Voting training for persons with disabilities

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Bhubaneswar: In a bid to make 2019 elections more accessible to persons with disability the state government launched a training programme to encourage them to be part of the voting process to mark the World Autism Awareness Day Tuesday.
The Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department (SSEPD) trained people with autism on how to exercise their franchisee.
SSEPD director Sushant Mohapatra said the Election Commission has been trying to make the polls accessible to people with disabilities for which the training was organized on the use of EVMs (electronic voting machines).
“Every EVM has a Braille marker and persons with visual disabilities can use an assistant. We are encouraging youth to act as volunteers during elections,” Mohapatra said.
As per 2011 census there are 12 lakh people with disabilities in the state. One out of every 250 people in Odisha has autism and they too have the right to play decision-makers. This year, SSEPD took up several awareness programmes under the theme ‘‘Sugamya Nirbachcan’’ (free and fair election) for all-round development of autistic people.
Inaugurated by Principal Secretary Niten Chandra and director Sushant Mohapatra, the programme trained more than 200 persons with autism or are visually or hearing-impaired. Those special persons were also trained for handling EVMs and VVPAT machines.
Nalini Mohanty, coordinator of Institute of Health Science, said the purpose of the programme was to empower and ensure easy access and inclusive voting for persons with disabilities, for whom EVM machines were provided with Braille encrypted key boards. The polling officials will explain to hearing impaired voters through sign language.
Autistic children were also identified, examined and registered on the occasion. A drawing competition was also organised for the kids and the best among them were awarded. The seminar was a joint collaboration between SSEPD, Odisha CEO, Sub-Collector and BMC. Sunil Mohanty, a visually impaired person, said he had voted with the help of his father in the last election. “But, today’s training helped me to exercise my voting rights as per my wish,” Mohanty asserted.