On Monday, United Response was delighted to host a successful event in the Houses of Parliament, entitled “Opening Up Democracy”. The event, held in association with Dods, The House Magazine and ePolitix.com, was designed to provide attending MPs with practical guidance on ensuring people with learning disabilities and other hard to reach constituents are able to engage in democracy beyond the general election.
John Bercow, speaker of the House of Commons, was the opening speaker, saying: “Making Parliament more accessible is a passion of mine, which is why I admire what United Response is trying to do.”
United Response, president, Martyn Lewis CBE, discussed the success that United Response has already had in providing the information and means so that people with learning, mental or physical disabilities feel able to vote at the general election.
“We created the first-ever multimedia interactive guide to democracy, in the Making Democracy Accessible toolkit,” he said. “The general election 2010 was also the first time ever that all three parties have produced accessible manifestos. As a result, the number of voters rocketed from 16 per cent to over 40 per cent of the people we support.”
Helen Goodman MP, shadow minister for work and pensions, Jenny Watson, the chair of the Electoral Commission, and Diane Lightfoot, United Response’s director of communications, also spoke. As somebody with a learning disability who has encountered the problems involved in trying to engage with democracy, Yosief Semere said: “Politics needs to be made more accessible with more pictures, bigger writing and less use of jargon.”
Su Sayer OBE, United Response’s chief executive, says of the event: “We were delighted at how well it went, and extremely grateful to a truly first class line up of speakers. It’s very important that people with learning disabilities play a full role in our democracy, so the fact that so many MPs and peers came along to find out how they could communicate with hard to reach constituents was very encouraging.
“We were particularly pleased that the speaker of the House, John Bercow, was able to come along and make it clear why a more open democracy is a key priority for him and for the whole of Parliament. Now we want to get the word out to all MPs that just a little thought about how to communicate more accessibly can reap significant political dividends.”
To find out more about the Every Vote Counts campaign, you can visit the webpage, or original site. You can also email Alexis Camble in our press team with any enquiries.
Jaime Gill, press and public affairs manager.
