Some of you have probably seen an email from me about this campaign but I was so outraged about the fact that disabled people are being denied access to vote I had to copy the text onto my blog. Please do get involved in the campaign and make people know how wrong it is that 67% of voting booths are not accessible. SWD have the right to vote and this should not be denied. Get involved and fight for equal access and rights.

Scope, is asking voters to spare two minutes when they vote in the next General Election, to survey the accessibility of their polling station.

Polls Apart, part of Scope’s Time to Get Equal campaign, calls for disabled people to have equal access to the voting process and demands that disabled people are able to vote independently and in secret. Disabled people have an absolute democratic right and being unable to vote as equals makes them second-class citizens.

There are 10 million disabled adults in the UK, yet at the last General Election, in 2001, 69 per cent of polling stations failed a basic access test and were inaccessible to some disabled people.

Polls Apart participants also reported widespread discrimination including: having to vote in the street, having their ballot paper marked by someone else, and having to go home without voting at all. Statutory requirements to provide tactile voting devices and large print copies of ballot papers were frequently not observed.

Scope’s campaigns manager Ruth Scott says: “Results from our previous Polls Apart campaigns clearly show that democracy is currently not something available to all. This year, we want 100 per cent of polling stations to be fully accessible, especially as most should be covered by the recent Disability Discrimination Act, but we need your help to determine if this is happening. Please complete a survey form – available at www.pollsapart.org.uk or by phoning 020 7619 7245.”

The Blogs on this site represent the individual views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or practices of the National Union of Students.

All links in blogs will open in a new browser window.

The permanent URL for this specific blog entry is: http://www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/siandavies/270720.aspx