Some people with disabilities experienced difficulties while casting their votes at the R.K. Nagar bypoll on Thursday, while a few did not know about arrangements made for them. Disability rights activists say that while some booths were accessible, more needs to be done at others.
When S. Mohan Raj, a voter with poor vision, went to the booth, the candidates’ list was not available in Tamil Braille.
This had been one of the demands of disability rights groups, who conducted an access audit of the polling booths last week. “The list was only available in English, which made voting somewhat difficult. Also, there are four EVMS but they were not labelled so we did not know one from another,” said Mr. Raj. He said that his wife, who too has a poor eye sight, also faced difficulties. “The quality of the Braille paper was not very good, making it hard for us to read,” he said.
S. Vinod, another voter with visual impairment, however, said he managed to vote without difficulty and added that the booth personnel had been helpful. P. Chandran, who also had a visual impairment, said he was not told that Braille was available. “My mother came with me to help me vote,” he said. Another visually impaired voter, S. Raghu, was accompanied by a volunteer from the booth to help press the EVM button.
Despite some work done on accessibility, many booths remained difficult to access said P. Saravannan of the December 3 movement and Smitha Sadasivan of Disability Rights Alliance India. “At one booth, a voter on a wheelchair came in and was directed to the stairs instead of the ramp. Even when he finally got to the ramp, he needed help as it was not up to the standard,” she said. At other places, ramps were steep or there were barriers at the door, said Ms. Sadasivan.
However, she said that some ramps had been modified to make them less steep, and a few booths were completely accessible. Wheelchairs were provided at most booths, and volunteers were available, as was accessible information, posters and signages.
“There continue to be some barriers and ramps were still not up to the standard. More needs to be done, and training too, needs to be given to volunteers and staff,” she said.
( With inputs from Vidya Venkat)
