Bradford Voting Workshops give disabled people a voice

Voter registration ‘drives’ have been held in West Yorkshire to ensure disabled people make their voices heard at the general election – as the registration deadline looms.

An event in Bradford, organized by the charity United Response, as part of the My Vote, My Voice campaign, saw around 40 people with learning disabilities sign up.

Guests enjoyed food and dancing while chatting to support the workers who helped them register to vote online.

United Response area manager Nikki Jones said the event aimed to reach out to people who felt “marginalised”, adding: “Everyone deserves a voice”.

Charlotte Raistrick, who is 32 and autistic, has never voted before.

She attended the Friday workshop in Allerton.

Speaking to the BBC, she said: “I read the leaflets around the election and I didn’t understand what it was about.

“Coming today, I realized how important it is to vote.

“(Some) people who are vulnerable don’t understand what elections mean. I didn’t. But this opened a new window for me. I’m going to vote.”

Participants say that despite recent changes to the law to improve accessibility to voting, there are still many misunderstandings about the barriers some groups face.

Hannah Molloy is an autism support mentor with the My Vote, My Voice campaign.

“It’s important to have fun about politics and not make politics as scary as it seems,” she said.

“Since we started this campaign, almost every political party has released an easy-to-read manifesto. I like to think our campaign helped with that.

“Events like this … can bring (politicians and people with disabilities) together to talk about those barriers to voting and help people with disabilities feel included.”

Nikki Jones, area manager for United Response, said many disabled people didn’t even know they were allowed to vote.

She said the workshop events provided a wider lesson about how we “do politics” in Britain.

“A lot of people … feel marginalized and not heard, and that makes them think their vote doesn’t matter,” she said.

“But actually we’re here to say it is. Everyone deserves a voice.”

Colleague Louise Richardson added: “We’ve spoken to the people we support before about voting and they said they didn’t want to – they felt confused and scared.

“We thought this was a wonderful opportunity to support people, to give them information, to make it fun, to give them a bit of confidence – and we’ve been able to do that.”

Howard Davies, 56, registered to vote for the Bradford party and said he was looking forward to “making a difference”.

“I think people should make their own choices in life — and vote for the party they believe in,” he said.