In every democracy, elections spotlight basic human rights, such as universal suffrage and civic voice. Extending the focus to voters with disabilities provides an additional opportunity to redress a persistent abrogation of human rights: inaccessible voting.

Including persons with a disability in the electoral process concretely demonstrates the value of diversity in democracy. Inclusion International, a global organization of parents and family members of people with intellectual disabilities, works to enfranchise people with intellectual disabilities without hiding their differences. Inclusion Inter-Americana, a Latin American organization, has been promoting the electoral rights of people with a disability for almost a decade. In 1993, with support from the government of Canada though the project "Partnerships in Community Living," they brought together people with disabilities, their families, professionals, and government representatives from 36 countries in the Americas to draft the "Declaration of Managua," which states:

To ensure social well-being for all people, societies have to be based on justice, equality, equity, inclusion and interdependence, and recognize and accept diversity. Societies must also consider their members, above all, as persons, and assure their dignity, rights, self-determination, full access to social resources and the opportunity to contribute to community life.

Signatories, including many members of Inclusion Inter-Americana, have used the Declaration as a framework for promoting of the rights of persons with a disability both within the Americas and beyond. In June 1999, the Declaration was adapted by the Organization of American States (OAS) as the "Inter-American Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination on the Basis of Disability." As a result, a review of electoral laws and enforcement in the Americas clearly showed discrimination on the basis of disability in both law and practice.

Nicaragua is one of the nations implementing this convention. With the assistance of organizations like Inclusion and IFES, 200 observers with disabilities were trained to monitor the November 4, 2001, Nicaraguan general elections. The observers with an intellectual disability produced a methodology that could be adapted to other countries. The methodology emphasizes that true citizen participation means being involved before, during, and after elections. Not just voting, participation includes reviewing and influencing party platforms before the election and monitoring public policies and institutions after the elections.

Through the observer training process, people with disabilities who had never participated in elections nor thought about their rights began to think of themselves as citizens. Media coverage noted that including people with disabilities as observers was a measure of increased democracy in the country, and other voters recognized as discriminatory what they had neglected to see in previous elections.

As Valentin Paniagua, the former president of Peru, pointed out, "democracy is neither a common experience nor a universal reality in today's world." This is particularly true for people with a disability who are regularly excluded from the economic, social, political, and cultural lives of their communities even in countries with long-standing democracies. The challenge for a country like Nicaragua is not to ignore citizens with disabilities between now and the next election. Including these citizens only on Election Day is an insufficient test of democracy. As long as there are groups of people who are excluded, there can be no real democracy, no true citizen participation, and no universal standards for justice.

Roberto Leal Ocampo is Executive Director of Inclusion Inter-Americana, a Latin American regional organization of parents and family members of people with intellectual disabilities. Diane Richler is Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Association for Community Living and President-Elect of Inclusion International.