Dr. Vivian Rath:

I am a member of the Disability Stakeholder Group. Some 52% of disabled voters surveyed after general election 2020 reported that they faced barriers to voting. With Maria Ní Fhlatharta in the National University of Ireland, Galway, NUIG, I launched this survey following my own experience of voting in a corridor during general election 2020. We wanted to hear the experiences of disabled voters after the election. It is something that has not been done before. I quickly found out that my experience was not an isolated one.

Barriers that disabled voters experienced included inaccessible polling stations. Many disabled people were unable to vote in private, as ad hocarrangements were put in place. There was a lack of information in accessible formats. Some survey respondents reported not knowing how to vote, or not being able to vote or to follow electoral debates, as a result of the inaccessible information. There was a lack of personal assistants. In many cases, that was due to the election taking place on a Saturday. It was reported that some people had nobody to bring them to vote.

Of the respondents who used postal voting, 52% also reported facing barriers. It was reported on social media by disabled people that they had to vote in their car. My DSG colleague, Ms Annette Costello, has also experienced issues both with in-person voting and postal voting. I will now hand over to her to allow members to hear her direct experience.