Many Voters with Disabilities Won’t Be Able to Independently Mark Their Ballot in Private and Verify Their Choice in this Federal Election

ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE

NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Many Voters with Disabilities Won’t Be Able to Independently Mark Their Ballot in Private and Verify Their Choice in this Federal Election

 

April 7, 2025 Toronto: In this federal election, voters who cannot mark a print ballot by themselves due to a disability like blindness or dyslexia won’t be assured that they can independently mark their ballot in private and verify their choice. None of the voting options that Elections Canada provides for voters with disabilities ensures that all can mark their ballot on their own, without assistance and in secret, and then confirm that the ballot was marked for the candidate they chose. Elections Canada is the federal public agency responsible for administering federal elections and for accommodating voters with disabilities.

 

“The secret ballot is absolutely essential for every voter in a democratic election including voters with disabilities ,” said David Lepofsky, Chair of the non-partisan AODA Alliance, who is blind and who is a visiting professor of disability rights at the law faculties at the Universities of Western Ontario and of Ottawa. “It’s appalling that in 2025, this basic right is still not assured for all voters with disabilities in federal elections, 6 years after the Accessible Canada Act was passed and 42 years after the Charter of Rights was enacted.”

 

Elections Canada’s website concedes that voters with disabilities still face voting barriers and that it is its job to accommodate their accessibility needs. Elections Canada’s website commits:

 

“We make every effort to make voting as accessible as possible and to engage electors with disabilities as we develop and implement our services. Our research shows that electors with disabilities face barriers to participating in elections, and we are continuously striving to remove these barriers. By building on the initiatives we already have in place, our goal is to continue improving the accessibility of the electoral process.”

 

Elections Canada’s website also recognizes:

 

“there are four priority groups that face barriers to participating in elections: First Nations, Metis and Inuit electors, people with disabilities, youth and new Canadians.”

 

None of Elections Canada’s voting options in this election for blind voters ensure their basic rights. Having someone else mark their ballot for them violates the secret ballot, and the voter can’t check to verify if the ballot was marked as they requested. Tactile and braille voting templates risk that a voter with vision loss could accidentally spoil their ballot or mark the wrong choice, without being able to themselves verify their choice.

 

Elections Canada offers voters with disabilities even less than does Elections Ontario in provincial elections. AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky has a human rights complaint going to a hearing this September against Elections Ontario at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, contending that Elections Ontario does not assure truly accessible voting for voters with vision loss.

 

Even though the media is mainly focused on the Donald Trump trade war, people with disabilities are trying to raise important disability issues in this election. Twenty-eight disability organizations sent a request to all federal party leaders that they make the Accessible Canada Pledge to address several urgent federal disability issues.

 

“If Canada doesn’t guarantee an accessible voting experience for all voters with disabilities, our democratic voice is unfairly stifled at the very time when it matters the most,” said Lepofsky.

 

On April 8, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, a hybrid Candidates Debate on Disability Issues will be held in Toronto, organized by a consortium of major disability organizations, including the AODA Alliance. As of now, only the Liberals, NDP and Green Party have agreed to send a representative. For reporters to get a link to sign in to that event, email aodafeedback@gmail.com

 

Contact: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, aodafeedback@gmail.com

Twitter: @davidlepofsky or @aodaalliance

 

For background, check out:

 

  • The AODA Alliance website’s elections accessibility page which spells out the coalitions efforts for over 15 years to ensure accessible voting in Ontario for voters with disabilities.