for alternative options such as mobile polling stations or advance voting.

The Vice-President of the European Parliament, Libor Roucek, spoke about how many of the barriers people with intellectual disabilities face are similar to those that migrants and the elderly face in terms of access to easy to understand information. He expressed his commitment to elevate the issue of electoral rights for persons with disabilities within the Parliament.