In this bonus episode on voting rights, self-advocates talk about barriers to accessing information needed to make decisions about who to vote for - like Susan from Reinforce & Positive Powerful Parents Self-Advocacy Group who said that "Them not speaking in so much jargon, and them doing what they promised" would help.

This echoed what came out of a recent research project by the Living with Disability Research Centre. That we talked about in Episode two.

Now we hear form Nathan Despott from Inclusion Melbourne about a strategy that is trying to address this barrier: the ICanVote.org.au initiative.

You will hear directly from 22 self-advocates from seven groups and organisations including VALID, NSWCID, Reinforce, New Horizons, and New Wave (again, with thanks to SARU for linking us all up). They tell us why politicians should listen and what political issues are important to them!

We also hear from five politicians running for re-election in the 2018 November Victorian State Election: Fiona Patten State MP and Leader of the Reason Party; Danielle Green, State Labor member for Yan Yean; David Southwick, Liberal member for Caulfield; Suzanna Sheed, the Independent State Member for Shepparton District; and Gabrielle Williams, State Member for Dandenong, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Parliamentary Secretary for Carers and Volunteers.

Plus more from Sophia Tipping from the Living with Disability Research Centre and find out what that elusive fifth recommendation of the Strategies to Support People with Intellectual Disability to vote project was.

This episode was produced by Sophia Tipping, Buffy Gorrilla & Associate Professor Hilary Johnson with thanks to the Living with Disability Research Centre. Ben Pawson and Aine Healy provided marketing support for this episode.

Thank you to Fiona McKenzie, David Briggs and Lisa Clarke from NSWCID; Shona Brown, Gary, Peter Macdonald and Wendy Martchrinke from Having A Say; Russell, Edward and Alby Wilson at New Horizons; Rachael Walters, Mary-Anne Huggins, David Walker, Graham Binding, Heather Hoogzaad, Kathryn Bartlett and Charity Sims-Jenkins from New Wave; Colin Hiscoe, Amanda Millear, Susan Arthur, Heather Smith, Norris and Chris Lowe from Reinforce; Luke Nelson, Samson and Anthony Risoli at Valid; and Dean Dodson from SARU. A big thank you to the five state MPs who contributed: Fiona Patten; Danielle Green; David Southwick; Suzanna Sheed; and Gabriell...