Manifestly excluded –disabled votersand electioneering in Britain

On Thursday May 6th 2010 the people of the UK will vote in one of the most closely fought elections in the last twenty years. Among them will be 800,000 disabled Scots who want to have their say about how Britain is run.

Voting is a fundamental human right. Article 21 of the United Nations Convention on Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.” However, elections can only be truly free and fair if everyone has equal access to both the voting system and the information which allows them to make an informed choice about who to vote for.

This report investigates whether the main political parties in Scotland are making their policies accessible to all by providing general election manifestos in formats that meet the needs of disabled people. We are also keen to find out about party policy in relation to holding hustings and other pre-election meetings in accessible venues.

What is the issue?

In Scotland around 18% of the population state that they have a disability or a long term illness[1]. 35,000 has a visual impairment[2],, 758,000 have some degree of hearing loss, 120,000 have a learning disability[3] and round 96,000 people are NHS registered wheelchair users. These individuals may require information in a range of alternative formats such as large print, audio, easy read or Braille.

In recent years much has been done to ensure disabled people have equal access to voting in elections[4], for example the availability of a tactile voting device to help blind and partially sighted voters, ensuring large size ballot papers have a minimum print of 16 point or above, availability of postal voting on demand, and extending the entitlement to vote with the assistance of a companion to disabled voters[5].

Although electoral procedures are not specifically mentioned in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the Electoral Commission states that it believes that the voting process is a public service and therefore the Act applies to the provision of facilities for polling.

In 2005 the Disability Discrimination Act was extended to include associations and therefore political parties should not discriminate against disabled people and must make reasonable adjustments to their service. In addition since 2005 the Disability Discrimination Act has required all public bodies to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people.

Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that: “Parties shall guarantee to persons with disabilities political rights and the opportunity to enjoy them on an equal basis with others”.

This was ratified by the UK Government in June 2009. This Convention offers disabled people rights to make decisions about their lives and be full and active members of society. Many people regard voting in elections as a right as well as a responsibility associated with citizenship.[6]

Access for disabled people to elections and election materials is an issue of fundamental and basic rights. Since 1992, Capability has played the leading role in Scotland in campaigning on this issue through successive UK-wide Polls Apart Campaigns with SCOPE.

Polls Apart has highlighted the barriers disabled people still face getting involved with the election process across Britain. These include inaccessible polling stations, election information in inaccessible formats and problems with postal voting.

While Polls Apart has been highly successful in improving access to polling stations across Scotland we were keen to do a spot check on how disabled voters are faring in the run-up to this election with getting hold of election manifestos in alternative formats.

How did we research it?

3 disabled people, 2 with a visual impairment and 1 with a learning disability contacted the 5 main political parties in Scotland: The Conservative Party, The Green Party, The Labour Party, The Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party (SNP).

They requested that a copy of each party manifesto be sent to them in their preferred format. The preferred formats were audio, easy read and large print.

We were aware that the main parties all make very positive claims about providing manifestos in alternative formats.

On their web site Labour offers their manifesto in textfile, audio summary (MP3 or CD), braille (from RNIB), easy read (from Mencap) and a close captioned version of animated film.

The Conservative’s state that their manifesto is available in braille, easy read, downloadable audio and large print. The Liberal Democrats offer audio or easy read manifestos on request, although do not offer downloadable formats from their web site.

The SNP and the Greens seem to be lagging behind by only giving the option to download their manifestos while having no other information about alternative formats on the web.

However we wanted to get underneath these promises and see what the actual reality was for disabled voters requesting manifestos in alternative formats.

We also contacted the headquarters of each party to ask what arrangements they had put in place to ensure that everyone had equal access to pre-election hustings

and other public meetings.

Key Findings

Accessible manifesto on request

  • Only the Conservative Party was able to provide manifestos in each of the alternative formats requested within 2 weeks of the request being received
  • Labour provided their manifesto on audio CD and in large print but sent out a flyer to a disabled voter instead of supplying an easy-read version as requested.
  • The Liberal Democrats only provided their manifesto in easy-read
  • The Greens and the SNP failed to provide their manifestos in alternative formats on request to disabled voters

Conservative Party / Green Party / Labour Party / Liberal Democrat / SNP
Audio / Y / N / Y / N / N
Easy Read / Y / N / N / Y / N
Large print / Y / N / Y / N / N

Accessibility Arrangements

Conservative Party / The Conservative Party website states that their manifesto is available freein Braille, Easy Read, Audio (which can be downloaded) and large print. There is no directive from Conservative Central Office with regards to use of accessible venues for election hustings, such arrangements are a matter for each individual constituency.
Green Party / The Green Party website only gives the option to download their manifesto but there is no other information about alternative formats. When asked by Capability Scotland the Green Party said that they can generate their manifesto and other materials in alternative formats if requested, but don't have any prepared in advance. The Green Party could not provide us with an accessibility policy.
Labour Party / The Labour Party website states that their manifesto is available in a variety of formats: textfile which can be used to print out large print versions or text to audio applications, audio summary (MP3 or CD), Braille version (from RNIB), Easy Read (from Mencap) and close captioned version of animated films. The Labour Party could not provide us with an accessibility policy.
Liberal Democrat / The Liberal Democrat website suggests their manifesto is available in audio or easy read. The Lib Dems could not provide us with an accessibility policy.
SNP / The SNP website only gives the option to download their manifesto but there is no other information about alternative formats on their website. The SNP could provide us with no accessibility policy. With regards to access to pre-election events for disabled people, delegates to the SNP conference and a series of four meetings called "ask Alex", are asked if they have any access requirements when registering. The SNP will then meet their access needs.
  • None of the main political parties in Britain were able to provide Capability Scotland with a policy or statement regarding accessibility of venues for hustings and pre-election meetings.
  • The Greens and the SNP do not anticipate the needs of disabled voters by preparing manifestos in alternative formats in advance.

Conclusion

With less than a week to go before the general election, the latest research from Capability Scotland has revealed that 96% of disabled Scots and their carers are set to vote in the upcoming election[7] – despite much hyped voter apathy elsewhere in the electorate.

Importantly our survey also found that 31% of disabled people were unsure of how they will cast that vote, suggesting that the main political parties in Britain still have everything to play for in terms of winning votes from disabled people.

Given that this section of the electorate is roughly equivalent to the pensioner’s vote, and advice about making political information accessible is now freely available on the web, we would expect the main parties to be doing everything possible to engage with and anticipate the needs of disabled voters.

Despite progress in this area, this rapid response report has highlighted a lack of effort on the part of the major parties to make their policies accessible to people with a range of impairments.

Whilst all the parties seem to recognise a need to provide information in accessible ways, disabled voters can still experience real problems getting manifestos in alternative formats. How then can they make informed choices about who to vote for?

The Conservative Party was the only party who could provide it’s manifesto on request in large-print, easy-read and audio formats. All the other parties failed to provide one or more of the accessible manifestos when these were requested by disabled people.

It also appears that there is no official policy from any of the main parties in relation to providing accessible venues for hustings and other pre-election public meetings.

Advice

Every Vote Counts ( includes a Making Democracy Accessible toolkit.

The online Do Politics Centre ( developed by the Electoral Commission provides case studies, practical materials, advice and guidance for all parties and candidates, including how to write in plain English and how to communicate with blind and visually impaired voters.

Further Information

For further information about the report and reference details please contact:

Susie Fitton,

Senior Policy Advisor

0131 347 1025

[1] Social Focus on Disability, 2004

[2] Registered Blind and Partially Sighted Persons, Scotland (2009)

[3] The same as you? A review of services for people with learning disabilities (2000)

[4] Essentials of effective election management: planning for a UK parliamentary general election (2009): The Electoral Commission

[5] The 2005 general election in Great Britain report for the electoral commission (2005): Sanders, David et al.

[6] The 2005 general election in Great Britain report for the electoral commission (2005): Sanders, David et al.

[7] 1 in 4 poll Voter Intention Survey (April 2010)