Macedonia

The above posters - stickers measuring 8 inches by 8 inches - show what ingenuity can accomplish with few funds.

During September 2002 Parliamentary Elections in Macedonia, a small disability NGO from the city of Prilep used these innovative and inexpensive stickers to assess and label polling stations as either "accessible" or "not accessible" to people with disabilities (the literal translation of each sticker's label.) In the process, this effort helped to educate the public and polling officials alike.

A day before election day, the group - the Regional Handicap Center -- visited 37 polling stations in Prilep (encompassing 83 polling tables), to assess their accessibility for voters with physical disabilities. If it found a polling site acceptable, it placed an "accessible" sticker near the entry door. If it found a polling site unacceptable, it placed an "inaccessible" sticker near the entry door. It also took photographs of each site visited.

Of a total 37 sites visited, the group found 28 to be totally inaccessible. These received the "inaccessible" sticker." While none of the remaining 9 sites were truly accessible, they received the accessible sticker, as the group determined that they were navigable by voters using a wheelchair.

This project was conducted in cooperation with Polio Plus, an NGO in Skopje, under a grant from the Open Society Institute.

For additional information, contact Mr. Nikola Dimoski, the President of the Regional Handicap Center of Prilep (rchpp@mail.com.mk), or contact Mr. Zonko Savreski of Polio Plus (zvonko@polioplus.org.mk)