The Inaccessibility of Politics

“No one should be denied the opportunity to realize their full potential. No one should have their interests systematically overlooked.”-Jawairia Jilani

On June 13, 2018, during the 11th session of the Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities hosted at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, disabilities rights organizations came together and hosted a side event titled “Intersectionality and Article 29: Making Political Participation Inclusive of Persons with Multiple Social Identities.” In this forum, ideas about the incorporation of minorities, such as women, people with disabilities, young people, and religious minorities, were exchanged among the panelists.

What is the Problem?

According to Yulia Sachuk, Coordinator of Fight for the Right, Ukraine has approximately 20 million people with disabilities, with more than half of them being young people. These people are disproportionately underrepresented in Ukrainian politics not because they want to be, but because politics in Ukraine is not as accessible for people with disabilities. While more than 70% of these people would like to go and vote at polling stations, a lot of them cannot get to the stations independently, and there is no one to help them. There are also informational barriers, such as limited access to electoral information in Braille and sign language, and limited access to audio description, just to name a few. At polling stations, the workers have a lack of training and resources to effectively communicate with disabled people [1].

What are Possible Solutions?

Other countries like Pakistan have undergone and are undergoing similar challenges when attempting to increase accessibility to politics. Pakistan has, however, taken extremely large steps towards increasing inclusivity. While these practices are still novel, they are definitely gearing countries like Pakistan in the right direction. Some of their solutions include:

• Exploring assistive technologies to help facilitate political inclusion [2]
• Increasing accessibility to polling stations by providing sign language and services for blind people [3]
• Focusing on incorporating marginalized people, such as non-Muslims, women, and people with disabilities [4]

Jawairia Jilani, Head of the Democracy Programme at DFID in Pakistan, spoke about the Global Disability Summit that happened on July 24, 2018 in the United Kingdom. The UK partnered with the government of Kenya and the International Disability Alliance. This summit aimed to raise awareness about the stigma and discrimination people with disabilities undergo, their inclusion and education, roots to economic empowerment, and technology and innovation. Political inclusion was also a sub-theme of the summit [5].

One of the spectators of the conference asked the panel how often are the people with disabilities running for office elected. Sylvana Lakkis, President of Lebanese Union of People with Disabilities, emphasized that the campaign is very important. Candidates with disabilities should go through leadership training and capacity building to construct an effective campaign. She also iterated that people with disabilities have higher chances of winning elections on municipality levels when compared to parliament levels [6]. Increased participation by persons with disabilities at all levels of government is just one more way that we can work toward total and deserved inclusion.

References

[1] Sachuk, Yulia. “Intersectionality and Article 29: Making Political Participation Inclusive of Persons with Multiple Social Identities.” Presentation at Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities, New York, NY, June 13, 2018.

[2] Sheikh, Muhammad A. “Intersectionality and Article 29: Making Political Participation Inclusive of Persons with Multiple Social Identities.” Presentation at Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities, New York, NY, June 13, 2018.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Siddique, Nighat. “Intersectionality and Article 29: Making Political Participation Inclusive of Persons with Multiple Social Identities.” Presentation at Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities, New York, NY, June 13, 2018.

[5] Lakkis, Sylvana. “Intersectionality and Article 29: Making Political Participation Inclusive of Persons with Multiple Social Identities.” Presentation at Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities, New York, NY, June 13, 2018.

[6] Jilani, Jawairia. “Intersectionality and Article 29: Making Political Participation Inclusive of Persons with Multiple Social Identities.” Presentation at Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities, New York, NY, June 13, 2018.