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Voting and Rights
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What is Voting?
Voting is a basic right.
Many people with learning disabilities don't get the chance to vote.
Some reasons for this are that they don't get the support and information they need.
The Pollen Shop brought out a pack for people to help them find out about how to vote. It explains their rights about voting.
The Valuing People Support Team and the Disability Rights Commission asked them to make it.
You can find it on the Disability Rights Commission website at www.drc-uk.org/easyread/votingrights/index.asp.
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What are Rights?
Disabled people do not always get treated fairly.
If you know what your rights are, you can do something about this.
People who get treated unfairly can join together to fight for new rights.
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The Disability Discrimination Act
In 1995 the Government made a law saying that disabled people should get the same chances as other people.
The law is called the Disability Discrimination Act.
The Disability Discrimination Act says that: Disabled people should have the same chance as other people to be chosen for a job and to get training in the job.
Disabled people should be able to use the same services as other people.
These could be, for example:
- going to the cinema, theatre or pubs
- going to the shops or using banks etc
- getting help from the doctor, dentist, social services etc.
For these things the services must give disabled people an equal service as other people.
This might mean that they have to change things so that disabled people get an equal service.
This might mean that they have to change the way they give information, for example.
The Disability Discrimination Act also has rules about schools colleges and universities.
It has rules about transport too.
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Links and Resources
Link to Mencap paper 'The Disability Discrimination Act and how it affects you (Weblink to PDF)
'Fair and reasonable' a family carers guide to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (PDF 150 KB)
You can find out more about the Disability Discrimination Act from the Disability Rights Commission's website at www.drc-uk.org .