Italy has pioneered using the European Disability Card (EDC) as proof for polling station assistance for people with intellectual disabilities. During the March 22–23 constitutional referendum, voters with intellectual and neurodevelopmental conditions could use their EDC to receive help casting ballots, under a new Ministry of Interior directive. Previously, such assistance was limited to people with physical disabilities and required medical certificates. Now it covers intellectual disabilities too.
Across Europe, fifteen countries grant full voting rights, eight grant limited rights, and four deny them entirely. Around 400,000 people still lack these rights.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 29, guarantees voting rights for people with intellectual disabilities.
While Italy expands voting rights, Thai law still uses the phrase “of unsound mind or of mental infirmity” to disqualify people with psychosocial disabilities, without clear legal definition.
I want to see Thailand🇹🇭 study this approach — a tool that already exists, and we can expand it to cover fundamental rights.
Who agrees? Speak up! 👇
Source: Autism Europe, University of Padua, ANFREL, Constitution/Organic Act on Election