Dear all, Yes, I also join to congratulate Veenaji in this success that all EVMs will have braille information in Punjab. However, at the same, there are few pointers in the news coverage which I believe can not be just ignored. As per survey of Election Commission out of 1.7 lakhs VI voters only 152 know braille.
Even if this figure is highly incorrect and many were not taken in to account, we in the sector know that there is a large segment in our visually disabled brethren who do not know braille. And how do we ensure their rights to vote with privacy and independence is a big question that poses a challenge before us. This segment includes elderly blind, late blind, many those who are very IT friendly and don't feel the need to learn braille. How can we make EVMs to be usable for them without compromising on privacy & independence! This is an area which needs attention to find answers to include the left out to not only strengthen democracy but also allow equal participation of all Indians who are experiencing disabilities. warm regards, Subhash Chandra Vashishth Advocate-Disability Rights, Delhi 09811125521 > dear all, > sharing with you all veena's major success regarding provision of braille > stickers in all polling booths in punjab. please circulate this to all > groups in your areas. > rajive > Rajive Raturi > Director > Disability Rights Initiative > Human Rights Law Network > 576, Masjid Road > Jungpura > New Delhi - 110014 > Tel: 011- 24374501 > Mobile: 09818628760 > email: [email protected]/[email protected] > website: www.hrln.org > > > ----- Original Message ----- *From:* veena sharma<[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Cc:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Saturday, April 25, 2009 1:15 PM > *Subject:* Kind attention > > > Dear Rajive, > > Yesterday evening ultimately we got a telephonic message from Punjab that > our petition has been accepted and the brail signage is going to be fix on > all EVMs throughout Punjab. Today they have told that they would be giving > in writing on Monday. Our petition has been covered by the Times of India > (today). I am annexing the news item after getting it scan. From Monday we > are to start with the state of Haryana by the way Chandigarh has already > agreed and needful has been done. > > > > With regards > > Veena > chandigarh > > > -- Warm regards, Subhash Chandra Vashishth Mobile: +91 (11) 9811125521 Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to. Consider environment! To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
