Chennai: Lack of accessibility to polling booths continues, lament PwDs

CHENNAI: With the Assembly election scheduled on April 23 (Thursday), several persons with disabilities (PwDs) have pointed out that most of the polling booths in all districts are still inaccessible.

Elaborating on the claim, Sathish Kumar, an activist and a wheelchair user, said, “I’ve been visiting the Gowrivakkam polling booth in Tambaram constituency to vote in the last three elections. The condition of the booth has not improved in accessibility.”

The entrance and approach route to the booth is inaccessible for a wheelchair user, and the ramp is too steep, forcing the user to seek aid from another person. Also, the ramp does not have a handrail for support.

“The TN government and the Election Commission had claimed that the booths across the State had been made accessible with required ramps and wheelchairs. But, in reality, a large number of booths are still barrier-free. Even if ramps are built, they do not accommodate the norms of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWD Act),” he added.

Furthermore, it was also pointed out by the PwDs that the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) is placed flat instead of in a slanting position (to an accurate degree) for wheelchair users to reach. “If the EVM is placed flat on the table, most wheelchair users cannot reach the whole machine and reach the buttons on the top. Hence, we urge the Election Commission to address even such small but necessary concerns,” a disabled person added.

Further, for blind persons, it was also alleged that the candidate list in Braille format that should be given beforehand is seldom ensured. “In most cases, we’ve noticed that the Braille format of the candidate list as per EVM is not given to a blind person; this, in turn, affects their ‘Right to Vote’,” added a PwD.