Electoral inclusion for persons with disabilities must begin long before election day and extend beyond physical access to polling units, participants at a PWD Spotlight X Space have said, calling for a fundamental rethink of how election information, policies and voter education are designed and delivered.
The virtual discussion, titled “Election Misinformation & Disability: Protecting the Votes of Persons with Disabilities,” brought together disability advocates, journalists, fact-checkers and communications professionals to examine the barriers that continue to prevent many persons with disabilities (PWDs) from participating fully in Nigeria’s electoral process.
While conversations about election inclusion often focus on ramps, priority voting and assistive devices at polling units, speakers argued that true electoral inclusion begins with access to information. Panelists identify practical ways election information, including polling dates, locations, candidate information and political party policies, could reach persons with disabilities in formats they can both access and trust.
Participants agreed that information remains one of the most overlooked barriers to electoral participation. A participant speaking from a low-vision perspective explained that inaccessible election information often creates confusion long before election day. She recalled how difficulties locating her polling unit and the dismissive response she received from an election official left her questioning whether her vote mattered at all.
“I was discouraged,” she explained, describing how a simple interaction contributed to her decision not to participate further.
For the panelists, such experiences illustrate that exclusion is not always the result of deliberate discrimination but often stems from communication systems that fail to consider the realities of persons with disabilities.
Speaking during the session, Oluwaseye Ogunsanya, a fact-checking journalist and researcher, argued that collaboration between governments, electoral institutions and organisations representing persons with disabilities is essential if election information is to become genuinely inclusive.
According to him, persons with disabilities already have organised representative bodies that should be involved whenever election materials, policies and voter education campaigns are being developed.
“They are an integral part of the voting bloc,” he noted, stressing that accessibility should be embedded from the planning stage rather than introduced after key decisions have already been made.
Ogunsanya also reminded participants that Nigeria already possesses an important policy framework. Referring to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Framework on Access and Participation of Persons with Disabilities, he highlighted provisions guaranteeing accessible election materials, voting assistance, ballot secrecy and emergency protection for voters with disabilities.
Rather than developing new policies, he argued, stakeholders should focus on implementing those that already exist.
The discussion further revealed that accessibility itself is often misunderstood. Oluwatomisin Adeyefa, Executive Director of Purple Abilities Initiative, cautioned against assuming that a single accessibility solution can meet the needs of all persons with disabilities.
“Providing information means providing it in diverse formats,” she said, arguing that accessibility must respond to individual needs rather than generic assumptions about disability.
She further identified organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) as trusted channels for disseminating election information.
According to her, disability organisations understand the communities they serve and enjoy a level of credibility that government agencies and mainstream media often lack. Collaborating with these organisations, she argued, would significantly improve the reach and effectiveness of voter education campaigns.
Participants also questioned why governments appear capable of reaching persons with disabilities when distributing social interventions or announcing empowerment programmes but struggle to do so during elections.
“If the government wants to announce an empowerment programme or distribute something such as rice, it knows how to get the information to persons with disabilities,” Adeyefa observed. “Yet election information does not reach them in the same way.”
As the conversation progressed, speakers broadened the discussion beyond voter education to include institutional attitudes and administrative systems.
Habeeb Adisa, Programs Lead at PWDSpotlight shared his experience attempting to transfer his voter registration after relocating, explaining that repeated technical failures and digital registration requirements created unnecessary barriers. He questioned whether existing electoral technologies adequately consider users with different disabilities and argued that inclusion must become a design principle rather than a later adjustment.
Participants also noted that many election officials remain unfamiliar with existing disability policies despite provisions requiring priority treatment and accessible voting experiences for persons with disabilities. Without sustained training, they argued, even well-designed policies are unlikely to translate into meaningful inclusion at polling units.
