A Petition launched by the European Disability Forum calls for action from EU Governments.
The European Disability Forum has launched an initiative “European elections for all” petition. It tells leaders that they need to make Europe more democratic. It tells leaders that millions of European voices of persons with disabilities matter.
Over 80 million persons with disabilities routinely face easy-to-solve problems in voting. Stairs in polling stations, long complicated instructions, unreadable voting ballots are problems that blind and severely visually impaired persons have to overcome to exercise their right to vote, being obliged, when casting their vote, to be assisted by persons not of their choice (e.g. members of the polling station team). Deprivation of the legal right to vote for persons with intellectual disabilities. These common issues still prevent persons with disabilities from voting in 2019.
In a time where abstention, scepticism and political apathy are higher than ever, providing accessible elections is essential. It will show that European governments still care about their citizenens.
