Hearing and vision-impaired Australians lack the accessible information they need to make an informed decision on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, advocates say.
Blind Citizens Australia is concerned the pamphlets outlining the Yes and No cases have not yet been published in e-Braille or e-text, while Deaf Australia has reservations over the way the pamphlets are being translated into Auslan.
The Yes and No pamphlets were published online in July and are being distributed to households across Australia over August and September. But they are not yet available in accessible formats, nor have they been translated.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) will publish versions of the pamphlets — which will appear — in e-Braille (grades 1 and 2) and e-text online, Auslan and audio files, and in a number of Aboriginal languages.
The electoral watchdog told SBS News the translated and accessible formats will be made available from early September.
But with the , Blind Citizens Australia president Fiona Woods said she was "disappointed" the information hasn't been made available yet and is concerned there's not enough time for vision-impaired people to get the same information as other Australians.
"Accessibility is something that needs to be taken into account from the beginning of a process, and the diversity of people with disability needs to be taken into account," Woods said.
"So just providing a Braille copy of something isn't going to be enough to meet the needs of the real range of people living in Australia."
Woods said that people who may be vision-impaired and also not proficient in English may struggle to find reliable information on the Voice.
"People who can use the internet and access the internet easily can often find information," she said.
"But for people who don't have that access, or equipment, or devices, or training, those things often go with some advantage that often people with disability don't have, so there's often big gaps in how people are able to access information."
There will be a phone voting booth to ensure the votes of vision-impaired Australians will be counted.
But Blind Citizens Australia says it is disappointed that Braille voting won't be made available for the referendum, though it has not been developed at other elections either.
An AEC spokesperson said the electoral agency had consulted with disability groups and was working with many organisations and community groups to ensure accurate information is reaching all Australians.
"Our campaign is not just in the mail, it's in TV, radio, digital, social media, in many languages, and we also do a significant level of media activity to spread the word on how to enrol and vote," the spokesperson said.
But Deaf Australia said it is aware that many people in the Deaf community are finding it challenging to understand the history behind the Voice referendum and the Yes and No campaigns, "especially with so much disinformation and misinformation surrounding the Voice".
There is some information on how to vote translated into Auslan available, but this is based on spoken English being translated into Auslan and being interpreted in Auslan, the organisation said.
"While this is one valuable way of gaining information about the Voice, Deaf Australia is aware of the paucity of information translated into Auslan by Deaf people, in clear English, to match the diversity of access in the Deaf community."
Other information on the referendum such as arguments from Yes and No campaigners, polling, and fact-checking done by news media may not be getting through to hearing-impaired people.
The AEC also has a service that can connect people with interpreters, though the information on how to connect with interpreters is in English.
An AEC spokesperson said community groups and councils are assisting with translation and it had been running many workshops to help other groups educate Australians.
Some languages, like German and French, have not been included for translation because the AEC has determined that those who speak them have higher levels of English proficiency.
The Australian Multicultural Foundation is concerned the translation of the Yes and No pamphlets will be rolled out too late in languages other than English.
The foundation's director, Hass Dellal, said some culturally and linguistically diverse voters aren't sure what the referendum is about and there are concerns about misinformation being spread on social media.
"I think we have been a bit late in the game [with] getting some of this information out to community groups, I think we needed to ensure that we had all this information in language much earlier," Dellal said.
He said that once the date of the referendum has been revealed there will be a lot more discussion and engagement from communities, with people wanting to know a lot more and understand the process for the referendum.
"We need to continually put out information, whether it's through AEC, or whether it's through the government, whether it's through broadcasters, whether it's community groups, making sure that people who need the information, get that information.
"We learned a lot from the pandemic in terms of getting information and messages out and we discovered some of our systems that didn't work, we were missing out on groups, so we've learned from that."
Stay informed on the 2023 Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum from across the SBS Network, including First Nations perspectives through NITV.
Visit the to access articles, videos and podcasts in over 60 languages, or stream the latest news and analysis, docos and entertainment for free, at the .
