Inclusion strategy of the district

Representatives of local politics and administrations play a central role on the path to an inclusive society. They have the opportunity to actively shape their immediate living environment and thus make a decisive contribution to the participation of all citizens. They also play an important role model function when it comes to inclusion in practice.

Through their commitment, they can make a significant contribution to breaking down existing barriers - in line with the district's inclusion strategy and in accordance with the implementation and further development of the "Opportunities for Inclusion".

In order to support local representatives in politics and administration in this important task, the "Toolbox for the administrations and politics of the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district" has been compiled. This toolbox offers comprehensive background information, practical materials and concrete assistance on all "opportunities for inclusion" that fall within the respective area of responsibility or may become relevant in the future.

As the name suggests, the aim of the "awareness kit" is to create more understanding for people with disabilities in order to improve awareness of existing barriers and help break them down. With the materials and information contained in the kit, users can gain their own experience of how individual impairments affect their actions. From individual experiences to cooperative games, cognitive and physical impairments as well as sensory impairments can be experienced. For example, you can use a Lorm glove to experience how deaf-blind people communicate using the Lorm alphabet or move around using glasses with various visual impairments and a cane, and much more.

The idea of the awareness kit has already been successfully tested in other districts. For the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, a special version was put together by the office for inclusion design of the district office in collaboration with its representative for people with disabilities, Ralph Seifert.

Both (pre-)school and extracurricular groups can borrow the awareness case free of charge from the district administration's media center.

If you would like to take a look at the awareness case, take a look at the instructions "Awareness case of the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen District Office" at the bottom of the page with the various "ideas for use". In addition to an age simulation and a cooperation game, the contents make the following impairments tangible:

• Sensory impairments
• Physical/motor impairments
• cognitive impairment

Political participation is a fundamental right for every citizen. It encompasses active participation in shaping the political will and includes, in particular, participation in elections, referendums and petitions for referendums. Political participation is also known as political involvement.

The following content is intended to give people with disabilities access to political participation and provide interested persons (e.g. election officials, election assistants) with various information.

The district's inclusion strategy describes existing barriers to political participation for citizens with disabilities in the district. Based on these barriers, "Opportunities for inclusion" was developed to improve opportunities for participation. This page with its content, further links and the "Checklist collection for barrier-free elections" contributes to the implementation of two "Opportunities for inclusion" and thus to the reduction of barriers.

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the right to vote:

The political participation of people with disabilities is not only a social obligation, but also a legal one. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) https://www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de/fileadmin/Redaktion/PDF/DB_Menschenrechtsschutz/CRPD/CRPD_Konvention_und_Fakultativprotokoll.pdf, which was ratified by Germany in 2009, ensures that people with disabilities can participate in political processes on an equal basis with others. Article 4 ("General obligations") https://www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de/menschenrechtsschutz/datenbanken/datenbank-fuer-menschenrechte-und-behinderung/detail/artikel-4-un-brk and Article 29 ("Participation in political and public life") are particularly relevant here. https://www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de/menschenrechtsschutz/datenbanken/datenbank-fuer-menschenrechte-und-behinderung/detail/artikel-29-un-brk 

In Germany, there are several laws and regulations governing access to elections (e.g. federal, state and district elections).

The following regulations should be mentioned here:

• the Federal Election Act (BWahlG) https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bwahlg/index.html 
• the Federal Electoral Regulations (BWO) e.g. §19, §45, §46 and §57 BWO https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bwo_1985/index.html#BJNR017690985BJNE003409305 
• the law on state parliament elections, petitions for referendums and referendums - State Parliament Elections Act (LWG) e.g. Article 3 https://www.gesetze-bayern.de/Content/Document/BayLWG/true 
• the state electoral regulations (LWO) e.g. §37 and §39 LWO https://www.gesetze-bayern.de/Content/Document/BayLWO 
• the District Elections Act (BezWG) https://www.gesetze-bayern.de/Content/Document/BayBezWG 

Of particular interest here are the articles and paragraphs that contain regulations on the selection and design of voting or polling places, the provision of information on the accessibility of the premises, the possibility of support for people with disabilities when voting, the use of aids when voting (e.g. voting templates/ballot paper templates). Not all regulations are mandatory. They represent a recommendation from the standard setter to those responsible for elections.

Information services and access to political participation

An important component of political participation is access to understandable and accessible information. Without sufficient knowledge about the political process and voting options, people with disabilities are unable to exercise their rights and participate sufficiently in political and social discussions. There are a wide variety of information services that can provide access to political participation.

The Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) offers easy-to-understand information as part of its "simply POLITICS" service. These are various offers for ordering or downloading, e.g. audio books, booklets, encyclopaedias. You can find out more about the individual offers on the website "einfach POLITIK: Lesen, hören, bilden ". https://www.bpb.de/lernen/inklusiv-politisch-bilden/332484/einfach-politik-die-reihe-und-ihr-konzept/ 

The bpb also offers the website "Politik aktuell. A look behind the news " https://www.bpb.de/themen/politisches-system/politik-einfach-fuer-alle/258184/politik-aktuell-blick-hinter-nachrichten/ provides background information on news, political and social events in simple language.

With its article "Political participation", the German Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (DBSV) https://www.dbsv.org/politische-partizipation.html provides information about this in simple language and with sign language videos.

Information on elections in plain language can be found on the website "Wahl-Hilfe in Leichter Sprache " https://www.lebenshilfe.de/informieren/regional/wahlen from Lebenshilfe. Lebenshilfe also offers an information page in plain language on "Self-representation in politics". https://www.lebenshilfe.de/mitmachen/aktiv-werden/selbstvertretung-von-menschen-mit-behinderung/politik-in-leichter-sprache 

The Federal Agency for Civic Education also deals with the aspect of giving people with disabilities access to political participation. You can find more information on their website:

• Examples of inclusive extracurricular political education projects https://www.bpb.de/lernen/inklusiv-politisch-bilden/338239/projekte-inklusiver-politischer-bildung/ 
• Workshop series "Elections: Simply take part and join in the discussion" https://www.bpb.de/lernen/angebote/wahl-o-mat-im-unterricht/514061/wahlen-einfach-mitmachen-und-mitdiskutieren/ 

Barrier-free elections:

Another decisive factor for political participation is the barrier-free design of elections. It is not enough to simply make information accessible - the elections themselves must also be equally accessible to all people. There are various areas that need to be taken into account here. The individual areas include, for example, the selection and design of polling stations, voting materials (e.g. voting templates, ballot paper templates) and accessible information on and about elections.

There are various brochures, handouts and information pages for citizens as well as for those responsible for elections.

Some of them are listed in the following section:

The Federal Office for Accessibility provides information on the topic on its website "Barrier-free elections " https://www.bundesfachstelle-barrierefreiheit.de/DE/Fachwissen/Barrierefreie-Wahlen/barrierefreie-wahlen_node.html and provides local election officials with a tool for their work in the form of its handout "Barrier-free elections " https://www.bundesfachstelle-barrierefreiheit.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Veroeffentlichungen/handreichung-barrierefreie-wahlen.pdf;jsessionid=4963B2EDDAF53701CF33A4FFE95CA783?__blob=publicationFile&v=7. The handout contains 32 pages of background information on the individual aspects of an accessible election, checklists for checking the situation on site and tips for election assistants.
For ease of use, eight checklists have been compiled in a separate document "Checklist collection for accessible elections" [link to document].

The Bavarian Commissioner for the Disabled of the Free State of Bavaria has published a flyer "Barrier-free polling stations and behavioral tips for election workers".

With voting templates, blind or visually impaired people can participate in an election in a self-determined way. Voting templates can be ordered free of charge from the Advice, Information and Text Service Center (BIT) of the BBSB https://bit-zentrum.bbsb.org/.