Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (IDs) are excluded de facto and de jure from participating in democratic processes due to the complexity of political topics. Individuals with IDs are often disenfranchised based on the argument that they lack the fundamental capacity to make informed political choices (Vorhaus 2005), and even when individuals with IDs are legally allowed to vote, they might refrain from doing so if they find the topic too complex (Fontana-Lana 2022). However, previous research on the voting behaviour of people with IDs and mental disorders showed these groups to vote similarly to “regular” citizens (Howard et Anthony 1977; Green & Klein 1980; Appelbaum 2000), implying that political performance is not correlated with cognitive capacity or IQ. To understand the degree to which complexity can and does affect the political competence of individuals with IDs, we have designed a research project that tests the effectiveness of voting aids in the form of simplified short-form videos on political comprehension for individuals with IDs.
The Chaque Voix Compte ! (Every Vote/Voice Counts!) project aims to provide a better understanding of the potential political competence of individuals with IDs and to improve the political information these groups can access. For this project, 6 political parties across the Swiss political spectrum will prepare short-form videos with a simplified language (whose accessibility is verified by peers with IDs) expressing support or opposition for an upcoming federal referendum. These short-form videos will be shown to a representative sample of individuals with and without IDs of varying levels of political interest, after which they will respond to a questionnaire based on Appelbaum et al.’s (2005) Competence Assesment Tool in Voting (CAT-V) that measures the capacity to make and justify rational political decisions. The questionnaire score will be compared to the results of a control group (equally comprised of individuals with and without IDs) that have not watched the short-form videos in order to compare the political competence of those who watched the videos to those who did not watch them. We will thus measure the effectiveness of the short-term videos on individuals with and without IDs alike.
Our research project tests two hypotheses: First, that many individuals with IDs do not lack the baseline capacity to make political decisions, and any cognitive difficulties they face when treating complex political information is on a continuum with cognitive biases and difficulties individuals without IDs also face. Second, that voting aids in the form of simplified short-term videos on a given political topic improve the political competence of individuals with and without IDs significantly by providing them with political information that is adequate and adjusted to their cognitive capacity. We will have obtained the preliminary results from our research’s first phase in February 2025, and these preliminary results will be the subject of this paper’s discussion.
