COTELCO Brown Bag Series Returns

COTELCO kicked off the 2012-2013 school year by resuming its Brown Bag series on Wednesday, 29 August 2012. The session featured Yusdiana, project manager for the General Election Network for Disability Access (AGENDA) and the Indonesian Disabled Peoples’ Association.

The Brown Bag, which welcomed COTELCO research associates and staff, specifically addressed AGENDA’s work to increase the accessibility of electoral processes in Indonesia. Yusdiana reviewed several of the issues that plague the disability community’s participation in regional elections, including a lack of appropriate physical access to polls; a failure to provide brailed ballots for persons who are blind or visually impaired; and the removal of persons with disabilities (PWDs) from voter registration lists, based on fallible assumptions that PWDs do not vote.

Yusdiana also detailed the tactics AGENDA employs to combat the inaccessibility of Indonesia’s electoral processes. By providing sensitivity training for poll workers, working with DPOs and government bodies to increase the knowledge base surrounding issues that concern PWDs, AGENDA has been able to achieve their goal of increasing the participation of PWDs in the electoral process, allowing them an opportunity to elect the individuals who will ultimately control legislation that directly affects their daily lives.

Providing PWDs with access to policymakers and policies that affect them directly is a goal shared between AGENDA and the COTELCO-led Institute on Disability and Public Policy (IDPP). The IDPP designed and implements the world’s first virtual Master’s degree in disability policy, specifically targeted toward PWDs within the ASEAN region.

In addition to providing insightful information on accessibility, the Brown Bag also provided AGENDA and COTELCO staff with an opportunity to identify points for possible collaboration in the future.

To access an accessible recording of the Brown Bag, please view the Blackboard Collaborate recording.

(Captions available via Window>Show Closed-Captioning once in virtual session)