The Myanmar Independent Living Initiative (MILI) intends to raise awareness about voting rights for the disabled through a traveling theatre.
The shows, which will feature disabled performers, are to take place in “four busy areas in Yangon” starting in mid-October, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported today.
Dates, times and locations have yet to be announced.
“Most people with a disability have been excluded from voting in the past for a number of reasons,” the group’s founder, Nay Lin Soe, told the paper. “They face all sorts of discrimination and barriers to being able to vote, but they have as much right to vote as anyone else.”
MILI has already scored some victories in making the November 8 ballot more inclusive. Earlier this year, election officials said they would add Braille templates on ballots for the first time in an attempt to aid blind voters.
The templates can be manually placed on ballots, taken off and reused. Other changes included informational sessions about candidates 10 days before the vote.
However, some proposed changes were nixed. The UEC shot down a proposal to televise voting procedures to the deaf in voting stations and to put photos of candidates on ballots.
Photo / Nay Lin Soe via YouTube
