A/HRC/19/36 persons with disabilities. It provides that specific measures which are necessary to accelerate or achieve de facto equality of persons with disabilities are not to be considered discrimination under the terms of the Convention. Some of the respondents to the questionnaire, for example Burkina Faso, reported that their national legislation provides for the establishment of quotas to ensure an adequate representation of persons with disabilities in legislative, executive or judicial bodies. The Government of Mexico is considering amending the Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures in order to encourage political parties to establish quotas for persons with disabilities in electoral lists. C. Accessible elections 51. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities lists a number of measures that States parties are required to take in order to ensure that persons with disabilities can exercise their right to vote on an equal basis with other citizens. According to article 29 (a), such measures include, inter alia: (a) Ensuring that voting procedures, facilities and materials are appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use; (b) Protecting the right of persons with disabilities to vote by secret ballot; (c) Allowing assistance in voting, where necessary and at the express request of the person concerned, by a person of one’s own choice. 52. The aim of these measures is to remove the barriers that prevent persons with disabilities to exercise their right to vote and participate in elections. These barriers range from a lack of awareness about the right to vote to inaccessible information about elections and physical barriers at polling stations. In order to remove these barriers, article 29 calls for the implementation of practices which improve access to voting and electoral participation. Failure to guarantee accessibility by means of reasonable accommodation and universal design, as defined in article 2 of the Convention, would infringe the right to political participation of persons with disabilities and the principle of equality and nondiscrimination (art. 5). 53. The replies to the questionnaire show that many States have adopted a wide range of legislative and policy measures to remove existing physical barriers and improve the accessibility of voting stations. These measures aim at ensuring that voting stations have wheelchair access, proper lighting and sufficiently wide doorways and corridors to facilitate the circulation of wheelchair users. They also require that appropriate parking spaces be reserved as close as possible to the polling station. Persons with disabilities should be provided, at their request, with a list of accessible polling stations. Some States organize regular training opportunities for all officials responsible for elections, as well as for those responsible for operating and supervising polling stations. Such trainings often include information on how to interact with persons with different impairments and how to support them in the exercise of the right to vote. 54. Some of the respondent States have taken steps to ensure that information on political affairs – and in particular information on elections, voter registration, modalities of voting and accessibility of voting procedures, ballots and facilities – is available in various forms (including sign language, Braille, audio, electronic and easy-to-read and understand versions), and largely disseminated in advance. In Finland, for example, both the election guide and the list of candidates for the parliamentary elections of 2011 were available in Braille. In France, the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (Supreme Audiovisual Council) adopted a recommendation on 7 November 2006 aimed at facilitating access to electoral information in an accessible format through the use of subtitles and sign language. 12