There are campaigns in the United Kingdom to make elections more accessible for people with disabilities. One problem is that information about politics is too difficult to understand. The campaigns  want to convince politicians and authorities to make elections easier.

People with disabilities should have the same right to vote as any other citizen, however, many people with disabilities are not given the opportunity to use their vote and to take part equally in the democratic life of their country.

In the last few years, the UK has been campaigning hard to make elections more accessible for people with disabilities. Three major campaigns have recently been launched to push for more accessible elections for people with physical and intellectual disabilities.

Research by United Response, an organisation which supports people with learning disabilities, mental health needs or physical disabilities to live in the community in the UK, has shown that while 80% of people with disabilities are registered to vote, only 16% of them voted in the last UK General election and 20% in their last local elections. The research highlighted a number of barriers to accessibility, including a lack of easy to understand information about political parties and policies.

In light of this, United Response launched the ‘Every Vote Counts’ campaign in 2007. This three-year project, funded by the Electoral Commission, aimed to raise awareness and promote the participation of people with intellectual disabilities in campaigns and in every aspect of the democratic process.

Meanwhile, in 2009, Mencap, Inclusion Europe’s UK member organisation, launched the campaign ‘Get My Vote’, which aims to ensure that more people with intellectual disabilities participate in the next general election. This campaign pushes for more accessible information about the voting and from political parties. They have produced an easy-to-read guide on how to vote for people with intellectual disabilities in the UK, which you can find here: http://www.mencap.org.uk/document.asp?id=12634

In addition to this, Scope, a UK organisation for disabled people, also launched its ‘Polls Apart’ campaign. In the last general election, Scope surveyed over 2000 polling stations and found that 68% were inaccessible for people with disabilities. On the basis of this research, Scope raised awareness at government and local level about the importance of making their polling stations accessible. On the Polls Apart website, people can find out how accessible their local polling station is in the UK.

These campaigns are very promising for people with intellectual disabilities in the UK. At European level, Inclusion Europe recently started a project which aims to improve the accessibility of elections for people with intellectual disabilities across Europe. For the project, Inclusion Europe, together with its project partners Nous Aussi (France), Enable (Scotland) and Inclusion Czech Republic, are working together to analyse the current accessibility of elections in all countries of the European Union, whilst collecting best practices and lobbying for more accessible elections both at national and European level. For more information, please visit the website at: www.voting-for-all.eu.

If you know about any best practices in your own country which you would like to share, please contact the project coordinator, Katrina Ward at: k.ward(at)inclusion-europe.org (please replace (at) with @.

For more information about the ‘Every Vote Counts’ campaign, go to: www.everyvotecounts.org.uk

For more information about the ‘Polls Apart’ campaign, go to: www.pollsapart.org.uk