Amend ballot paper for the deaf � activist

She said they had realised this after they conducted an assessment among the disabled and trained them on how to go through the voting process.  Keoagile explained that the deaf depend on sight, and would need to see facial pictures of the representatives. “The deaf want to see pictures of faces because they know only a few politicians, and might also not know the parties and which of those certain individuals belong to,” she said.  She added that party symbols would be confusing more especially as there are new political parties. 

“It would be hard to pin point who belongs to which party. With pictures, the process would be easier as they would recognise faces and could immediately identify people,” she said. Keoagile said the IEC had recently introduced Braille for the visually impaired, which was a positive development. She however pleaded that the deaf be included. The IEC has reportedly stated that they don’t have a budget to accommodate the deaf.