All political parties must provide easy read guides: Nolan’s voting experiences

I vote because I think it’s important to choose who runs our country and makes the decisions. I think it’s important everyone has their say, so we all feel represented and happy with the decisions made by the people in charge.

How I vote

I vote via postal vote because it is easier. It is posted to me for every election so I don’t have to worry about missing out on my vote due to not being aware of an election. It also helps with my anxiety as I worry if I accidentally voted for the wrong party since you cannot take photos in polling stations. It also gives me extra time to check my vote as much as I need to.

I think people with special educational needs do not vote or find it hard to vote because they struggle to understand the manifesto of each political party. If you need extra help or assistance at the polling stations then you may find it useful downloading the My Vote My Voice voting passport.

Campaigning for change

My girlfriend Sally is a disability officer for her political party. Her job is to represent disabled people in her party and to make the party more accessible for everyone. Sally is also in the process of campaigning to become a local councillor where she will hopefully help make decisions about parks, libraries, schools, bins, care and more.

Being with Sally made me realise not many places are wheelchair accessible. It’s frustrating because we enjoy visiting and supporting small, quirky, independent businesses who tend to have poor access. It would be great if businesses could have more funding for better access.

I delivered leaflets for my local MP. I think it’s important to volunteer to campaign for a political party you care about and want to win as it helps remind people to vote and the leaflets gives people information on why they should vote for your chosen political party.

I was in the school council for a while. My classmates voted for me to represent them. We made decisions on changes we wanted to make to the school.

I was also part of Changemakers for a while where I helped make decisions on improving accessibility. I worked with Nathaniel Yates, who is campaigning to make train stations more accessible for people with disabilities. I was surprised to find out how inaccessible the train stations were. Here is a link to Nathaniel Yates’ petition if you are interested.

Finding accessible information

Easy read documents make it easier for me to learn more about what each political party wants, so I can make my own informed decision without relying on what other people are telling me who to vote for. If a party fails to provide me with an easy read manifesto then they lose my vote, so I think it’s important for all political parties to provide easy reads.

If you want to learn more about politics, I recommend you follow Simple Politics on social media. You can also learn about politics by keeping up to date with the news and learning about how politicians and the government are handling issues. Think about if you are happy with how the government are handling these issues and if you think a different political party would handle these issues better.

I also recommend reading Easy News by United Response or watching BBC Newsround.