Many differently-abled voters said they found it tough to cast their vote at different polling stations in the district on Monday. Some didn’t find a Braille electronic voting machine (EVM) or voter identity slip, others found doors of polling booths locked and some had to walk inside the booth with their crutches due to the absence of wheelchairs.

Raj Kumar, headmaster, Government Primary School, Sehjawas, said, “When I reached the polling booth at the Government Girls School, Bhondsi, the front door was locked. No police officer or volunteer was sitting there to help me to the booth.” He went on to say that differently-abled people were allowed to take their vehicles inside, but there was no one to help. He had to stand in the queue with the help of his crutches and wait to cast his vote.

Right before the elections, the Haryana chief electoral office had said that differently-abled people would find it easy to cast their vote. “As on October 4, 2019, there are 11,660 visually impaired voters, 8,428 speech- and hearing-impaired voters, 79,537 PwD (persons with disabilities)voters and 38,571 other differently-abled voters in the state,” Haryana chief electoral officer Anurag Agarwal stated earlier in a press statement. The state election commission had also promised that it would provide Braille EVMs and photo voter slips printed in Braille script to visually impaired voters.

Narender Kumar (50), who is visually impaired, said, “I came to cast my vote with the help of an attendant. Inside the booth, I found the EVMs were not Braille supported. The state election commission always says that it will provide facilities for blind voters, but that never happens.” Kumar, who had cast his vote at the Government Middle School, Dhaula, said that he didn’t know which button his attendant, who had accompanied him, pressed on the EVM.
 

Election officers said that they didn’t have any facility for Braille at the polling station. Anshul Kushwaha, block election officer at Dhaula, said, “The EVMs given to us were not Braille-enabled.”

Several booths in the Badshahpur constituency were inaccessible for people with disabilities. At the Government Senior Secondary School near Bestech Park View in Sector 67, the only accessible route had been blocked. Those who came to vote on wheelchairs at the booths inside the school had to be lifted by others to get down the stairs.
Things were not that bad for other differently-abled voters at Mansur Primary School polling station in Pataudi. Red Cross volunteers were seen helping the aged and the differently-abled by ferrying them from the gate to the booth across the school compound. There were seven polling booths on the premises. Around five volunteers wearing white shirts and caps with the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram logo were also seen helping. The volunteers had two wheelchairs at their disposal. Gaurav Chauhan, one of the volunteers, said that each wheelchair had ferried over 15 people till noon.
Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/across-constituencies-no-friendly-booths-for-differently-abled-voters/story-Evhy3DzjLnCmVWJ5Sh108N.html