If deafblindness is recognised as a distinct disability, then voting systems are more likely to be required to adopt accessibility measures and make reasonable accommodations for voters with deafblindness.

Some good practices to ensure persons with deafblindness can vote on an equal basis with others include:

• Provide guidance on the requirements of persons with deafblindness in the voting process, including specific advice to election officials and training for electoral commission members and other election officials

• Ensure access to free interpreter-guide/Deafblind interpreting services to support the voting process

• Create accessible voting information and materials (e.g., Braille, large print, etc.)

• Provide accessible polling sites, voting machines, and ballots, taking steps to ensure voting secrecy. For example, ballots can be made with tactile cues to align voting ballots within a template and tactile cues to vote yes or no. Persons with deafblindness may require training on how to use accessible voting machines and ballots from election officials. Accessible polling sites should include removal of physical barriers, accessible signage, and staff to provide support

• Ensure reasonable accommodations for individuals that require it, such as allowing interpreter-guides/Deafblind interpreters or other live assistance to accompany persons with deafblindness throughout the process, accessible postal voting, or accessible e-voting that can be done remotely or in advance of the election day

• Create accessible information on candidates, including debates (e.g., through captioning, accessible transcripts, etc.). This may involve setting standards for political parties and TV / radio networks on providing accessible information

• Enable observation of the voting process by persons with disabilities or third parties to audit and assess the accessibility of the voting process, ensuring that the requirements of persons with deafblindness are considered, or appoint a person with deafblindness to the independent body that oversees elections^[i].

To enable persons with deafblindness to serve as elected or appointed representatives on an equal basis with others, government at all levels must adopt policies and procedures to support reasonable accommodations, such as access to interpreter-guides/Deafblind interpreters and accessible technologies, regardless of whether these roles are paid or voluntary.

Appointing a representative from an OPD of persons with deafblindness to serve on a local or national development committee or similar body is a good starting point and provides practical experience for persons with deafblindness in public policy making^[ii]. Similarly, national umbrella OPDs should increase the involvement of persons with deafblindness in the leadership of the national disability movement and provide reasonable accommodations to facilitate their active participation. Steps should be taken to ensure the diversity of persons with deafblindness in a representational capacity. In addition, political parties should reach out to OPDs of persons with disabilities to learn how to mainstream their processes so that they can be more inclusive.

Participation of persons with deafblindness in OPDs is a good vehicle for facilitating their political participation. It is not uncommon for persons with deafblindness to join OPDs of the deaf or blind, especially if they had single sensory impairments and have acquired the dual sensory impairment. If there is not an OPD of persons with deafblindness in the country, then umbrella OPDs or OPDs of the deaf and/or blind may have members who are deafblind. Moreover, other OPDs (e.g., of the deaf or blind) are ideally placed to provide financial, technical, or logistical supports for OPDs of persons with deafblindness that require it. OPDs of the deaf or blind should not, however, be used as proxies for OPDs of persons with deafblindness.

Because OPDs of persons with deafblindness face significant communication barriers, they often struggle to maintain consistent operations. However, they are the authoritative voice of persons with deafblindness. OPDs of persons with deafblindness can be supported in the following ways to strengthen their participation in decisions that affect them:

• Removal of barriers for official registration (e.g., providing communication supports for OPDs to register, free or sliding scale registration fees, and removal of unnecessary re-registration procedures to ensure greater accessibility). Registration should not be a pre-requisite for taking part in consultation processes. However, where these regulations are slow to change, other OPDs and NGOs should help OPDs of persons with deafblindness to address the gaps and ensure they can consistently function, as official recognition is often a requirement for participating in official consultation processes and may be necessary for funding

• Increased funding and support to obtain funding. Funders can set up OPDs of persons with deafblindness to use fiscal sponsors, be involved in partnership grants, apply for small grants, and should remove administrative barriers or eligibility criteria that are likely to affect funding opportunities (e.g., submission of an annual report). If funding is through a partner organisation or fiscal sponsor, steps should be taken to ensure that OPDs of persons with deafblindness are making decisions, including financial decisions, that affect them. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure fiscal sponsors are building their capacities. Funding should include accessibility costs (e.g., interpreter-guides/Deafblind interpreters) to make sure participation is genuine

• Support in tracking consultation opportunities provided by umbrella OPDs, UN agencies, national disability councils, and others. For those OPDs that do not have access to interpreter-guide/Deafblind interpreting services, a system can be devised in partnership with other organisations to help to facilitate their participation, which may also include assisting with reasonable accommodations and communications between parties. Government and UN stakeholders that regularly seek input from OPDs should develop systems for reaching out to OPDs of persons with deafblindness to ensure their participation. National disability councils can play a key role in improving the participation of OPDs of persons with deafblindness and addressing the gaps, and they should promote the appointment of persons with deafblindness on committees and working groups

• The inclusion of accessibility measures and reasonable accommodations, especially interpreter-guides/Deafblind interpreters, in consultative processes. This may also include planning with plenty of advance notice to enable booking for interpreter-guides/Deafblind interpreters, providing information in accessible formats, sending information in advance or preparing ‘pre-event sessions’ to cover some of the content prior to the event, and moving at a slower pace to ensure interpreter-guides/Deafblind interpreters have sufficient time to interpret. Accessibility guides can ensure the smooth participation of persons with deafblindness in consultation processes. In some countries where there are very few supports for deafblind communication, linkages between OPDs of persons with deafblindness and CBR services may be needed to ensure that persons with deafblindness have the necessary communication skills to participate

• Increased technical support to improve organisational functioning in organisational development (e.g., leadership and governance development, financial management, strategic planning, programme or project planning, monitoring and evaluation, membership growth and retention, etc.) and in methods for effectively representing persons with deafblindness (e.g., advocacy and lobbying, campaigning and communications, research, evidence-based reporting, CRPD monitoring, etc.)

• Use OPDs of persons with deafblindness and not proxies for the voice of persons with deafblindness. The wider deafblindness community includes many allies, such as organisations of parents and family members of persons with deafblindness, deafblindness experts and professionals, service providers, disability NGOs, and deafblindness networks. WFDB and its members rely on and work in partnership with these allies. Habits and linkages can form, resulting in consultation processes that usurp the voice and direct input from OPDs of persons with deafblindness. This can affect policy and programmatic decision-making, for example, on the priorities and approaches used in services. Governments, UN agencies, and others that lead consultation processes have a responsibility to directly invite and support the participation of OPDs of persons with deafblindness in decisions that affect them, and allies should take steps to adjust their roles and serve as facilitators to encourage and support the participation of persons with deafblindness, using a partnership model^[iii].

^[i] SZBLIND, Voting secrecy – a right for everyone, https://www.szblind.ch/fileadmin/pdfs/Medien/PMT_Abstimmungsschablonen.pdf, 15 September 2021; World Federation of the Deafblind, At risk of exclusion from CRPD and SDG implementation: Inequality and Persons with Deafblindness, https://wfdb.eu/wfdb-report-2018/, September 2018, p. 36-38.

^[ii] World Federation of the Deafblind, At risk of exclusion from CRPD and SDG implementation: Inequality and Persons with Deafblindness, https://wfdb.eu/wfdb-report-2018/, September 2018, p. 37.

^[iii] Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, General Comment No. 7 on the participation of persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities, through their representative organisations, in the implementation of the Convention, CRPD/C/GC/7, 9 November 2018; World Federation of the Deafblind, At risk of exclusion from CRPD and SDG implementation: Inequality and Persons with Deafblindness, https://wfdb.eu/wfdb-report-2018/, September 2018, p. 36-38.