The persons with disabilities have their right to vote guaranteed by the Constitution, but these are no put in equal conditions with other voters. The persons with disabilities vote at the place of stay, through the mobile ballot box, but it would be equitable for them to vote at the polling place, as all the other people. But the polling places are not adjusted to their needs.
In a news conference at IPN, advocacy and public policy programs director at the Center of Legal Assistance for Persons with Disabilities Ion Cibotarica said the state must create equal conditions for all the people, while the adjustment of the polling places to the needs of the persons with disabilities does not require considerable effort. A solution is to build ramps for wheelchair users at polling places, while the ballots should be printed in Braille so as to be accessible to persons with visual impairments.
The program director also said that equal access should be ensured to electoral information and candidates’ websites, including for sight- or hearing-impaired persons. In the current election campaign, no candidate ensured the sign language interpretation of the electoral videos so that these could be understood by persons with hearing impairments. Only the Central Election Commission did this.
Ion Cibotarica called on the local public authorities and on the Central Election Commission to facilitate the disabled persons’ access to voting and requested approving the Commission’s regulations concerning the ensuring of access for persons with disabilities to the electoral process as soon as possible.
