SHWETA KAMAT
PANJIM: As part of its strategy framework for ‘accessible elections’, the visually impaired and blind voters will be provided with Braille voter slips for their benefit during the ensuing Lok Sabha and by-elections, scheduled on April 23.
The Chief Electoral Office (CEO) said that steps are been taken towards making voting and EVM machines in the state more disabled friendly. EVMs already have the Braille feature. The ballot paper pasted on the machine with name and symbol of candidates is Braille enabled.
Braille is a script with raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have low vision. It is a tactile reading and writing system used by blind and visually impaired people who cannot access print material.
CEO has so far tagged 5046 persons with disability who are eligible to vote and the process to tap more is still in on. Probably for the first time too, a wheelchairs across all 1657 polling stations would be made available.
Taha Haaziq, nodal officer for Person with Disabilities said that the voters slip which is usually given to the voter a day before polling by Election Commission of India will be in Braille script for those who are tagged as visually challenged. EVM machine will also have names of the candidates written in Braille script.
“Exact data of voters with visual disability is being collected by the commission; it also involves people with partial visual disability. There are two categories of people, one is visual blindness and another is low vision, both will be covered in the category,” Haaziq said.
The officer added that the process of use of Braille script was adopted even during the 2017 assembly elections, but on a very small scale. “This time the attempts are enhanced,” Haaziq said.
As part of the process, the CEO had held interaction with National Association for Blinds and Sanjay School to motivate visually impaired people enrolls as voters and vote on the polling day.
People with disability would be given priority during polling and that they don’t have to wait in queues. “There is a myth that people with intellectual disability are not allowed to vote. But that is not true. Unless court stops you, none of the authority can stop you from voting,” Haaziq said.
