Voting options discussed for the differently abled

Braille features on EVMs and home-voting were some of the options that the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities under the social justice and empowerment ministry and the Election Commission of India discussed as part of disabled-friendly election measures for voters in a meeting held on Wednesday.

Officials of the PwD department gave a presentation where ECI officials and stakeholders were present. Some of the suggestions included having voter ID cards and EVMs with Braille features, availability of home-voting facilities for those with locomotor disabilities, and that electors should involve sign language interpreters as well as appoint disability coordinators to oversee election arrangements, officials of the ministry said.

“When there are special summary revisions of electoral rolls to enrol eligible citizens annually, we are looking at a special focus on the enrolment of voters with disabilities,” an official of the ministry said.

Members of the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD), who were present at the meeting, said that one of their suggestions were there should be data collection as well as it convergence of disabled voters. “The ministry has ID cards for PwDs, the EC also has its own data on disabled voters, and there should be ways of mapping and merging the two,” said Himangshu Das of the Institute.

Another suggestion was that the government takes note of the facility provided by “epub”, which retypes the language in any website to make it readable for those with visual disability. “There are affordable audio recording facilities and videos of sign language which are universally accepted,” Das added.