Public Relations UPNVJ - In election activities, every citizen has the right to vote and be elected which is guaranteed by law. However, in reality, the fulfillment of this right does not work as it should, especially among people with disabilities. People with disabilities often experience discrimination and obstacles in election activities.
The existence of several problems related to election activities experienced by people with disabilities prompted the Faculty of Law at UPN "Veteran" Jakarta (UPNVJ) to conduct a focus group discussion (FGD) with the Indonesian Association of Disabled People, DPD West Java, on September 4 to 5.
This FGD activity began with a presentation by Yusrisman as Secretary of PPDI DPD West Java. In his presentation he said that regulations regarding people with disabilities are not disability friendly, this is because the manufacturing process does not involve disabilities. Then, the accessibility of disabled voters in election activities is also not well organized, such as there are no wheelchair facilities, assistance and the location of the polling stations is not too high.
Apart from that, Taupiqqurahman, where he discussed the 1% quota for people with disabilities to become legislative candidates. Taupiqqurrahman said that there should be a special quota for people with disabilities as DPR/DPRD candidates. All parties must have elements of people with disabilities as legislative candidates in their respective parties.
West Java PPDI members responded to this discussion, he stated that when people with disabilities want to nominate themselves as legislative candidates there are several problems such as infrastructure that is not yet disability friendly, financial problems because the majority of people with disabilities come from the lower middle class, and a lack of popularity because it is difficult to do so. blusukan.
Rianda Dirkaresha responded further to this regarding the level of education among people with disabilities. He explained that based on the results of discussions held with PPDI DPC Bogor City, it was discovered that only 50% of people with disabilities were high school graduates and only around 13 people with disabilities who could read using braille were around 13 out of a total of 70 people with disabilities who were blind. This happens because it is difficult for people with disabilities to access education, plus not all people with disabilities can attend Special Schools (SLB).
The low level of education of people with disabilities also means that this 1% quota can only be applied in provincial and city electoral districts. Seeing that it is difficult for human resources with disabilities to access education, political education should be given to people with disabilities. This aims to ensure that people with disabilities still know the aims and purposes of election activities even though they do not have higher education.