by LEILANIE ADRIANO
PAOAY, Ilocos Norte — Joseph Odlaumor S. Pacol who was born deaf describes his experience registering as a voter as “easy.”
The 27-year-old president of the Ilocos Norte Association of the Deaf (INAD) said his trip to the Commission on Elections last year was a breeze because his uncle accompanied him.
(For this interview with VERA Files, questions were written down, to which Pacol also wrote down his answers.)
But Pacol acknowledges that other persons with disabilities (PWDs) like him might not have had this positive experience.
That’s why Pacol and several INAD members have decided to assist PWD voters on election day this May 13, particularly in villages where there is a considerable number of deaf voters and where there are no assigned interpreters.
