On September 13, High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Tatiana Moskalkova held a videoconference meeting with Vice-President of the All Russia Association of the Blind Oleg Smolin.

The main topic of the meeting was the monitoring of the electoral rights of visually impaired people. Tatiana Moskalkova and Oleg Smolin discussed the accessibility of polling stations for blind citizens, work to assist in organizing voting at home for the blind.

The Vice-President of the All Russia Association of the Blind drew the High Commissioner’s attention to the difficulties in providing an accessible environment at some polling stations for people with musculoskeletal disorders. In this case, members of the election commission and volunteers should come to their aid.

The participants in the meeting agreed that electoral rights of hearing impaired people also require attention. During pre-election debates on television, the broadcast is not always provided with sign language translation or subtitling, so they cannot get all the information about parties and candidates.

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