Only two of the 23 election contenders running in the snap parliamentary elections of July 11 designed and published materials in Braille so as to make them accessible to persons with visual impairments. These are the Party of Action and Solidarity and the National Unity Party. The PAS is the only party that held a meeting with visually impaired voters. The other contenders didn’t do something similar, INFONET Alliance executive director Victor Koroli stated in a news conference at IPN.

According to Victor Koroli, only 7-8 election contenders in their platforms have general information about the access of persons with special needs to high-quality education, employment of persons with disabilities, size of the disability benefit and pension. The electoral platforms of PAS and the Bloc “Renato Usatîi” are the best as regards the inclusion of persons with disabilities.

The contenders should also distribute audio materials about their electoral platforms so that the information is accessible to visually impaired persons. Sign language interpretation is needed to make the electoral content accessible to persons with hearing impairments. The information should also be easily comprehensible to persons with intellectual disabilities, noted the executive director of INFONET Alliance.

According to him, a problem is also the fact that only 1% of the polling stations in Moldova are accessible to persons with special needs, while 70% are fully inaccessible. Even if these persons can choose to vote through the mobile ballot box, they feel the need to go to polling places for socialization.

Jurist Eugeniu Rybka said the legislation should be amended so that the parties, as the state institutions, are obliged to provide information of public interests in accessible language to persons with disabilities. “In this connection, it should be noted that the political parties are private organizations that aim to make profit and are not by far institutions that use only money from the private sector. A lot of parties in the Republic of Moldova benefit from state budget funding and this should be an argument for obliging them by law to offer information of public interest,” stated Eugeniu Rybka.