Less than 50% of PWDs got help in 2010 polls – SWS survey

Manila, Philippines – Less than 50 percent of persons with disabilities (PWDs) who cast their votes in the May 2010 elections received assistance, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

The SWS said the survey, conducted on Dec. 3-7, 2011, showed that only 54 percent of their respondents voted in the 2010 elections, with only 43 percent of them receiving assistance during the voting process.

Among those who received assistance, 38 percent got help in looking for their names in the voters’ list; 34 percent in shading the ballots; 31 percent in moving ahead in queues; 12 percent in dropping the ballots in ballot boxes; and two percent were given food.

Seventy-seven percent of those who received help in shading their ballots were assisted by family members and relatives, 11 percent by members of the Board of Election Inspectors, 11 percent by teachers, and nine percent by poll watchers.

Of the PWDs who were assisted in shading the ballots, 83 percent had “very much” confidence and 14 percent had “much” confidence that the candidates shaded by those who helped them were the ones they preferred. Thirty percent were undecided, while none had “little” confidence or “very little” confidence.

Less than half across all types of disabilities said they were given assistance: 45 percent among the visually impaired, 44 percent among the orthopedically impaired, and 42 percent among the hearing/speech impaired.

Forty-one percent of the respondents with orthopedic impairment said they got help mainly in looking for names in the voters’ list, 37 percent in queuing, and 24 percent in shading the ballots.

Among those with hearing/speech impairment, 48 percent were assisted also primarily in looking for their names in the voters’ list, 35 percent in shading their ballots, and 24 percent in queuing.

In the case of the visually impaired, 50 percent had assistance in shading their ballots, 30 percent in looking for their names, and 16 percent in queuing.

The SWS survey also showed that family members and relatives were there to assist the PWDs: 89 percent of the visually impaired, 77 percent of the hearing/speech impaired, and 66 percent of the orthopedically impaired.

The SWS said the survey on PWDs is under the broader Disability-Inclusive Elections initiative popularly known as “Fully Abled Nation.”

The initiative, carried out by the Asia Foundation, is part of the program of the Australian Agency for International Development on disability-inclusive development.

The campaign aims to increase the participation of PWDs in elections and other democratic processes by heightening voter awareness among them, promote institutional partnerships to enhance support and awareness of the PWDs’ participatory needs, and strengthen the capabilities of disabled people’s organizations and non-government groups supporting PWD advocacies. –Evelyn Macairan The Philippine Star