Disabled Scots are being urged to participate fully in the Scottish Parliament elections by representative body Capability Scotland. Capability Scotland have established a website called Vote2007 to provide useful information on voting and the additional help that disabled voters can expect.

Capability Scotland has previously highlighted issues regarding accessibility at polling stations and the need for materials like large print voting papers.

Abi Bremner, parliamentary and policy manager at Capability Scotland said:

“Vote2007 is a truly innovative website . Its main aim is to empower more disabled people to vote in the Scottish Parliament and local authority elections on 3rd May 2007. We know from our previous research work that people with disabilities can sometimes find it difficult to vote - and that's why we produced the Vote2007 website. It contains lots of useful and easy to understand information about voting generally. It also covers the specific help that disabled people can expect to be available to them - things like accessible polling booths and large print examples of ballot papers.

“Voting is a fundamental human right, but disabled people can face barriers to exercising this right at every level. Vote2007 provides practical help while, at the same time, challenging the physical and attitudinal barriers that cause the problems in the first place.”

Vote2007 can be found at www.vote.org.uk