New International Website on Making Democracy Accessible
By Kay Schriner (kays@uark.edu)
The International Foundation of Elections Sytems, a Washington-based group which provides technical assistance and training to democracies around the world, announces a new website dedicated to making democracy accessible to people with disabilities.
The website is well worth visiting. Here's a list of its features:
- Laws and Regulations. A terrific resource, describing laws and regulations governing voting rights for disabled people in dozens of countries.
- Rights and Standards. A draft document prepared at an IFES-sponsored international event held in June. Meeting attendees included not only representatives of the disability community but also mainstream election groups.
- Best Practices. In this section, you can see for yourself what activists in other countries have done to make their own democracies accessible to individuals with disabilities. Includes ballot templates, posters, t-shirts, and training materials. (Oh, if we could only order some of those t-shirts for ourselves! They're simply awesome. I would like to wear one in my own town of Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA, where voting isn't all that accessible.)
- Publications. Includes a special edition of IFES's publication "Elections Today" on accessible voting. Also included are a Briefing Paper Series with information on projects in Peru, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Ghana, Kosovo, and the Dominican Republic, as well as a few papers I co-authored with others on voting issues in the United States.
This new resource is part of IFES's on-going efforts to provide assistance to disability groups and election officials in democratic countries. If you are interested in talking with IFES about getting help in your own country, contact Jerry Mindes at jerrymindes@juno.com or at the IFES office in Washington, 202.828.8507.
The website is www.electionaccess.org
|
