The campaign highlights disabled access

Scotland's polling stations are coming under scrutiny from a group representing disabled people.

Leading up to the 1 May election poll, Capability Scotland has campaigned to make it easier for those with disabilities to cast their votes.

And it is aiming to conduct the country's biggest survey - the North Poll - to gauge polling station access.

The charity said in 2001 that officials should wake up to the realities disabled people faced when casting their votes.

It said thousands of voters had to go through the indignity of being carried into polling stations.

The charity was so keen to end that practice that it set up a website, Vote 2003, for the 1 May election.

Capability Scotland said it aimed to:

• Make disabled people more aware of their rights in relation to voting

• Encourage more disabled people to use their rights to actually vote in elections

• Provide advice and information to young disabled voters to encourage them to vote

• Encourage local authorities to make voting more accessible to disabled people

• Help local authorities try new ways of making voting more accessible.

Capability Scotland Chief Executive Alan Dickson said the website was "a truly ground breaking project".

He said: "We hope that many of the changes brought about by the project will be long-lasting, enabling disabled people to participate fully in future elections and to access everyday council services.

Poll questions

"Voting is a fundamental human right but too often it is denied to disabled people because the ballot is held in an inaccessible building or people cannot read their polling card.

"Vote 2003 aims to change all that."

Sam Younger, Electoral Commission chairman, said it was working to improve access for disabled people.

The North Poll will test disabled people's experience of voting, whether they vote by post or in person.

The survey will ask voters to describe physical access to the polling station, the measures that should be in place to help them vote, and how they were treated by polling staff.