Elections

AMMAN - People with disabilities (PWD) will have an easier time voting in November's parliamentary elections as several polling stations will be specially
equipped to accommodate them, the government said on Monday.

“Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Nayef Qadi has instructed all governors to take necessary measures to provide some polling centres with
special equipment needed to facilitate accessibility for PWD in the forthcoming elections,” Director of Elections at the Interior Ministry Saad Shihab,
told The Jordan Times yesterday.

The fallout continues from Elections Ontario’s operating a polling station in the February 4, 2010 by-election that was inaccessible to voters with disabilities,
and its then denying to the media that the polling station was inaccessible.

The Saturday, February 6, 2010 Toronto Sun included a follow-up story, set out below. It quoted the AODA Alliance as criticizing this incident and calling
for new legislation to prevent this from happening again. That story also quoted from the AODA Alliance’s February 5, 2010 update on that incident. You
can urge others to sign up for our updates, since we not only report the news to you, but they also make the news! A shorter version of the same news article
was included in the Saturday, February 6, 2010 Peterborough Examiner.

The February 5, 2010 Toronto Sun reported that a polling station in the February 4, 2010 Toronto provincial by-election was inaccessible to voters with
disabilities. (Making this incident worse, Elections Ontario initially denied that the polling station was inaccessible. See the article below.)

It is shocking, yet unsurprising to us that in 2010, voters with disabilities continue to face such obvious and easily prevented barriers to their constitutional
right to vote.