‘Nothing About Us Without Us!’ This is the slogan underlying the project idea and the idea to form a Vienna Social Fund (Fonds Soziales Wien – FSW) client council. How can people, who receive disability services and benefits organised by the city, be included in the needs-based further development of such services and benefits? Enabling direct, democratic involvement and political participation of people with disabilities and providing a body which exactly meets these requirements in the most immediate and effective way are goals that have been, and are, at the centre of the FSW client council.
The aim of the project was to establish a self-advocacy body for clients of disability services at the Vienna Social Fund. In the election, which was the first of its kind, about 9000 clients were entitled to vote for one of the 34 candidates who were themselves recipients of FSW disability services and benefits. The council, which was formed at the end of 2020, now advises the FSW and helps to further develop and redesign its services, thereby taking client participation to a new, more direct level. The election of the FSW client council constitutes a milestone not only in terms of client participation in decision-making about existing and possible new disability services, but also in terms of democracy. Before the FSW client council was established, there was no directly elected self-advocacy body in the field of disability support in Vienna.
Thus, the client council has done some pioneering work in this field: some clients of disability services stated that they have voted for the first time in their lives in the elections to the FSW client council, which is a democratic success, and not only for the FSW. This could be a way to reduce any inhibitions people with disabilities might have, to increase voter turnout at elections. An important project stage, besides the preparation and organisation of the election, was the intensive election campaign.
The 34 candidates have shown great commitment and campaigned for every vote. To make the contents as accessible as possible for all interested people, candidates not only created brochures and leaflets, but also produced their own election campaign videos where they presented themselves and their major goals. Before shooting the videos at a TV studio, the candidates also received professional coaching and make-up styling. One month before the election, the election campaign was launched with a big kick-off event which could be followed via an online livestream due to the corona pandemic. In the run-up to the event, eligible voters had the opportunity to send in questions for the candidates and at the event the candidates presented themselves to their audience. The election took place between 19 October and 26 November 2020, despite the adverse conditions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
While in the first two election weeks in October, votes could be cast on site in the day centres, the system was changed to mainly postal votes at the beginning of November. Even before that, a postal vote system was available on demand. Voter turnout was as high as 16.5%, which was considerably higher than the envisaged 10%. Of the 1475 people who cast their vote, 85% have voted by postal ballot and a particularly positive outcome is the diversity of the council.