Accessible voting still not a reality, RNIB research finds

The General Election in 2024 was not accessible for people with sight loss, with only a quarter of blind people (26 per cent) saying that the current system allows them to vote independently and in secret.

Two thirds (66 per cent) of blind people who voted at the polling station had assistance from either a companion or member of polling station staff.

“I’ve never been able to vote without somebody else knowing which party I’d like to vote for. Regardless of how trustworthy the person helping me is, even if it’s my partner, I would still like to have that privacy and secrecy in the moment.”

• Only half of blind and partially sighted voters were satisfied with their voting experience at this year’s General Election.
• 73 per cent of blind and partially sighted voters did not know that they could request reasonable adjustments from their local electoral services and 94 per cent of respondents did not request any reasonable adjustments.
• 68 per cent of blind postal voters had assistance from another person to enable them to vote.
• 28 per cent of all respondents said the support provided by polling station staff was either poor or very poor; however, nearly half (47 per cent) thought it was good, or very good.

This is simply not good enough and has a detrimental effect on people’s voting experience. One survey respondent said:

For some, these experiences can undermine people’s confidence and willingness to vote at all:

We believe, if our recommendations are implemented, we will have a voting system accessible to everyone.

The UK Government must:

• Continue to proactively identify accessible voting solutions and roll these solutions out to blind and partially sighted people across the UK.
• Monitor and review the accessibility of elections and publish a full Equality Impact Assessment of changes brought in by the Elections Act, following the 4 July General Election.
• Review and revise the postal voting system to make it accessible for blind and partially sighted people.

The Electoral Commission must:

• Revise its guidance to ensure an audio and tactile solution should, as a minimum, be provided in every polling station.

Local Authorities must:

• Provide audio and tactile voting solutions in every polling station. Ensure Returning Officers and polling station staff are fully trained to effectively support blind and partially sighted people to vote.
• Update local registers of blind and partially sighted people, collect information on their preferred formats, and use that to send items like polling cards in formats voters can read.

RNIB Chief executive, Matt Stringer, said:

We will be using the 2024 Turned Out Report, alongside the report from our 2023 Accessible Voting Trial and the upcoming Electoral Commission report on the 2024 General Election, as valuable evidence to continue our influencing work.

We will be meeting with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Electoral Commission, and the Association of Electoral Administrators to discuss the findings and recommendations in the report, and to inform future practice, guidance, and legislation.

The minister responsible for voting, Alex Norris MP, wrote in October 2024 that, 'This Government was elected on a manifesto commitment to encourage participation in our democracy and ensure all legitimate voters have the ability to vote in our elections.'

RNIB looks forward to making sure this includes the full participation of blind and partially sighted voters.

Firstly, a huge thank you to the 872 blind and partially sighted people who filled in our voting survey after the election. By sharing your experiences we’ve been able to get a deeper understanding of how widespread these challenges are.

You can help spread awareness of the report and its findings by sharing your experiences of voting using the hashtag #AccessibleVoting on social media.

Read the full report and please do talk about it with your friends. The more we can increase understanding of how much the system needs to change, the more priority this issue will be given by politicians and electoral authorities.