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DISABLED STUDENTS’ Officer Elect Aisling Musson has told Vision that when she assumes office this Friday she will be launching an investigation into the accessibility of elections. Aisling commented: “As a disabled student there are numerous barriers in place that block us from participating in YUSU Elections.
“This isn’t intentional and no one’s going round actively seeking to make it harder for disabled students to get involved but there are several things about the way the elections work at the moment that really need changing to make sure everyone can access and take part in our union.
“The first thing I’m going to do once my term starts is work with all the candidates that took part in the process as well as the Disabled Students Network to compile a detailed report of everything YUSU can do better at, from candidate training to scheduling and rule changes that might benef t disabled students.
“I’ve already begun compiling reports of access issues and I hope to present a robust report to YUSU that provides them with useful feedback to enable everyone to have a chance to have a say in our democracy. YUSU can do better in terms of accessibility in this and several other areas of university life which I am excited to be able to try and improve over the next year, working with the network and other offi cers to make the university a better place for everyone.”
During the campaign the then Community and Wellbeing candidates Mia Shantana Chaudhuri-Julyan and Thomas Underwood joined forces to draw attention to ‘the inherent ableism that exists within the current candidate election process’. In a video posted on both their candidate Facebook pages, they pledged to boycott campaigning in clubs that didn’t have disabled access and to not make full campaign videos ‘because of individuals’ access to certain cameras and equipment’. Towards the end of the video Mia, who is now YUSU Community and Wellbeing Officer Elect, says: ‘It’s not ok that we run elections this way, it’s not okay that we have to stress everyone out this much’.
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