It goes without saying that Sandra Rauscher is going to vote in her home town of Langenlois (Krems district) this week. “They are already prepared for me at the polling station. They all know me and ask if they can help.”
Rauscher has had a visual impairment since birth. Vision is 10 percent in one eye and 9 percent in the other. This does not affect her voting behavior, her polling station is barrier-free for her to reach.
A template for the cross in place
Many people with visual impairments, including Rauscher, go to the polls with an accompanying person, while others use a special template. Both measures are now legally guaranteed to those affected. The templates must therefore be available in every polling station; they are placed over the ballot paper to determine the correct position for one’s own cross.
To do this, those affected must remember in advance the order of the parties and, if necessary, that of the candidates. Then count on the template and make a cross in the corresponding gap. “It’s rather difficult in the state elections because it’s such a large ballot paper,” says Rauscher. For example, while there were only seven candidates in the most recent presidential election and therefore seven gaps on the template, there are now several dozen, divided into state and district lists.
shipment notice
“Lower Austria today”, 23.1.2023
Rauscher doesn’t normally use the templates, she trusts her husband and additional tools. For example, text can be enlarged with a special mobile device, and recognized text is read out with another, says the woman from the Waldviertel: “Dialing was never a problem for me.”
Differences between town and country
However, Rauscher, who is involved at the district level with the aid community for the blind and visually impaired, reports that there is a rural-urban divide. The larger the city, the more anonymous the treatment in the polling stations – and the more difficult it can be for people with visual impairments.
In addition, not all polling stations are barrier-free: “The visually impaired and the blind have difficulties with structural things, for example glass doors.” Stairs are often not marked enough for people with poor eyesight, she complains.
Lebenshilfe: Austria defaults on UN convention
Matthias Novotny also criticizes something similar. He heads the Inclusion and Innovation department of Lebenshilfe Niederösterreich and calls for rapid action – because there is still a lot to be done on the way to barrier-free elections for people with various types of disabilities.
“Fourteen and a half years ago the UN Disability Rights Convention came into force in Austria and even today not all polling stations are barrier-free, i.e. accessible with a wheelchair,” says Novotny. Although there is at least one barrier-free polling station in every community, “if this is far away in a larger community, then it involves immense additional effort for people with walking disabilities”.
In addition, the information on how to get absentee ballots is insufficient for people with intellectual disabilities. According to Novotny, it would also be desirable to print photos of the top candidates on the ballot to enable those who cannot read to vote.
Balancing proximity and accessibility
According to the state, 1,874 of 2,623 electoral districts are barrier-free – “unfortunately, this is not possible for the remaining polling stations due to local conditions,” says a statement to noe.ORF.at. A matter of consideration: After all, doing without such locations would lead to longer access routes for voters, according to the reasoning. Immobile people could also make use of a “flying electoral commission” in each municipality.
There is also a conflict of goals when it comes to election information in simple language, after all, as an electoral authority, you still have to stick to legally unambiguous formulations. “Especially in past elections, the current case law has given greater weight to clarity,” the statement said.
At the beginning of January, the authorities published a brochure in simple language, which is intended to answer at least the most basic questions – more on this in Election information also in simple language (noe.ORF.at; January 7, 2023). According to the electoral authorities, photos on the ballot would require a political majority vote.
The election campaign in the ORF
All national programs on the state elections – i.e. the TV discussion on Thursday evening from the Landhausschiff and the ZIB special programs on election day from 3.30 p.m. – are subtitled and broadcast in Austrian sign language.
The radio special on Sunday on Radio NÖ starts at 4 p.m.
Criticism of campaigning parties
According to Novotny, the competing parties are also negligent in the election campaign: “They provide no or insufficient material on what they stand for as parties and what their goals are.” In fact, research by noe.ORF.at shows that only one of the five parliamentary parties has also published their election program in simple language.
Only at the SPÖ is such a callable on the website. According to the Social Democrats, this is aimed at “people with disabilities, non-native speakers and people with the onset of dementia” who would otherwise be excluded from political participation.
Questions to the ÖVP and the FPÖ as to whether their election programs were also available in simple language remained unanswered. The Greens admit that they do not use simple language, but the party “consciously kept our election homepage ‘simple’,” according to a reaction to noe.ORF.at. According to NEOS, an election program in simple language has so far only been offered for the National Council election. “We are working on making such a program available for state elections as well.”