T.N. polls: Accessible elections remain out of reach for persons with disabilities

While ramps and wheelchairs were provided, complete accessibility to cast vote was still not achieved for the disabled community in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections on Thursday (April 23, 2026).

A. Prabakaran, a wheelchair user, hoped to cast his vote independently, at least this time. “We had several meetings with election officials, asking them to arrange accessible voting for us, stating the same: let us cast our own vote. They said yes, definitely,” he said. But it wasn’t the case. The EVM was placed out of reach for him, and he had to call someone else to cast his vote. “It is very disappointing that I have to forego my privacy and independence to cast a vote,” he added.