Accessible Electoral Environment: Inclusiveness for Voters with Visual and Hearing Impairments

The topic of voting rights for people with sensory impairments is sensitive and has been postponed for a long time, said Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva at the forum "Accessible Electoral Environment: Information and Technological Solutions for Voters with Visual and Hearing Impairments". The event is organized by the Public Defender.

According to Velislava Delcheva, the rights of people with disabilities must be real, and at the moment this is rather not the case. She explained that the Constitution and the law give everyone the right to participate in elections, and it is important to create conditions to exercise this right with dignity and equality. Delcheva expressed hope for concrete and real steps in the conduct of the next elections for this to happen.

At present, significant changes are not possible, explained Velislava Delcheva. She added that other ombudsmen before her had made recommendations in this direction, and Velislava Delcheva's last recommendation was from 2025. We insisted on concrete measures - provision of sign language interpretation, including online, clear sound and light signals during machine voting, access to information in Braille and audio format, guaranteeing the secrecy of the vote for the visually impaired, conditions for an accessible polling station and better organization of the process, explained the Public Defender.

Velislava Delcheva expressed hope that real proposals will come out of the forum. The Ombudsman undertook to prepare a summary document to be submitted to the Central Election Commission, the Ministry of Electronic Governance, and the Prime Minister. We will seek the active support of the members of parliament in the next parliament because if amendments to the Electoral Code are needed, we are aware that they will be made through parliament, she added.

I would like to see a horizon where the barriers to exercising voting rights are removed, the Ombudsman concluded.