Braille ballot papers help blind persons to vote

DEHRADUN: Despite initial hiccups, several blind voters in the city on Thursday managed to cast their vote through the

braille ballot papers

which was introduced by the election commission to make this year’s

Lok Sabha

election more inclusive.


The polling booth was set up at the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD). Around 35%

voter turnout

was recorded till 3 pm in the institute as 340 out of 957 people turned up to cast their votes.

Lallan Kumar Lal (46), who is partially blind, said the

brail

slips, which had instructions on how to vote, were easy to read and that he was able to vote without seeking help from anyone.

“It was a helpful move. After reading the braille slip everything was clear to me. Even the officials at the booth were friendly towards me and gave me ample time to understand it,” said Lallan.

However, 40-year-old Rajkumar had to face some inconvenience.

“I couldn’t read the braille slip which is why it was of no use to me,” Rajkumar said, adding that the presiding officer had allowed one of his family members to help him vote.

This year, NIVPED had prepared dummy braille ballot paper for all polling booths of Uttarakhand which turned out to be useful in other places. The institute has also prepared similar ballot papers for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.

“The voters were given dummy braille ballot paper which was similar to the EVM inside the polling booth. Many of read it and voted right without help,” said NK Sharma, state election coordinator for persons with disabilities.